For What It's Worth: Organizations, Occupations, and the Value of Work Done by Women and Nonwhites

Economic penalties against jobs employing disproportionate numbers of women or nonwhites vary across organizational context and occupational type. Analyses of prescribed pay rates for jobs in the California state civil service in 1985 suggest that work done disproportionately by women and nonwhites is devalued most in positions that are older, not represented by activist unions, have ambiguous performance criteria, or are most generic across organizational settings. We conclude that the extent of ascription depends on propensities toward devaluation in a given setting, prospects for collective action by disadvantaged groups, and the organizational costs and benefits (economic and otherwise) of recalibrating job worth to achieve pay equity.