Eternal wage gaps: mandatory equality failure.

• Author: Bailey, Ronald
• Position: Citings - Brief article

Equal pay for equal work seems only fair. So when governments encounter a difference in the average wages of men and women, they often assume invidious discrimination. In 1988, Ontario passed the most comprehensive pay equity legislation in the world, requiring employers to proactively devise and implement programs to eliminate the gender wage gap.

In the Fall 2014 issue of Contemporary Economic Policy, two Lehigh University economists seek to answer the counterfactual question: What would have happened to the wage gap in Ontario if the act hadn't been passed?

To answer it, they employ an algorithm that uses data from other Canadian provinces, including Gross Domestic Product per capita and employment...