Harry Reid and Comparable Worth

Article here. Excerpt:

'Some bad ideas never die. On Tuesday, during Senate debate, Majority Leader Harry Reid announced that, “I’m going to do my utmost to see if we can find a way to have a vote on the Paycheck Fairness Act. It is so fair to do that, to do a better job of equalizing pay between men and women when they do the same work. It seems fairly basic and fair.”

Senator Reid has apparently not read the bill. In addition to the 2009 “Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act,” this latest Democratic pre-election pandering to the trial lawyers and some women’s organizations is creating an administrative and legal nightmare for any employer trying to manage his or her workforce. It could totally upend criteria for hiring and setting pay. What do President Obama and the Democrats consider “unfair” about paying workers more if they have more experience, more education, or specific skills?

...
The first serious problem with this legislation is that, by changing the affirmative defenses allowed for employment decisions, it allows discrimination claims to be made for reasons other than discrimination. The burden of proof would be on employers to show that a seniority or educational qualification, for example, was “job-related” and a “business necessity.”

The bill also allows employees whose work situations or locations are not comparable to have their pay compared. For example, the pay of a worker in a high cost-of- living city could be compared to the pay for a worker for the same company in a locale with lower living costs. Reasonable people can see that locality pay differentials do not demonstrate gender discrimination.'