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WASHINGTON--An influent at conservative organization is urging the Reagan administration to launch "a top priority" battle against the comparable worth theory of achieving pay equity for women.
The Heritage Foundation, a private think-tank which has been a font of ideas for the administration, argues that the controversial idea "would land to a flood of litigation, massive wage redistribution, a distortion of free market principles and, ultimately, widespread job dislocation,"
Outlining an agenda for the justice department during President Reagan's second term, the foundation says, "The fight against comparable worth must become a top priority for the next administration."
Advocates of the theory argue that sex discrimination has held down salaries in jobs mostly occupied by women, like secretarial positions, while male-dominated jobs requiring comparable "knowledge, skill and judgment" receive higher pay.
This year, they persuaded a federal judge to order Washington state to give female employees $800 million in back pay based upon a private consulting firm's assessment that their jobs were comparable to higher paying men's jobs.
Heritage's rebuttal on what it called "the most significant employment discrimination issue of 1984" was included among a score of recommendations in the Justice Department chapter of "Mandate for Leadership 11: Continuing the Conservative Revolution"
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