What Does “Equal Pay for Equal Work” Mean?
Printer-friendly version “In America everybody is of the opinion that he has no social superiors, since all men are equal, but he does not admit that he has no social inferiors, for, from the time of Jefferson onward, the doctrine that all men are equal applies only upwards, not downwards.” ~ Bertrand Russell Well, that didn’t take long. In the first official bill signing of his administration, President Barack Obama struck a blow for the equality of all workers! Or at least that’s what he (and I reckon his supporters) think he did. There is much to discuss with regard to this issue, and I’ll get to that, but before I do, I think I better head off some knee-jerk reactions that this essay might generate. No, I’m not a Republican, and even though House Republicans sought to block this bill, I am under no illusion that many of them have even a faint clue. (Even a broken clock is correct twice a day.) No, I’m not of the opinion that men and women should be paid differently for the same wor
