How Can Job Evaluation Be Used to Achieve Pay Equity?

The gap in average wages between men and women workers has been gradually narrowing, but very gradually. Some say that this gap stems largely from the difference in type and rank of job and from the fact that the women's length of working years is shorter than that of men. One reason women's pay is lower than men's is that women are more apt to be liberal arts majors who go into lower-paying jobs, while men are inclined to choose engineering and computer-science courses and pursue higher-paying careers. But others argue that these aren't examples of poor career choices by women, but of careers dominated by men which would be a subtle form of discrimination that undervalues women and some of the work they do.

Analytical job evaluation schemes are those in which jobs are broken down into components (known as factors) and scores for each component are awarded with a final total giving an overall rank order. Factors are normally discrete demands found in a job or range of jobs. Analytical evaluation schemes are schemes where jobs are broken down into components (known as factors) and scores for each component of the job are awarded with a final total giving an overall rank order. Most factors within job evaluation schemes fall within the generic headings of knowledge, skills, responsibility, effort and working conditions but they do not necessarily have the same names, nor fall neatly within five factors. It is not guaranteed, however, that an analytical job evaluation scheme will be free of sex bias. A scheme is discriminatory, for example, if it fails to include, or properly take into account, a demand that is an important element in a job that is predominantly female. A scheme will also be discriminatory if it gives an unjustifiably heavy weighting to factors that are more typical of a man’s job. So analytical job evaluation schemes can provide a defense to an equal pay claim

At the same time the different bargaining skills and strategies of women and men also...