Do Men Earn More Because They Are More Productive?

A study of court reporters finds that men court reporters completed 29% more work than the women in the same time period. Another, of ob-gyns, found that the men ob-gyns put more hours into direct patient care and did more deliveries, but they also worked four more hours per week – so they produced more in a week, but not necessarily per hour worked.

Here’s the productivity-pay dilemma: if a man assigned to carry a stretcher needs only one additional man, but a woman needs three additional people, should the man receive extra productivity pay if he partners with a man to carry the stretcher, freeing two other military people for other functions?

If a man is less likely to drop out of the armed services, more willing to be deployed, and more willing to do what it takes even at a much greater risk of being killed, is that productivity in military terms? And if so, should the men be awarded extra pay?

In conclusion, defining productivity is different for business, the government, and the individual. For business, it’s profit. For the government, it may be protecting the country as efficient as possible. Or it may be trying social solutions that may not benefit monetarily but could benefit socially – in this case, troubleshooting the problems created by the integration of women into the manual labor part of the workforce.

Divided responsibilities are the wave of the future – not just for women, but for many men, too. Not for all workers, but for some. Why? Technology. Cellular phones allow a mom to pick up an important call from a home-office-on-the-soccer-field while watching her daughter kick a goal past the Running Devils.

Laptop computers allow Dad to retrieve a file while his son is retrieving a fly. Instead of “home, home, on the range,” it’s office, office, in the home… where our sons and daughters roam.” Ironically, the same technologies that facilitated independence and the option of divorce and therefore the destruction of families is now also creating opportunities to reunite families.

A projection is that by 2020, approximately 70% of dads will have responsibilities that are significantly divided between work and home. Making use of the gift of working women, then, involves treating women as pioneers in helping companies adapt to the divided responsibilities that will be a twenty-first century reality. It also involves helping employees understand why someone with divided responsibilities cannot be paid as much as someone whose responsibilities are more fully focused on work. 
 


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