Predicting the Effects of Comparable Worth Programs on Female Labor Supply

Abstract

Economists have devoted considerable effort to analyzing wage effects on labor supply behavior. This research has broad policy implications since many government tax and transfer programs alter the wage rates that workers receive, or alter their perception of the value of the wages received. Comparable worth programs are explicitly intended to alter the wage rates of working women. Accepted theories in labor economics of how the female labor supply is affected by the wage offers that women receive are surveyed in this paper, and the implications concerning expected effects of comparable worth wage adjustments on female labor supply are summarized. Then available empirical evidence bearing on the theory of female labor supply is examined, and the stated implications for comparable worth programs are qualified.