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That employers should be required to pay men and women the same amount for the same job

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SilamothSilamoth (PRO)
I believe that all employers should be required to pay men and women the same salaries for the same quality of work for the same job.  During this debate, I intend to justify this belief on grounds of fact and practicality and on grounds of morality and ethics.  So, let's get right on into the debate.

Differences in Intelligence?

Most jobs in the modern world rely on some sort of skill combined with a level of intelligence.  Because we are debating on the scale of every job, it is impossible to study skill comparisons between men and women for every single job.  Additionally, one's potential skill level is often determined by one's current level of intelligence.  So, I will be analyzing the differences, or lack thereof, in intelligence of men women.

The standard test of intelligence is the IQ test.  While it is slightly flawed, it provides valuable insight into the logical thinking and reasoning skills of its test takers.  Now, there is no standard IQ test.  However, the closest to a standard IQ test is the Raven's Progressive Matrices test.  This test is designed to test abstract and logical reasoning.  It is used often by researchers of the brain and intelligence.  James Flynn, a professor of Political Studies in New Zealand, conducted some research into IQ levels.  He tested women with the standard of male scores being set at 100.  The lowest average female score against this standard was 99.5, coming from Australia.  However, most women scored between 100.5-101.51.  This shows that men and women, on average, score incredibly closely on this test, with only negligible differences in average scores.

It would be foolish to say that an IQ test is an accurate measure of intelligence.  After all, the Raven's Progressive Matrices test only testing logical reasoning, not other aspects of intelligence.

In general, there are two types of intelligence: emotional intelligence and logical intelligence.  Emotional intelligence is characterized by social skills and interactions with other people, whereas logical or system intelligence is characterized by the ability to understand systems logically.  Women tend to be more emotionally intelligent, but men tend to be more logically intelligent2.  This shows that men and women do have differences in the distribution of intelligence.  However, it does not indicate anything that makes one more valuable than the other.  Therefore, while men and women do have different forms of intelligence, there is nothing about this that requires different pay levels

So, as far as intelligence is concerned, men and women are about at the same level of overall intelligence.  Therefore, there is no reason they should be paid differently based on intelligence.  Additionally, even if it can be proven that one gender is generally more intelligent, intelligence is still an individual thing to be looked at on an individual basis.  To pay someone based upon his or her gender's average intelligence would ignore his or her individual intelligence.

Differences in Business Skill?

Research has been conducted to determine which gender is, in general, better at business and work skills.  However, the research has found that men and women are simply different in their habits in the workplace3.  This Michael Gurian and Barbara Annis, two business professionals and authors, concluded this after 20 years of research into gender science and the workplace.  From this, we can extrapolate that men and women, though different, are equal in their business skills.  This means that there is no reason to pay them differently because they both have equal abilities in business.

Sexism

The last, and probably best, argument I will be making this round is about sexism.  Sexism is, by definition, discriminating based upon gender.  To pay men and women different salaries for the same work would be, by definition, discrimination based upon gender because one gender would be payed less than the other simply because of gender.  This, in turn, is, also by definition, sexism.  

It can be logically proven that paying men and women different salaries for the same work is sexism.  Now, however, the question is about sexism itself.  Is sexism really wrong?  That is what this argument boils down to.  I would argue that the answer to this question is yes.  Your gender is part of how you are born.  You are born male or female.  There are certain physical and psychological traits associated with this, but this does not define who you are.  It is simply a part of who you are.  To discriminate based upon this would ignore everything else about a person simply because of that person's gender.

So, to pay men and women different salaries for the same work would ignore what each individual man and woman has to offer in favor of looking at that individual's gender, something which is entirely irrelevant.

Conclusion

Men and women are, statistically, about equal in intelligence.  They are also about equal in business and workplace skills.  Most importantly, if men and women are not payed the same amounts for the same work, then an individual's skills and contributions would be ignored in favor of his or gender when determining pay.  This would be incredibly unfair to those who work hard and contribute a lot to a company.  

I look forward to seeing how you approach arguing against this, especially considering how highly-ranked you are on this site.

Sources

1. https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/beautiful-minds/201207/men-women-and-iq-setting-the-record-straight
2. http://www.danielgoleman.info/are-women-more-emotionally-intelligent-than-men/
3. http://www.forbes.com/2008/05/28/gender-strategy-behavior-lead-manage-cx_mk_0528sexes.html

Return To Top | Posted:
2016-09-04 08:36:35
| Speak Round
cooldudebrocooldudebro (CON)
Let's define terms:
Woman: an adult female human being (1)
Man: an adult male human being (2)
Job: The work that a person does regularly in order to earn money (3)

Now here are two terms that you're going to need to know for my arguments to be complete:

Wages: an amount of money that a worker is paid based on the number of hours, days, etc., that are worked (4)
Salary: an amount of money that an employee is paid each year (5)

Overview of my Case:
Women and men are already paid as much as men. They are paid the same when it comes to the dollars per-hour they can earn when they first join the company. However, men pull away from women and make more attractive workers compared to women. Let's go over why this may be so.

My Case:

Despite women being biologically less likely to be ill, women take around forty-two percent more sick days than men. (6) 
"The analysts found that after stripping out all other factors including age, profession and employer size, women are on average 42 per cent more likely to take time off.

Karen Steadman, a researcher at the Work Foundation, a think tank, said that men are more likely to go to work even when they should be off sick.

She said that women tend to be the main carer for children or elderly relatives, so take sick days to deal with emergencies."

This will tie into my other point later on in this debate.


Mothers, more than fathers, experience career interruptions

As you can see, women who are potential mothers often work less due to motherhood and their motherly duties which is applaudable. Cheers to those lovely women who view their family more important than their career.


Another clear difference you can see is in maternal leave. More than two thirds of women take maternal leave when they are pregnant.


"In 2006-2010, 66.0 percent of women reported being employed during their last pregnancy, of whom 69.7 percent reported taking maternity leave. Thus, nearly one-third of employed women did not report taking any maternity leave (30.3 percent). Women with at least a college degree were more likely to have taken leave than those who had attended college but not graduated (80.0 versus 71.6 percent, respectively)" (7)


Paternity leave statistics:

"Comparing pay during maternity leave and paternity leave, research has found that more women workers get pay during maternity leave than men during paternity leave. A 2008 national study of employers found that 52 percent said they offer some pay to women on maternity leave, compared to 16 percent offering paid leave to men on paternity leave." (8)


Believe it or not, women are now pushing for paid menstrual leave. 
"Last week, UK social enterprise company Coexist announced they’re creating a “period policy,” which will allow women employees to take time off while menstruating. The news sparked a debate among women: Should a menstrual leave policy be a regular thing in offices? Japan has had a nation-wide plan in place since 1947, according to the Atlantic, and Taiwan, South Korea, Indonesia, and parts of China have similar policies, too. Off the bat, the idea of “paid menstrual leave” in the workplace might sound like a brilliant idea—but it’s not that simple." (10)

(Data courtesy of the bureau of labor statistics)

Men work more hours than women even if you control for all the other factors. The standards work day for men is around an hour more than a woman. (11)

Men work more overtime. (12)

Women vacation more than men. (13)


If two men had the same job; but different hours, it would make sense that they would be paid according to how many hours they work. It is illogical to assume they would be paid the same. Women work less hours than men for many reasons. Therefore, forcing employers to pay men and women the same for the same job; but different hours worked is illogical.

Equal workers that deserve equal pay work the same hours for the same job for the pay.

Arigatou Guzaimasu


Anime OP:




1. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/woman
2. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/man
3. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/job
4. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wages
5. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/salary
6. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/10660612/Women-are-almost-42-per-cent-more-likely-to-take-sick-days-than-men.html
7. http://mchb.hrsa.gov/chusa13/programs-policies/p/maternity-leave.html
8. http://mensrights.com/paternity-leave-facts/
9. http://nypost.com/2016/03/01/paid-menstrual-leave-is-now-a-thing/
10. http://www.self.com/trending/2016/03/paid-menstrual-leave-is-spreading-but-women-are-divided/
11. http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/06/24/charts-how-american-men-and-women-spend-their-time
12. http://qz.com/149428/mens-overtime-hours-are-keeping-the-gender-pay-gap-alive/
13. http://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/2013/04/25/vacation-travel-study/2110505/

Return To Top | Posted:
2016-09-04 09:58:43
| Speak Round


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