Making Omelettes and Breaking Eggs
There’s an old saying that you can’t make an omelette without breaking an egg – and that’s just as true when it comes to equal pay.
The point is that you can’t have equal pay – unless you eliminate the unjustified pay differences between men and women’s jobs.
If all you do is just you maintain pay differentials – with smoke and mirrors – then you’re kidding people on – and that’s not a solution, it’s just an old-fashioned con trick.
What the employers and trade unions signed up to in 1999 – was a new deal for thousands of female dominated jobs that had been undervalued and underpaid for years.
What this should have meant – 10 years ago (over a period when council budgets doubled) – was a big pay increase for many of the female dominated jobs – cooks, carers, classroom assistants etc., to name just a few.
If the employers couldn't afford to close the old pay gap all in one year – the solution was simply to phase it in over 2, 3 or even 4 years.
But at the end of that period – the pay of the women’s jobs would have been brought into line with the pay of the male jobs.
Put simply, the women’s jobs have to gain more than the traditional male jobs – until pay parity is achieved – without that you still have a pay gap and, by definition, you can’t have equal pay.
Full stop.
Anyone that tells you any different is being dishonest – employers and trade unions alike.
So, to make the omelette – you need to break a few eggs – and eggs cost money, even if they’ve never been known to break any banks.
Edinburgh is now facing a strike – because the council’s refuse workers are losing out over job evaluation (how their jobs are valued and paid) – but who said levelling people down was the solution to equal pay?
The answer is to level up the jobs and the pay of women workers – because that’s what Single Status was all about back in 1999.
Job enrichment is the key – said some council person on the radio today – that is adding bells and whistles onto the (male) refuse workers jobs – so that their pay stays above that of the mainly female cooks, classroom assistants and carers.
But have the employers and unions learned nothing after 10 long years?
Because if only the male jobs get singled out for special treatment – that’s just back to square one – trying to make an omelette without breaking any eggs.
The point is that you can’t have equal pay – unless you eliminate the unjustified pay differences between men and women’s jobs.
If all you do is just you maintain pay differentials – with smoke and mirrors – then you’re kidding people on – and that’s not a solution, it’s just an old-fashioned con trick.
What the employers and trade unions signed up to in 1999 – was a new deal for thousands of female dominated jobs that had been undervalued and underpaid for years.
What this should have meant – 10 years ago (over a period when council budgets doubled) – was a big pay increase for many of the female dominated jobs – cooks, carers, classroom assistants etc., to name just a few.
If the employers couldn't afford to close the old pay gap all in one year – the solution was simply to phase it in over 2, 3 or even 4 years.
But at the end of that period – the pay of the women’s jobs would have been brought into line with the pay of the male jobs.
Put simply, the women’s jobs have to gain more than the traditional male jobs – until pay parity is achieved – without that you still have a pay gap and, by definition, you can’t have equal pay.
Full stop.
Anyone that tells you any different is being dishonest – employers and trade unions alike.
So, to make the omelette – you need to break a few eggs – and eggs cost money, even if they’ve never been known to break any banks.
Edinburgh is now facing a strike – because the council’s refuse workers are losing out over job evaluation (how their jobs are valued and paid) – but who said levelling people down was the solution to equal pay?
The answer is to level up the jobs and the pay of women workers – because that’s what Single Status was all about back in 1999.
Job enrichment is the key – said some council person on the radio today – that is adding bells and whistles onto the (male) refuse workers jobs – so that their pay stays above that of the mainly female cooks, classroom assistants and carers.
But have the employers and unions learned nothing after 10 long years?
Because if only the male jobs get singled out for special treatment – that’s just back to square one – trying to make an omelette without breaking any eggs.
