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Rebuttal: Gender Discrimination

Case Study (Goodyear)

Marcus Goldsby

PHI 445: Personal & Organizational Ethics

Instructor: Robert Bass

20 April 2020
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Rebuttal: Gender Discrimination

     Contrary to the opinion that there is no place for gender-based pay discrimination in

workplaces because it is unfair and raises legal issues, there are some reasons and situations

where unequal treatment may be necessary or overstated. In some situations, the gender

difference in a vocation contributes to varying levels of input, and therefore per unit output. In

the cases where the males produce less than the females, for instance, a lower pay would be

justified for the former. Even if they are functioning in the same or similar capacities, when there

is a difference in their contributions, it would not be unfair or illegal to offer differing payments.

Also, staff members are only entitled to the incomes that they accepted in their contracts,

independently of what their colleagues earn in identical positions. Independent payment is both a

prerogative and privilege of the employer, which is based on personal and professional analysis

of value. Thus, it is arguable that there is a place for remuneration-based gender discrimination

in vocations.

     The first justification for discriminatory pay in some vocations is the difference in the overall

comparative output of the two genders. In trying to understand why lady athletes get paid less

than their gentlemen counterparts in the majority of sports positions, Abrams did acknowledge

that in tennis, top females earn competitively close incomes to males (2018). In individual sports

such as tennis and martial arts, outstanding individuals are better placed to attract unique

audiences and corporate attention. Because of their uniqueness, the athletes in these sports earn

more than their competitors. Differentiated talent, therefore, is a more significant indicator of the

need for difference in payment than gender is. In the UFC, Rhonda Rousey earned millions of

dollars in a competitive sport where even the most gifted males generated mere thousands for

their brutal efforts. Also, when she was knocked out by a rival female, she did not lose her elite-
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earning status but instead made the two ladies who beat her enter or move closer to her league of

income. 

     Even after out-earning the males in mixed martial arts, Rhonda moved to the WWE, where

she now earns tens of times more than other male and female professional wrestles. This shows

that discrimination of payment is justified when a star attracts millions more in revenue and

audiences, regardless of their gender and the average earnings of their counterparts. 

    Another justification for discriminatory payments is the value of the employee or player,

regardless of their gender. In the sports mentioned above, franchise, UFC, Connor McGregor, is

the highest-earning athlete. Every time journalists ask why he received preferential treatment and

remuneration, the Chief Executive Officer, Dana White, always defends his stand that the

Irishman is an exceptional athlete. Far from the difference in gender, Connor even earns ten

times as much as the opponents that he faces. Further up the wealth chain, Floyd Mayweather

generated thrice as much as McGregor when they competed in a cross-sports clash in 2017. In

unconventional professions where there are promoters with contractual power, the right to

uneven pay is reserved and justified (Wilkie, 2017). 

     In conclusion, political correctness should not inspire the direction that leaders of

corporations take when paying their employees. There is a need to rethink political correctness

when choosing a stand against differences in incomes and other presumed forms of

discrimination from a philosophical perspective (Doria, 2017). Just because the global consensus

is that males and females should receive equal earnings, it does not make it unrealistic to expect

outliers. However, workers in similar positions should generally earn matching salaries, some

unique circumstances. Personal abilities and the liberty of firms must be taken into account as

well. However, all factors held constant, and income discrimination is an ethical flaw that can
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have some legal implications. To discourage labor-related cases and damages reputations, most

well-known organizations use simple salary structures with minimal disparities. 

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References

Abrams, O. (2019, June 23). Why female athletes earn less than men across most sports.

Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/oliviaabrams/2019/06/23/why-female-athletes-

earn-less-than-men-across-most-sports/#551484c240fb

Doria, M. (2017). The unreasonable destructiveness of political correctness in philosophy.

Philosophies, 2 (3), 17. https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies2030017

Wilkie, D. (2017, February 27). When two workers doing the same job earn different pay.

The Society for Human Resource Management.

https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/employee-relations/pages/pay-

disparity-for-same-job.aspx