A picture worth a thousand words Look at those Republican characters in the picture below, pretending the equity theory of management does not existโa principle asserting people who produce the same should be compensated the same, and people who produce unequally should be compensated unequally. The men look like a gang of sheepish naughty schoolboys who had been caught red handed stealing cookies from the cookie jar, and picking on girls, sitting there in their drab coat and tie uniforms, trying to look innocent, with no affect or animation, as joyful excited well-coiffed women among them wearing bright colorful dresses stand up and clap for President Obama as he again tells Congress in his fifth State of the Union Address that congress people should pass the Lilly Ledbetter Act mandating equal pay for equal work for women. Its absurd that President Obama should have to tell them this again, for many reasons. One reason I have not heard mentioned in any medium is that only communists believe productivity is irrelevant as a wage and salary determinant. Only communists believe the needs of individuals should be the main determinant of wages and salaries. As Karl Marx put it, From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs, which is what employers are doing in the case of women. In todays US capitalistic system the general rule should be, From each according to her/his abilities; to each according to the value of his/her production. Republican politicians tout themselves as exemplars and defenders of free competition and capitalism, yet in this case they are acting like a gang of communists. In my opinion the equity theory of management should apply to students in classes, to players on ball teams, and to workers in any productive group or organization; but not so, according to these characters, in the case of grown women competing with men for money in gainful employment throughout the US. They apparently think women are special, so special they should be excluded from wage and salary equity considerations. How can these characters live with their consciences if they perpetuate this travesty? Well, it seems the answer has to do with religious beliefs, specifically what these characters perceive to be the religious beliefs of people who vote for them. They apparently think their unfair behavior, denying women equal pay for equal work, will please their constituents and help them get reelected, implying their constituents may also be closet communists. They would probably have you believe as a defense they voted against equal pay for women because their faith made them to do it; and they would have you believe this morally takes them off the hook, making them not responsible for their inequitable inhumane legislative actions. These actors in some ways are like the Taliban in Afghanistan, religious fundamentalists who think they have a divine right to lord it over women, not having to answer to anybody for their religious beliefs. Anyone not believing in equal pay, grades, and rewards for equal achievement and productivity, or unequal pay for unequal work, is treading on thin ideological ice. This disagrees with basic tenets of free enterprise and capitalism and agrees with communistic tenets. Communism entails people being compensated based on their needs rather than their contributions. Fundamentalists voting against equal pay for equal work generally consider themselves believers in free enterprise, open competition and capitalism. Why then would they consider it proper to reward men more than women for equal work? Well, for one thing they must think men have special needs, more financial burdens in families, and the like, and therefore men should be given special help, a form of welfare, by governmental laws, or governmental absence of laws. Do Republican politicians voting against equal pay for equal work secretly believe in communistic tenets? If so if they want to set up a communistic system wherein people receive higher incomes not related to higher productivity based on their needs, they should put this in writing for everyone to see by proposing new laws overtly stating no one should receive more income than others barring special needs. Most US fundamentalists say they believe in Christian dogmas and doctrines. Some say they believe every word in the bible as holy writ. Jesus taught that employers should pay workers what they were worth, with no mention of discriminating among males and females. He also said it was permissible to pay one worker more than another for equal work based on different needs, so he too apparently believed in both capitalistic and communistic tenets. Everyone knows Jesus had a very low opinion of human greed, making money, and getting rich, especially money-changing. He clearly warned people about accumulating too much money, asserting it significantly lowered their chances of making it into heaven. He said rich people ought to give everything they had to the poor and follow after him, wandering around the country visiting, praying with, and preaching to people who would provide you meals and lodging in return, giving no thought to making money, living simply and naturally like a lilly in the field, which seems a bit communistic. I think it is fair to say Jesus strongly believed in income equality. Most fundamentalist Republican conservatives also oppose raising the minimum wage so employers can pay unequal wages and salaries to both male and female workers producing equal work, based on the needs of workers of different ages. Some believe adolescents living at home with their parents working part time should be paid less per hour than others regardless of their hourly productivity, another communistic notion. Wages and salaries paid to employees at most levels in corporations are not made public, to protect the privacy of employees, but also to insure employees cannot compare their incomes with others to make sure their compensation is equitable, using the equity theory of management. In most organizations you will find an unspoken rule that employees should not talk about their compensation with fellow employees. Some states, such as Georgia, publish the salaries of university professors and employees in auditors reports once a year that are made available in libraries, but most employees and citizens do not pay much attention to them. I decided to look mine up at one point in my career and was shocked by the numbers. In universities with merit raises salaries can become inequitable through time for many reasons, as can wages and salaries in corporate hierarchies. Consult my book Business Voyages, a business bible, for more elaboration and documentation showing how seemingly small differentials in yearly percentage-based merit raises can exponentially explode through the years creating ever-widening salary inequities, a process analogous to what is happening among classes in the US today. On the other hand, most sports fans pride themselves on being able to remember the number of touchdowns, tackles, baskets, assists, and other productive contributions football and basketball employees make on professional teams and how much they are compensated. Sports customers are inundated with such facts published in newspapers and sports magazines, on TV and elsewhere, and they pay attention to them, considering them to be relevant and valuable. But scores, contributions, production, achievements and compensation for most other employees in capitalistic societies are generally hidden so most people have no way of knowing how contributions relate to compensation. Better to keep employees in the dark than to have them constantly complaining about their inequitable pay. Only professional sport corporations and industries provide truly free and open competition with real-time result transparency for employees. You dont have to be a woman to get screwed at work when it comes to compensation based on contributions; but no doubt about it, women getting paid on average 30 or so percent less than men doing the same work, when the quantity and quality of their work is the same or better, is an absolute travesty. This is a travesty that can largely be eliminated by passing the Lilly Ledbetter Act. Republican legislators need to man up, vote with their Democratic colleagues, and get it done ASAP. R J Stapleton Effective Learning Company effectivelearning.net 32 East Main Street Statesboro, Georgia January 26, 2015
Posted on: Mon, 26 Jan 2015 21:47:05 +0000