UMW College of Business Dean Lynne Richardson
College of Business Dean Lynne Richardson’s weekly column in The Free Lance-Star discusses EQUAL PAY FOR EQUAL WORK.
I had a conversation with a young person who began her first job less than a year ago. The topic was pay in the workplace.
There are four young women at her workplace. One makes a salary about 60 percent more than the others and is, according to the person I spoke to, doing essentially the same job. How does my young friend know this? Because of the structure and work done in the organization, they can know the salaries. So while the salaries are not public, they are internally known. These female employees are all white and under 30.
So we know there is generally a pay differential between men and women. We also know there is a differential between ethnicities, even within genders. While we would probably agree that is unacceptable, the facts are well documented. But why would an organization pay people such dramatically different salaries to do the same work? Read more.