tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6768848329482311943.post10775932346674153..comments2023-06-20T03:00:16.769-07:00Comments on Vancouver On Strike: Library Workers - Contract IssuesBack to workhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08891996192498006619noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6768848329482311943.post-82440022325645810582007-10-18T10:57:00.000-07:002007-10-18T10:57:00.000-07:00Pay equity should mean that a person doing compara...Pay equity should mean that a person doing comparable work gets paid a comparable amount. Why is the union comparing a library worker to a labourer? Clearly, that is not comparable work. One person is outside with a shovel and the other is inside with a wheel cart. That's about the most obvious example of an apples to oranges comparison I have ever heard of.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6768848329482311943.post-4688064283761945252007-09-01T14:46:00.000-07:002007-09-01T14:46:00.000-07:00The average wage for a Canadian woman in 1998 was ...The average wage for a Canadian woman in 1998 was 72.2% of the average Canadian man's salary. The percentage dropped to 71% in 2003.<BR/><BR/>And that's all the proof you need.<BR/><BR/>Nor is it apples and oranges. Like duties are compared to like duties and scored (by a team composed of management and union).<BR/><BR/><I>The "market value" of something is set by the market</I><BR/><BR/>This is a simplistic characterization. "Market forces" are governed by far more than "supply and demand". War, peace, natural disasters and...yes...cultural attitudes all come into play.spartikushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15639539383294575736noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6768848329482311943.post-85235143392078891822007-09-01T12:25:00.000-07:002007-09-01T12:25:00.000-07:00"It really is a objective system to actually gauge..."It really is a objective system to actually gauge a job's true market value."<BR/><BR/>What an absurd statement! The "market value" of something is set by the market, ie. supply and demand. The market value of a job -- ie. the wage -- is determined by the available supply of workers. Trying to impose "pay equity" by comparing two different jobs, with different supplies of workers, is like comparing apples and oranges.<BR/><BR/>If there really is a shortage of librarians, then the Library would be desperate to attract more of them, and it would already have agreed to improve wages or benefits above its already generous offer. It seems more likely to me that there is a healthy supply of librarians out there, and that the wage rate currently on offer accurately reflects market value. <BR/><BR/>If anything, I would assume that the collective bargaining system (especially in the public sector) results in wage levels HIGHER than you would see in a true free market system.<BR/><BR/>Conveniently, most librarians are female, so they can claim that the wages of librarians everywhere have been suppressed below their true market value by a sinister "male-dominated elite". Really? Where's the proof?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6768848329482311943.post-54833291174124062212007-08-31T19:39:00.000-07:002007-08-31T19:39:00.000-07:00Well anonymous, the simple fact of the matter is t...Well anonymous, the simple fact of the matter is the invisible hand isn't paying librarians x% - what their skill set commands in the market. It pays them y%. It pays them y% because the world, if you define the world as the male-dominated elite, see they can use the inordinate power they wield to take advantage of a group that has historically been placed in a position of subservience.<BR/><BR/>This "arbitrary" rate of pay you suggest would be the result of enacting pay equity is also a baseless fear: pay equity provides a system to measure a job's worth in a gender neutral fashion. Jobs within the employer (in this case across City departments) are broken down into their component parts, weighted by number, and then compared. If an adjustment is dictated by these numbers, it enacted. If it isn't...it isn't.<BR/><BR/>It really is a objective system to actually gauge a job's true market value.spartikushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15639539383294575736noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6768848329482311943.post-62911056730218523142007-08-31T00:40:00.000-07:002007-08-31T00:40:00.000-07:00The whole case for pay equity is silly. I certainl...The whole case for pay equity is silly. I certainly agree that we shouldn't discriminate against workers based on their sex (or any other non-performance related issues). But some bureaucrats deciding that librarians are worth x% of labourers (or whatever) isn't going to change the fact that the world views librarians as being worth y% of labourers. <BR/><BR/>If we insist on maintaining some arbitrary rate of pay that isn't consistent with what people are willing to pay, the group (librarians in this case) will just disappear. There's a fixed pot of money available for the service. If the rate of pay is so high that it's not possible to employ enough people to provide a reasonable service, sooner or later everyone will say it's not worth keeping the service at all.<BR/><BR/>It's not fair. It's just the way the world is. Trying to legislate that the sun rises in the west and sets in the east is interesting, but unlikely to change the behaviour of the earth...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6768848329482311943.post-49215739182303593892007-08-30T21:27:00.000-07:002007-08-30T21:27:00.000-07:00The current supply of Librarians outstrips the dem...<I>The current supply of Librarians outstrips the demand</I><BR/><BR/>Well, I certainly couldn't speak to the statistics here, but anecdotally speaking we seem to have lost a lot of promising young librarians to other systems.<BR/><BR/>Take as you will.spartikushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15639539383294575736noreply@blogger.com