Pay Equity: The Promise and the Practice in North America

Abstract

This paper summarises the outcomes of a key pay equity case in the USA, and compares its results, a decade later, with its original aspirations. The paper contrasts the possibilities of a technically argued comparable worth approach, with a mobilising approach that involves women directly in campaigns for pay equity. This experience, along with other cases in Canada, illustrates significant achievements and disappointments of pay equity. A key lesson from North American experience is that women can become a powerful force for change when mobilised to take action on issues of justice.