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by EJTH
3382 days ago
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How does that solve income inequality? Why is it a problem and why should it be solved? Maybe it is because I am not a native english speaker, but I wouldn't want to live in an economic regime where everyone was paid the same regardless of what effort they put into their work. |
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Income inequality is the problem that people who put the same effort in don't get the same pay. It's widely believed that women are paid approximately 10% less for doing exactly the same work as a man. There are plenty of caveats and arguments around the issue, but that's it in a nutshell. The real issue centres around salary negotiation. Women seem to negotiate less than men. They often take the first offer given, which pushes women's average wage down. It might be tempting to say it's their fault if they don't negotiate, but that would ignore the fact that someone who is paid less than their peers will leave their earlier, or quit the industry they work in entirely, which leads to a reduction in productivity across society and then everyone loses. Fixing the income inequality problem (whether it's real or perceived) would benefit all of us.
No one is suggesting that people shouldn't be rewarded more if they work harder than their peers. They absolutely should, but that reward should only be based on work done.
How we get to that point though is a really hard problem to solve. I suspect the way to do it is through a combination of blind interviews (company doesn't see the personal details of the person during hiring) and teaching everyone to negotiate their salary better. I don't think it's an engineering problem beyond the fact we can build the tools necessary to do stuff.
EDIT: You're entirely right that the suggestion in the Ask HN post has nothing to do with income inequality.