Public Sector Reforms in a Changing Economic and Political Climate: Lessons from Michigan

Abstract

The trajectory of pay equity reform for workers employed by the State of Michigan illuminates the project of public sector pay equity in the United States as a whole.1 Pay equity policy in the US has been concentrated in the public sector, especially in state civil services. In the absence of federal law prohibiting unequal pay for work of equal value, the private sector has been unwilling to raise wages through pay equity adjustments. More densely unionized than workers in the private sector, women in the public sector have been able to make alliances with feminists in the state bureaucracies and legislatures to win wage reforms (Evans and Nelson, 1989). In addition, state managers, traditionally reliant on elaborate personnel systems employing job evaluation, have been relatively receptive to comparable worth arguments and techniques (Johnston, 1994).KeywordsPublic SectorUnited Auto WorkerService Employee International UnionCost Reduction StrategyCivil Service CommissionThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.