Jobs can also be compared based on their overall skill, effort, responsibility, and working conditions. In fact, many employers do just that - job evaluations have been a common management tool for more than 100 years. In Los Angeles, for example, social workers were found to be comparable to probation officers in skill, effort, responsibility, and working conditions. Even so, social workers were paid less. In a Portland pay equity study, the job of typist was found to be equivalent to water meter readers.
Comparable worth is highly subjective.
When certain states began to consider implementing pay equity for their public workforces, the same occupations scored differently in separate state job evaluations. Implementing pay equity is costly for employers and will lead to job loss - especially among women. For example, following the introduction of a comparable worth system in Minnesota, unemployment in that state rose at a faster rate for women than for men. In Minnesota, the state legislature passed the State Government Pay Equity Act in 1982, which began the implementation of pay equity for state workers. The simple fact is that the total number of state employees increased from 32,383 in January 1982 to 35,643 in January of 1986.