Literature homework
chrsho
walterscbtm7300.docxRunning Head: LITERATURE REVIEW 6
Literature Review
Christopher Walters
BTM 7300 Scholarly Literature Review
Dr. Eva Philpot
December 13 2015
Introduction
Pay equity is an issue that has brought a lot of contention worldwide in all areas of employment. From the research done by (Pay Equity Commission of Ontario.1992), this issue arises when it comes to gender based debate, job qualification debates and issues to do with the race of certain individuals. Pay equality is however important in the sense that it makes all the employees have the feeling that the company values all of them in an equal way. This ensures that the employees are self-motivated to give their best in the work that they perform for the company or organization. Pay equity stands the ground of opposing biasness in whatever capacity and viewing all employees as equally important in achieving the objectives of the company.
From the literature study on pay equity it makes more sense if workers who do the same work and those assigned similar responsibilities are paid equally no matter their level of education, experience, gender or race. This is because for a group of employees to be given the same work or to be assigned the same responsibilities, it means that they are all able to deliver the results and actually the outcome of the result will be dependent on their joint efforts. Gender is just masculinity and there should not be any gender that is viewed more superior that the other since when it comes to working, both genders are able to deliver what is needed at the desired level. Having pay inequalities in organizations have most of the time made workers to even doubt whether their leaders have ethics that guide the employee performance in the organization. This question is however valid because in as much as the government is fighting for the pay equality, some organizations still operate in the early 90’s mind of paying workers on the basis that promotes inequality.
All workers in any organization carrying out similar duties have the right to be equally paid. This is because they all contribute equally in one way or the other to the success of the work that they are doing. For instance, all the secretaries in an organization need to be paid equally without considering whether they are the managers’ secretaries or the secretaries of the chief executive officers. This is because they all have the same qualifications and they technically carry out similar duties.
In all circumstances, it is the leadership that has the responsibility of ensuring that the employees are paid equally. For example, it is the leadership that determines the payment of workers depending on their level of education, gender, experiences and even race. This however should not be the case. Those carrying out similar duties at the same level should be paid equally. The payment should not be based on the experience or gender or the level of education. An employees who discovers that another colleague whom they work with at the same level is paid more than the rest of them since that other employee is of a different skin color may not like the idea and as a result, his or her dedication to the organization may be reduced just by this simple action of favoritism.
A study done by (Oelz, Olney &Tomei, 2013) clearly reveals that pay bias is something that has always been there even in the United States and as a result the United States has come up with ways of ensuring that there is equal payment of wages. A study carried out shows that n the year 2014, women in United States who work on full time basis got a payment of 79% of what men received as payment, this shows that there was a gap of 21% in terms of payment of both genders. Comparing this with the early 1970’s it is evident that the gap has greatly reduced and this is partly because there has been an improvement in the standard of education of women since then and also because of the efforts that the government has been putting in encouraging equality.
A research study done on pay equality at the management and executive level based on education by (Lussier, & Hendon, 2013), shows that there has been an increase in the gap of payment between the more educated and the less literate in the society. The study shows that the gap in the payment of the executive and the management level is nearly 70%. This is can be explained by the fact that the executive level is assumed to have a higher education level and more experience than the management level. Those at the top executive levels receive higher payment than those at the lower executive levels even though they all fall under the executive levels, in the same way, the managers at the top level also receive more payment than those at the lower management levels.
Ethnicity and gender diversity has seen an improvement in improving payment qualities. A study in the history of United States on ethnicity and gender by (Schaefer, 2001) reveals that in the early 90s workers in United States were paid depending on their ethnic backgrounds and their genders such that the males gender received higher payment compared to the females and those of colors like the African American workers were paid less compared to their American counterparts of the United States origin. The diversity on the ethnicity and gender issue has however seen an improvement lately, with the workers receiving payments based on their job levels and not on their ethnic backgrounds. The diversity has also given opportunity to both genders to be in the top management levels and in the executive levels as well. In United States, being at the management and executive levels currently is earned by qualification and not by the virtue of color or gender.
The unions and the workers groups now have more powers to ensure there is equality in payments since they form part of the bodies that come up with the rules on payment of workers. This is a benefit of the freedom to speech and expression. In the United States, everyone in the union or any worker group has the freedom to speak out their mind and what they are best convicted is the best idea for them. The power that the union and the worker groups have, has seen the United States into being one of the states where payment equality is getting a much more improvement of late compared to other countries where still all the rules made by the top leadership cannot be opposed by any other person.
The powers of the unions and the worker groups have brought some policies, which have had a positive impact on the pay equalities. For instance a research conducted by (Coles, &, Morten, 2011) reveals a much improvement looking at the four key points in the payment distribution, that is the bottom distribution group called the 90 percentile, the middle distribution group, called the 50 percentile, the third highest distribution group, called the 10 percentile and the most highest distribution group, called the 1 percentile. The study shows that there has been an improvement in the 90-percentile group payment and that a majority is at the 50 percentile. However, the 1-percentile groups have not yet been contained since it reveals that there has been an increase in the payment inequality.
Conclusion
In as much as pay equality is quite a challenge, I believe that there are things that can be done to ensure that the situation is improved. Some of these things will require the leadership to forget what they have ever believed in like payment determined by the level of education and experience and think of paying workers based on their job categories and their duties are. The organizations must commit themselves to carrying out equal fair payment to all workers, for instance by ensuring that those who are under the same job categories are equally paid.
If payment according to job categories is not workable, then the organization can make use of the tax payments where an individual pays tax according to what they earn. Those who earn less pay less tax and those who earn more pay more taxation. This method ensures that at the end of it all, the amount that each worker remains with after paying the taxes is almost equal. The pay as you earn taxes can also be a tool to reducing the payment inequalities. This is because the more the earning of a worker, the more their payments to the government.
The government of the United States has gone quite far in fighting for the payment equality of all people and it is truly evident that they have accomplished much over the years. However, there is still more to be done to ensure that the idea of payment equality is achieved. It is evident that the level of education of women has improved which have improved the payment equality but still the government of United States can ensure that more women are encouraged to join the sectors, which are still domineered by the males. The government can also put policies forward that concentrate more on the skills that the workers have rather than looking for those who are experienced in the fields.
Both the theoretical and the conceptual frameworks have been relevant to my study of the literature review on the payment equality since they have both provided evidences that there have been improvement in the pay equalities over a long period of time.
References
Coles, M. G., Mortensen, D., & National Bureau of Economic Research. (2011). Equilibrium wage and employment dynamics in a model of wage posting without commitment. Cambridge, Mass: National Bureau of Economic Research.
Oelz, M., Olney, S., & Tomei, M. (2013). Equal pay: An Introductory Guide. Geneva: International Labour Office.
Pay Equity Commission of Ontario. (1992). Step by step to pay equity: A guide for small business using the job-to-job comparison method. Toronto: Pay Equity Commission.
Schaefer, R. T. (2001). Race and ethnicity in the United States. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Prentice Hall.
