Equal pay = equal dress?

Clippings from news sources involving fashion freedom and other gender equality issues.
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Charlie
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Equal pay = equal dress?

Post by Charlie »

Bryan wrote (in another thread)
There is nothing worse in the summer than trying to work in an office with women, who are wearing lightweight clothing and no collars/ties, and are therefore far cooler than the men.

In my mind, true sex equality has yet to arrive.
There's a debate on the BBC 'Have your say' website about pay discrimination, where women get paid less than men. Personally, I think if she does the same job, she should get the same pay. Equally, men and women should have the freedom to dress as they like.

http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread. ... 1030192943

What's this to do with skirts? Well, it occurred to me that while the women can wear whatever, I get paid a bit more than them for being uncomfortable in trousers all day. This may sound like a weird justification for a pay differential. Perhaps if I took a drop in pay I could wear a skirt to work?

Charlie

PS I didn't bother putting a post into the debate - the BBC moderators are somewhat narrowminded when it comes to radical thinking :(
If I want to dress like a woman, I'll wear jeans.
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sapphire
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Post by sapphire »

I think that would be an unfortunate mistake that would end up hurting everyone.
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crfriend
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Re: Equal pay = equal dress?

Post by crfriend »

I didn't bother putting a post into the debate - the BBC moderators are somewhat narrowminded when it comes to radical thinking :(
Certainly a good many of the comments were somewhat narrowminded. I gave up after a page or so when it became apparent that there was pretty much no individual intellectual thought involved. {sigh}

Equal pay for equal work should be a mantra. So, too, should be some concept of ethics in the workplace when it comes to "executive compensation" (which is out of control at the moment).

Would I take a cut in pay to be able to wear any piece of clothing I wanted? No. It's not worth it. I may spend more time at work than any other single place, but it is most definitely not my life, or even the most important thing therein.
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Stu
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Post by Stu »

Personally, I think if she does the same job, she should get the same pay.
So do I - but I think that is a matter between the employee and the employer and it should be of no business of the law.

At a local primary school, the dinner ladies demanded the same pay as the janitor/boilerman was getting, claiming they did work "of equal worth" (whatever that means). The janitor at that school had the backbreaking job of shoveling coal into the boiler, humping bricks about and so on, plus getting up on the school roofs in all weathers to replace tiles and spread hot tar etc. The dinner ladies threatened legal action supported by their union and the EOC, not just for equal pay for future work, but for 5-years worth of back pay. The school couldn't really afford this, nor could they afford to defend a court action, and so they had no choice but to sell off their main school playing field to finance it.

Equal opportunities laws are crude acts of ideologically-motivated government interference and they have far-reaching and usually adverse unintended consequences. They are bad!

Stu
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