Comparable worth struggle racks up victories

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Comparable Worth: "Thi • looniest idea since Looney Tunes"- "At once revolutionary and looney"-' 'The issue of the '80s"- "Pregnant with the possibility of disrupting the entire economic system of the United States of America" _ "The hottest new issue for working women."

These are differing opinions from critics and supporters of the idea of comparable worth.

What is comparable worth? Is it only an issue of higher pay, or is it a struggle that could change our society in a larger way?

In spite of the 1963 Equal Pay Act, which required that men and women be paid equally for the same work, the average woman worker's earnings are only about three-fifths of a man's earnings, even when both work full time, year round. This is because women workers are concentrated in low-paying, dead-end jobs. Over half of all women workers are employed in only 20 of 427 occupations listed by the Census Bureau.

These are jobs such as secretary, nurse, retail-sales clerk, seamstress, and teacher-jobs in which women have traditionally worked and which are identified as "women's jobs."

On the average, "women's jobs" are paid less than "men's jobs" —even when the "women's jobs" require more skill and responsibility. The fight for comparable worth-or pay equity-is an attempt to end this injustice.

Comparable worth goes beyond equal pay for equal work. It means paying workers equal pay for work of comparable value. The "comparable value" of a job is found by assessing the knowledge and skills, mental demands, accountability, and working conditions required by the job, assigning point factors, and making a comparison with other jobs.

In other words, it means that salaries should be based on the skill, effort, and responsibility each job requires relative to all other jobs in an organization— Diane Lutz is an organizer for the Washington Federation of State Employees.

NEW YORK-Teamster activists are waging an uphill battle against a proposed National Master Freight Agreement (NMFA) settlement covering 200,000 workers. If passed it would divide the ranks, weaken the union, hurt new hires and casual employees, and threaten the jobs of senior employees.

The new contract has a multi-wage structure paying new hires and temporary employees respectively about $4 and $2.70 an hour below scale. This will give employers an incentive to replace senior workers.

New production standards will facilitate firing the higher-paid senior drivers. The elimination of the Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) will push down the living standards of Teamsters who are already making about $1.76 an hour less in real wages than they made in 1981. The new contract will not stop big companies diverting jobs to their non-union divisions.

Despite all this, Teamster president Jackie Presser is counting on two provisions-a wage increase for employees with seniority and some improvements Hal Lundford is a member of I.B.T. 707.

ang. salary Yale University clerical and technical regardless of whether the jobs are held by men or women.

The state of Washington, under pressure from the Washington Federation of State Employees (AFSCME) conducted the first comparable worth study in 1974. It revealed that jobs held primarily by women were paid about 20% less than jobs held primarily by men with the same job-evaluation points.

An example is the comparison between Clerk Typist and Warehouse Worker I. Both jobs received 94 points. However, the Clerk Typist was paid a salary 10 grades (25%) below that of the Warehouse Worker I.

This study was updated in 1976, 1979, and 1980 with the same results, but the Washington state legislature dragged its feet, taking no action to end the pay discrimination shown by its own studies.

In 1982 AFSCME filed suit against the state. The trial took place in September 1983, and District Judge Jack Tanner found the state of Washington guilty of pervasive and intentional discrimination. He ordered that wages be ON STINAL! I ON workers strike for pay equity in 1984.

raised immediately and that back wages should be paid. The state appealed his decision, and the appeal was heard on April 4, 1985. The decision is still pending.

In addition to Washington, there have been lawsuits on the issue of comparable worth in Connecticut, New York, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Hawaii. A number of states have passed legislation that commits them to the eventual implementation of comparable worth; these include Minnesota, Washington, New Mexico, and California.

Comparable worth has also been an issue in collective bargaining, and one of the most important aspects of the legal and educational campaign is the ammunition it provides to workers. Unions have won at least 65 victories over comparable worth-related issues.

In July 1981 city workers in San Jose, Calif., went on strike for nine days over the issue of pay equity. The strike was settled when the city agreed to provide $1.5 million for pay-equity adjustments of 5% to 15% over the two-year contract for more than 60 female-dominated jobs.

These increases were in addition to the 15.5% pay raise negotiated for all bargaining-unit members over two years. Additional pay-equity adjustments were negotiated in 1983.

Victory for Yale women workers There have been collective-bargaining victories for comparable worth in seven other states, most recently in Connecticut. In September 1984, 1600 clerical and technical employees at Yale University formed a union and struck the institution. The 82% of its members who were women earned as much as 12% less than the 18% who were men.

The strike was settled victoriously early this year. The new three-year contract includes across-the-board increases of over 20% and goes a long way toward ending the pay discrimination against jobs mostly held by women. The Yale strike will be an inspiration to the clerical workers at Columbia University who are currently struggling for union recognition and will undoubtedly raise comparable worth in their negotiations.

The struggle for comparable worth has radical implications beyond the important effects of raising the pay of women in traditional women's jobs. First of all, raising the pay of women workers can make a qualitative difference in their lives-childcare becomes a possibility, single parenting is made easier, etc. The idea of comparable worth is the fastest short-term way of helping women to become more independent.

Second, it is an excellent organizing issue to draw women and minorities into the labor movement.

Third, efforts to obtain comparableworth systems are opening up exciting discussions in unions concerning our whole economic system. The issue directs attention away from one company or a few legislators and exposes the systematic, institutional role of sex discrimination in the economy.

When we start to question why men's jobs should be paid more than women's jobs, we also begin to question why supervisors and managers are paid more than other workers. We begin to see that a hierarchically structured job market, not "free competition," shapes our lives. Finally, the discussion can and does lead working people to question why some people have more power and wealth than others.

When critics of comparable worth warn that such a system will destroy the whole fabric of the American economy, they are surely exaggerating. But the struggle for comparable worth may have a large effect on our society. It is an issue that is bigger and more radical than it first appears.

non-union sector has seriously weak-