job evaluation

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job evaluation This is a system of job classification which determines grading structures and pay scales according to characteristics of the job (skill, discretion, responsibility) rather than the employee. Job evaluation is favoured by the equal opportunities lobby because of its potential for reducing employee-based biases. In practice, however, many job-evaluation schemes simply reinforce prejudices and existing inequalities by the particular interpretation that is placed upon what counts as skill. Thus, for example, in segmented labour-markets (see LABOUR MARKET SEGMENTATION), jobs in which men are in a majority tend to be evaluated more highly than those in which women predominate (see A. Pollert , Girls, Wives, Factory Lives, (1981
).

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