by J. Brown

Created on: September 07, 2009   Last Updated: September 10, 2009

US companies should treat their workers in matters of business as if they were all genderless.

By this, I mean to say that the gender of a worker is irrelevant in how they get paid. If all workers in a company were seen as pawns or bishops or what have you and not as men or women, the rewarding purely of good work and good work alone would be much simpler. Just the very ideals of businesses-worker relations should be changed. If who the worker is as an individual (including their gender) is irrelevant to the company, perhaps the person as an individual should be ignored in matters of business and payment.

After all, US companies aren't going to start paying different people different amounts of money for the same job if they practice a different religion or philosophy. They aren't going to have differences in bonuses or cuts based on whether their workers love art or music or cooking.

Businesses feel that it is irrelevant whether you are the middle child or the youngest. Gender should be no different. While it is important to recognize people as individuals in many cases, the case of business has no need for individualism and it should not be considered in terms of payment, raises, job cuts, etc.

There is one case where unfair payment based on gender is permissible. If a company or business functions based on gender and it has an effect on the performance of the business, it becomes the duty of the business to have differences in payment based on an individual worker's gender in the spirit of capitolism and the hope of success.

But if gender has no real relevancy to the business itself and its performance, the issue should be taken completely off the table in considerations of payment and other business matters. This applies to all matters of business. Payment is only one of many issues influenced by gender in the workplace.

Some other issues include fair hours in the workday and spent in over time as well as fair general treatment inside the office. Perks and bonuses are another issue not often covered in the general topic of "payment". While an anual salary may be fair, other rights and extra payments may also need to be evaluated and made fair for all workers regardless of how they were born. And while gender is a common subject in reference to fair payment, there are other issues that can and should be discussed like sexual preference, race, background, and other individual characteristics that are completely irrelevant in the case of treatment whether by a business or people on the street.

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