[Speed Gibson,
Monday October 24, 2005 at 12:56am]
The Price of "Fairness"
Following up on the news that Minnesota has "drained the gender bias" out of its payscales so that women make almost the same as men. While the average private sector woman gets 76% of what the average private sector man makes, in our public sector, it's 97%.
How is this achieved? By gender-norming various positions, eliminating actual performance as a significant factor, or both. Did this reduce the pay in the male-dominated professions? Of course not. The private sector would pay better and draw away most applicants.
No, it was by artificially raising the pay of the female-dominated professions. If we assume for lack of data that the public sector is 50-50 male and female, that translates to a nearly 12 percent increase in total payroll. At the state level this is billions of dollars per year. This is more than enough to repeal the "health impact" tax on tobacco, build a new stadium and build a new light rail line - every two years.
"It would just seem fair," said a proponent. Is it fair that our taxes are hundreds of dollars a year higher to achieve this "fairness"?
How is this achieved? By gender-norming various positions, eliminating actual performance as a significant factor, or both. Did this reduce the pay in the male-dominated professions? Of course not. The private sector would pay better and draw away most applicants.
No, it was by artificially raising the pay of the female-dominated professions. If we assume for lack of data that the public sector is 50-50 male and female, that translates to a nearly 12 percent increase in total payroll. At the state level this is billions of dollars per year. This is more than enough to repeal the "health impact" tax on tobacco, build a new stadium and build a new light rail line - every two years.
"It would just seem fair," said a proponent. Is it fair that our taxes are hundreds of dollars a year higher to achieve this "fairness"?