Article here. Published in April 2008 but relevant to the kind of rationale being used. Harkin is appealing to the Labor Theory of Value which in essence says work's value is commensurate with how much effort is put into it rather than whether or not the product thereof is in demand. Based on that thinking if one were to dig a sand-pit in the middle of a desert, one should be paid the same as if he were to excavate by request a similarly-sized hole in downtown Manhattan where a building is to be put. Excerpt:
'Defenders of this status quo offer all manner of bogus explanations as to why women make less. How many times have I heard the fairy tale that women work for fulfillment while men work to support their families? This ignores the great majority of single women who work to support themselves, and married women whose paycheck is all that allows their family to make ends meet. It ignores the harsh reality that so many women face in the workplace, where they have to work twice as hard to be taken seriously, or, say, get pushed into being a cashier when they had applied for a better-paying sales job. These pervasive acts of discrimination deny women fair pay; and they also deny women basic dignity.
Let me cite just one example of the discrimination I am talking about. Last year, in a hearing of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, we heard remarkable testimony from Dr. Philip Cohen of the University of North Carolina. Dr. Cohen compared nurses’ aides, who are overwhelmingly women, and truck drivers, who are overwhelmingly men. In both groups, the average age is 43. Both require “medium” amounts of strength. Nurses’ aides, on average have more education and training. But nurses’ aides make less than 60 percent of what truck drivers make.'
