EQUAL PAY TO MEN AND WOMEN 

 FOR EQUAL WORK. 



ADDRESS TO SECTION F (ECONOMIC SCIENCE AND STATISTICS) BY 



Professor F. Y. EDGEWOETH, M.A., F.B.A., 



PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION. 



Contents. 



Sec. 1. Introduction. Sec. 2. Two questions presented. Sees. 3-21. The 

 economic question discussed. Sees. 3-5, A. Is universal unrestricted competition 

 desirable ? Sec. 3. Laisscz faire tends generally to maximum advantage. 

 Sec. 4. But a maxiinuin is not always the greatest 'possible. So the rule must 

 sometimes be transgressed ; Sec. 5, but with great caution. Sees. 6-21, B. Some 

 kinds of competition being excluded, the question becomes one of degree. 

 Sees. 7-15. A first approximation makes abstraction of family relations. Sec. 7. 

 An apparently free labour market may be unfairly influenced by men's unions. 

 Sec. 8. A theorem explaining the acquiescence of the employer. Sec. 9. There 

 has resulted an unfair crowding of women into comparatively few occupations. 

 Sec. 10. There should be one rule for both sexes as to the practice of collective 

 bargaining subject to competition. Sec. 11. The practice should not be affected 

 by prejudices concerning the relative efficiency of the sexes. Sec. 12. Ideal 

 distribution of occupations and payj of work measurable without respect to the 

 sex of the worker. Sec. 13. Arts and customs not being revolutionised ; Sec. 14. 

 the said measurement is not always available; and so difficulties arise; Sec. 15, 

 notably in the case of some personal services, e.g. those of male and female 

 teachers. Sees. 16-21, II. Second approximation. Sec. 16. The great fact that 

 men commonly support wives and children creates a difficulty; Sec. 17, which 

 some would evade by reference to dependants of women workers; Sec. 18, others, 

 wiser, admit and meet by the Endowment of ^Motherhood. Sec. 19. Advantages 

 of this scheme. Sec. 20. Disadvantages. Sec. 21. Suggestion of alternatives. 

 Sec. 22. Summary. 



Should men and women receive equal pay for equal work? This 

 question is in a peculiar degree perplexed by difficulties that are 

 characteristic of economic science. They arise from tlie presence of a 

 subjective or psychical element that is not encountered in the purely 

 physical sciences. Outward and visible wealth cannot be quite dis- 

 sociated from the inward feeling of welfare. But the ideas O'f welfare 

 — well-being, or satisfaction — are deficient in the simplicity and dis- 

 tinctness which conduce to accurate reasoning. It may be, indeed, that 

 there is something indefinite and metaphysical about certain concep- 

 tions which the higher physics now involve. But the practical uses 

 of those sciences are not thereby impaired. Speculations about four- 

 dimensional time-space do not much interfere with the work of the 

 engineer. But the connection of our studies with things higher than 

 material wealth affects injuriously the reasoning even about material 

 wealth. Sentiment exercises a disturbing influence — a disturbance 

 peculiarly to be apprehended in dealing with a question which touches 

 not only the pocket but the home. Nor even when this danger is avoided 



