EQUALITY IN EMPLOYMENT

The concept of equality in employment is an elusive one, since it is difficult to visualise the state that would be described with such a concept. Most often, its meaning is taken as self‐ evident and therefore left undefined. (See, for instance, the papers submitted to the Subcommittee on Economic Growth and Stabilisation of the Joint Committees of the Congress of the United States, 1977). Difficulties in attempting to define equality in employment arise from at least four distinct sources: One set of problems stems from the fact that it is hard to envision equality in employment in the overall context of a society that is based on inequality. Utopian thinkers have therefore, traditionally handled the problem of inequality in employment for any given group by equalising all work in its evaluation, and to some degree, in its allocation. (For a modern version that is extremely well thought through see LeGuin, 1974). I will assume that for the purposes of this paper a complete restructuring of society along the lines of overall equality is outside the realm of the possible given the current context and I will therefore not pursue this thought here further.