Comparable worth and pay equity: Recent developments in the United States

This paper surveys the US experience with comparable worth and pay equity (CWPE). After reviewing the institutional setting (with special reference to anti-discrimination laws and affirmative action programs) into which CWPE was introduced, I note that CWPE has met with only minimal success at the federal level and has fostered some modest pay adjustments for government employees in some states. Employers have usually opposed or sought to limit CWPE pay adjustments; unions have sometimes been sceptical of CWPE as antithetical to collective bargaining; and in recent years even some proponents have become less positive in assessing CWPE.