Equal pay for equal work has long been law in the Canadian provinces (i.e. Ontario Employment Standards Act).  Quite rightly, the latter requires that men and women be paid equally for performing substantially the same work; legislation which  REAL Women of Canada actively promotes.  We oppose, however, the new different concept of equal pay for work of equal value, which is a comparison of different jobs for several reasons:

1.  This would include the problem of evaluating different jobs having very different factors, such as job risks, uncertain tenure, working conditions, training, etc.  There is no objective way to measure ìthe value of a jobî apart from the price it commands on the market.  Once market wages are abandoned as a guide, the system, unfortunately, becomes a subjective assignment of points based on the bias of the evaluator about the relative value of working conditions, job skills, education, training and responsibility.

2.  This type of evaluation, if implemented, would require a huge bureaucracy at taxpayersí expense.  For example, 23,000 occupational titles are listed in the U.S. Census Bureau Classified Index of Industries and Occupations (no doubt the number would be comparable in Canada) which would require exhaustive, long-term, bureaucratic endeavour, the cost of which would be covered by the already hard-pressed taxpayer.

3.  The equal value concept means government wage control, since the government bureaucracy is required to oversee and enforce the program -- rather than having wages reflect the forces of supply and demand -- in the marketplace, regulated by laws that ensure fairness to all.

4.  In areas where the concept of equal pay for work of ìequal valueî has been implemented, careful analysis indicates that no more than 2.5 to 3 percent of women actually benefit from it.

5.  Equal value will lead to discrimination against the least qualified or unskilled women, since inevitably employers tend to hire an unskilled male rather than an unskilled female, for whom they must pay the same wage.

     Where women are underpaid for their work, there should be a means of negotiation.  There should be also more emphasis on upgrading womenís job skills and education so that women will then have access to the higher-paying occupations traditionally held by men.  These measures, in the long run, will have the most permanent and far-reaching effect in narrowing the wage gap.