Wage Surveys: Dispelling Some Myths About the ''Market Wage''

To date, most of the research inspired by the comparable worth debate has focused on job evaluation, which measures the ''inherent'' worth of jobs to employers, or the ''unique'' value of jobs to a given employer. Recent court decisions, however, suggest that market wages are a more compelling indicator of job worth. Wage surveys are the most common method of determining market wages, but these surveys require the surveyor to make multiple judgments, such as who to survey. It is concluded that any estimate of market wages is critically dependent on the measurement procedures used. For market wages to be a proper indicator of job worth, wage surveying procedures must be evaluated and a measurement process based on a series of subjective judgments must be established. There has been a surprising lack of judicial and academic investigation into the validity of the procedures used and the results obtained in these measurement processes.