According to WorldatWork's Alison Avalos, who puts out a regular column called "What Your Colleagues Are Reading", the 2010 workspan piece on Comparable Worth written by me, Paul Weatherhead and my Compensation Cafe cohort Jim Brennan is the top viewed article for 2014, so far.
What's up with that, I wonder? Is gender equity suddenly that big a topic among compensation professionals?
I remember, back when it was published (and given a cover feature), a local colleague and friend asked me "why would you even write about that?" Because it was a topic that interested me, I countered, and because there were implications to "forcing" gender equality that people were overlooking or ignoring. Because the topic was drawing little attention from the compensation community and I felt it needed to be on everybody's radar screen.
And because it was a fun collaborative exercise. To shake it up, Jim took the female-friendly "pro" argument and I took the "con."
Alison sub-titled her column The Usual Suspects and Some Surprises. I suspect our article's appearance in the number one slot was one of the latter.
Got a theory?
I didn't take the "pro" side just to shake things up. After all my years of compensation pay equity work, it would have been impossible for me to take the negative position regarding the actual comparable worth concept. While each employer always has the right to adopt its own unique value system, the resulting pay program should always be neutral toward protected class status.
Posted by: E. James (Jim) Brennan | July 03, 2014 at 05:03 PM
Jim:
You're right - and my apologies for a remark that appeared to trivialize our respective choices of position on the issue. I know, and I imagine many readers do too, that you have a long history of involvement and advocacy relative to the topic of comparable worth.
Readers, do check out the article for a more detailed perspective on the issue.
Posted by: Ann Bares | July 04, 2014 at 11:11 AM
Certainly a great topic for discussion. I recently read on Google's own career blog where they were laying so much stress on gender diversity and equality. They are making their best efforts to work in this direction. Even other big companies are talking about it. The next big thing.
Posted by: Young HR Manager | July 20, 2014 at 10:13 PM