Equal Work, Unequal Pay

Abstract

Despite legislative and legal aids designed to reduce the persistent earnings inequality between employed males and females, there is little evidence of improvement over the past 40 years. One difficulty with research on this topic has been the inability to distinguish gender discrimination—unequal pay for equal work—from earnings differences due to dissimilar work. This article describes an empirical method to identify work-similar occupations using selected measures from the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (U.S. Department of Labor, 1977b). With a collection of workhomogeneous occupations, we examine male-female earnings differences within these occupations and find that discrimination against females is extensive. Therefore, although there is much attention today on the issue of comparable worth, it appears we have yet to achieve equal pay for equal work.