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Show High Time Where Is Equality? By FLORENCE BITTNER The question of equal pay for equal work is predominant right now because of the obvious ob-vious and continuing inequities ine-quities in pay between men and women. Oh, I know it's against the law, but since when did that make any difference? ALL YOU do is change the job title and a few of the conditions condi-tions and you can change the pay rate. But I must admit that women aren't the only ones being discriminated against when paychecks are handed out. A friend of mine who is well up there in the pay classifications, classifica-tions, although the hardest work she does is clip coupons on her tax free bonds, says, "Oh, there's lots of money around. There really is. It just isn't distributed very evenly." AS IF 1 didn't know that. What I'd like to see, if anyone really got serious about pay inequities is to pay on the value of the service received, in terms of human comfort and providing the basic necessities. necessi-ties. This would put garbage men, excuse me, sanitation engineers en-gineers way up there. I can think of few jobs more important impor-tant to the health and well being of our society than having hav-ing our refuse hauled away and decently buried. RIGHT BEHIND the sanita tion engineers would be people who cook, clean houses, do laundry, wash dishes and .otherwise provide for our physical phy-sical surroundings. Somehow our pay system is all out of kilter. Some young punk, 'scuse me, there I go again. Some talented young performer who makes some records re-cords and plays loud music rakes in the money so fast he can't spend it intelligently. NO SINGLE individual is better fed, housed, healthier or more comfortable because of his efforts, but he's at the top of the money pile, until someone some-one takes it all away from him. Baseball players threatened to go on strike because they?.' were underpaid. Their average-' salary was $135,000, but they were underpaid. By whose standards? For doing what? WHAT DAMAGE would have resulted to society if the baseball players had gone out on strike? Would it have inconvenienced incon-venienced anyone seriously as if, for instance, bus drivers failed to show up for work? Sure, there is a need to pay people for acquired skills or no one would go to school all those years to become doctors and lawyers and engineers and archtiects. People who do things well should be compensated compen-sated for skill, and usually those people are paid adequately. adequ-ately. ISo one! know considers -doctors underpaid. Or lawyers. BUT IT strikes me that the person who climbs a utility pole in a storm to restore electricity elec-tricity and knows how to handle hand-le hot wires, find the problem and come down the pole on their own power deserves as much compensation as the moderator of a talk show, or a band leader. Some say the current compensation com-pensation rates are based upon individual talent. But are they? Does the current Charlie's Angel have more talent than the school teacher who goes daily into the lion's den of eighth graders and somehow pounds a basic understanding of English grammer into their unready heads? WHO DECIDED how pay will be distributed and how and when? Does the coal miner who every day goes into the bowels of the earth deserve less pay than the tennis player who expends tremendous energy for an enormous prize? I know I sound like a revolutionary. revolu-tionary. In the thirties, when the world was in worse social turmoil than it is now, all this was common talk, and the discussion dis-cussion was usually prefaced with, "comes the revolution." Well, I think it came and we weren't looking and nothing changed. MAYBE THE pay inequities wouldn't bother me as much if I were at the top looking dow n rather than down here looking up, but it does seem to me we pay the wrong people the large amounts of money. I agree with Booker T. Washington who said there's as much dignity in tilling a field - as in any other profession. Most people agree with this now, and people who work with their hands aren't looked down on. THEY JUST aren't paid very well. |