Young women should be paid less in the workplace??

Question

I know that a lot of small businesses do not employ women if they can help it.. I can completely understand this... if the woman gets pregnant, you have to give her maternity leave thus having to pay her wages, and give her the job when she gets back.. and employ someone else to fill in for her too...
This is too costly and means that each time you have to train someone else ( training is very expensive) to cover for the woman until she comes back..
Women are better at certain jobs than men, but is it worth the effort and cost for small businesses. ( especially a firm that has 4-5 employees).
Thererfore should women be paid less because over the long term they are not as profitable as men, due to the length of time taken for maternity leave, etc ..
this is just a generalisation, but is true in most circumstances

A man can take up to 7 days maternity leave, whilst a woman can take up to 18 months maternity leave ( usual is 9 months).. Now which is more costly to the employer?

If you have a small business would you employ a newly married woman, knowing that she would be costing you money, if she had 3 children in her time working there over 10 years.. thats basically 3 years on maternity leave.. 30% of the working time down the drain, the woman being paid for it, and paying someone else to fill in for her!! its ok if you are tesco because you can absorb the costs , but not a small family owned business etc

im talking about UK and irish law, not about USA law.. Think in USA, maternity leave is less and is more in favour of the business

Let me explain where im coming from.. i with my brother own my own small business with 6 employees.. 2 have gone off on maternity leave.. these 2 women are good workers, but it is bleeding my business dry.... ( especially with the huge costs for training up the temp staff that will have to leave in 9 months anyways. basically once the temps manage to get a grip on their jobs they have to leave to fill in for the 2 women on maternity leave..

Answer 1

Yes for a small business maternity leave can be a nuisance and it does cause a small extra expense.

However, small employers don't pay the woman's maternity allowance themselves - you reclaim this from the government PLUS an extra allowance to cover the admin costs, so you shouldn't be losing out financially. If someone running a business doesn't bother to find this out and pays the woman out of their own money, then they are not really that well equipped intellectually to run a business are they? It's their own fault.

My other half runs a small business with just 6 employees. One woman just came back from maternity leave. He was very worried about it all when she first told him but then he found out the the government covers the cost for small businesses. He was happy for her and pleased to see her return as she is so hard-working and very loyal - in some ways his best employee. She is never late. She is never sick. She is always in a good mood and friendly to his customers. She always tries her hardest in her work. So, why should she be paid less than anyone else in the office. He has one man who is often late, is lazy about his work and keeps having to be told what to do all the time...he is nowhere near as useful to the company. He is the one who should be paid less!
You can't tell who will be an asset to a company until you employ them, then it depends on their attitude and abilities, not whether they may or may not want maternity leave at some time.

As others have said, not all women go on maternity leave. What are you going to do about those women? Are you going to refund all their lost wages as a lump-sum once they reach the age of 50?

Answer 2

Wow, you got a lot of negative answers. These women are pretty upset, and that causes them to have difficulty logically explaining their views (some felt a valid argument was to simply insult you).
First of all, I don't agree with you. But I won't insult you like the women on this forum.
While yes, an employer's cost for a woman may go up for specific health care areas like maternity leave, a man's health care is overall more expensive than a woman's. How many of you have husband's or father's who refuse to go to a doctor, swearing that they "... can shake it off"? This often creates a higher health risk into middle age.
From a business and financial stand-point, I think you have a valid view. You're not trying to pay women less because you think they do a poor job. You're just analyzing the cost-benefit.

Unfortunately, there are MANY other costs that balance this out.

Women that do a job well should be paid the same as a man that does the job well. We should never try to eliminate protections (such as those covered under the Family Medical Leave Act) in the name of equality.
It is important that we have protection, rights AND equality.

I think this is a valid discussion for you to propose and I frown on those that insult you without discussing it further. Different points of view are okay, and I challenge the women who answered before me to edit their answers with a valid argument instead of an insult.

Answer 3

Not all women will eventually have children. Some might not be able to physically have children, some might be homosexual, etc. To assume that a woman will be more of a liability than an asset to a company, and dock her pay based on that assumption, is simply discrimination. Men can be liabilities, too. One can easily say that men should be paid less because they are more prone to violence; this increases their chances of getting injured outside of the workplace. How much would it cost the company if a male employee got into a fight outside of work? It would have to train a person to cover him while he is in the hospital. Men also have a shorter life expectancy than women, so they aren't able to work for as many years as a woman can. Should their pay be docked for that? No, because we can't assume that every man will be prone to violence, or that he won't live as long. Along that same line, we can't assume that women won't be equally valuable members of a company.

P.S. I just read your last post under "Additional Comments" - if the maternity leave is unpaid, wouldn't the cost balance out? The temporary worker would be getting paid what the regular worker would be getting paid, if she were still with the company for those 9 months. If it is paid maternity leave, perhaps you could recruit temporary workers that are willing to work for less.

Answer 4

Are you kidding? No young women should not be paid less. Often our extra efforts are overlooked. Especially in a male dominating office. Men come to expect duties done by women that are well outside of our job duties because we are the "office girl." And to address your issue of maternity. You are required to give leave but you are not required to pay for any time off. Personally I worked until 3 days prior to my son's birth and was back in the office in 3 weeks. (not paid for any time off) And on this subject more and more women are raising kids solo on little salaries. So why not provide us with the same pay rate as the bachelor sitting next to us? We are usually footing more bills anyway. And I feel my opinion is worthy because I am the only woman in an office of all men and my efforts (blood, sweat and even tears) are often downplayed by my manager. Oh yeah and I must overlook all the men looking @ porn all day!!!

Answer 5

Well, i encourage the next women who has an interview with you to sue you when she doesn't get the job and use this question as proof.

I can understand what you are saying, but such an attitude is wrong. They should get an equal wage for their time as men.

What i dont agree with is in my office, i work 5 days a week, and my manager (female) and my co-worker (male) both have kids. They regualry take odd hours off at the end of the day, to see their childrens X or Y. They recieve a higher and an equal wage than me (Manager gets more and co worker gets equal). Yet they put in less hours nad the work that they do do, is passed off to someone else to finish.

Answer 6

Why should the woman be paid less. You are taking a very pessimistic view, if your female worker is good at her job then you should be willing to give her time off to have her baby. Dont forget when she does return she will be more enthusiastic to earn her living as she has commitments, unlike a young single girl who's wages may be for just clothes and holidays. A mother will probably be more loyal and dedicated to her job more than a young single girl.Never mind the quantity its the quality that counts.
Not that I am saying young girls are incapable of being responsible and committed, dont think the worst of married woman.

Answer 7

Woman should be treated equally 'cause that war is already over they already went through this so woman are and should always go and get paid equally. Or who knows what will happen.

Answer 8

no and your rationalization is just stupid and demeaning. and furthermore i dont see that it's true AT ALL let alone "most of the time". And in todays corp world men can take paternity leave - etc. that's like saying we should pay 20-somethings less because they party more and therefore might show up less to work. For that matter - men should be paid less because they have less brains than women do.

Answer 9

you must be a woman

Answer 10

i wouldnt work for you.