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Equal pay for equal work is about common decency

Equal pay for equal work is about common decency

Unlike science where you know things or don't know, social issues always present a philosophical dilemma, a choice between pragmatism and morals.

Recently, the Obama administration introduced an executive action that would require companies with more that 100 employees to report to the federal government how much they pay their employees broken down by race, gender, and ethnicity. 

Is that a right thing for the government to do in regards to private enterprise? Some may even argue that such a move is tantamount to the government legislating morals in the environment which is all about efficiency and practicality.

Yet, strange as it may seem, while private life must be protected from the state's reach, public morals, public decency is exactly what the government must ensure the same way it provides public safety.

There are many things that may make economic sense. Such as slavery and child labour, the practices still used around the globe. But as a society we choose not to follow such practices exactly on moral grounds, out of our common decency.

The principle that equal work deserves equal pay is a simple matter of courtesy. Times may have changed, but the age-old conventions were too slow to follow.  Throughout history a woman was condemned to the state of permanent pregnancy and child rearing that prevented her from achieving any meaningful position in the labour market. Also historically minorities were kept segregated and less educated, making them vulnerable to oppression and exploitation. Although this is no longer the case, the bias still remains, not necessarily as expressed hate, but unconscious cultural prejudice. Discrimination in the workplace today is a rudiment of the past, the unspoken convention that needs to be spoken about.

The new rule does just that - it makes businesses aware who they employ and how they treat them. It reminds us that what make us a civilized society is the way how we treat a fellow human being. With decency