When it comes to discrimination, the workplace today is a far cry from what it w

Question

When it comes to discrimination, the workplace today is a far cry from what it was even two decades ago. Activists, companies and legislators have taken many steps to curb discrimination at a variety of levels including race, ethnicity, gender and age. One area where workplace discrimination continues and is a source of hot debate is that of pay equality - equal pay for the same jobs is still not the reality. Today women on an average make about 80-95% (depending on industry and study referred to) of their male counterparts in the same industry. A counter argument to this situation has been that this gap is mainly due to the fact that a large number of employed women joined the workforce when discrimination was still widely practiced in certain industries. Other arguments presented include the idea that this inequality is a result of market function rather than discrimination (economics perspective) and that women's' decision making might be different from men based on individual priorities and the unreliability of statistics in individual cases (refer to the Walmart case presented in the text - pgs. 159-161, and the comment of Supreme Court Judge, Sandra Day O'Connor towards the end).

The two perspectives are clearly put forth in the videos below:

Refer to this funny (ignore the political aspects) video about the Lily Ledbetter case:

http://www.cc.com/video-clips/x89ju7/the-colbert-report-lilly-ledbetter

Here is another to drive the point home:

http://www.makers.com/moments/how-wage-discrimination-continues

And here is one that brings up the other side of the argument.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwogDPh-Sow

In view of the two sides (there really is pay discrimination vs. it is a warped situation created by statistical inadequacies), take a position. Then, justify it in light of all the stakeholders involved. To do this,

First, make sure to list all of these - (stakeholders are all elements who might be affected by the issue).

Next, explain how they are affected.

Third, take your position.

Fourth - explain your position - justify it from the utilitarian and deontological perspectives - how would you use the rights and justice perspectives vs. impact and effect to promote your position.

Explanation / Answer

1. The stakeholders are the women employees or the female employees, the male employees and the organizations (particularly its management).

2. The female employees are directly affected by the issue as their pay is not equal when compared to their male counterparts. Their take home salary is lower and this lowers their disposable income. The next set of stakeholder is the male employees. They are affected by the issue as their salary structure is under a constant glare and is constantly compared to the salary structure of their female counterparts. The last set of stakeholder is the organization. The organization's management will always be under pressure to reduce and eliminate the existing pay gap. There will be pressure from social organizations on the management to ensure pay parity between male and female workers.

3. My position is that pay discrimination is a reality and female workers are paid less when compared to their male counterparts.

4. From a utilitarian perspective, the contribution to overall utility is the same for an action being taken by a male employee or the female employee. Suppose that in case of a consumer durables company, there are two marketing managers - one is male and the other one is female. The goals and objectives and the job role is similar and their actions contribute the same to the overall utility of the consumer durables company. Both the employees are equally useful and so the moral principle should be to pay them the same amount.

In terms of deontological perspectives, maintaining a pay disparity on the basis of gender will be considered a wrong action by focusing on the rightness and wrongness of the action. The highest good is being ignored by maintaining a pay disparity. Thus maintaining a pay disparity is wrong as will as unjust. In terms of its impact and effect, paying less to women employees may encourage or promote gender based discrimination in the long run.

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