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No private companies should be compelled by law to provide blanket, no-exceptions equal pay for women and men. Organizations that do business with the government may have to conform to controls that mandate specific equality practices, but even they should have considerable discretion in pay scales.

Pay for any employee anywhere should be based only on education, skills, merit, performance and value to the employer, regardless of sex, race or any other socially-constructed criteria. For instance, if a man and woman are working side-by-side putting together a product, the one who does the most efficient and productive job should be paid more. The Russian and Chinese Communist governments tried the everyone-is-equal-at-the-workp lace baloney, and it just didn't work.

If blind equality invades all aspects of American business, then should the utility baseball player who achieves a .200 average and hits no home runs be paid the same as Barry Bonds? Of course not. Not only does Bonds perform his duties much more constructively, but his fame attracts many more paying fans into the ballpark than the other guy.

In addition to sports, the same premise applies to other aspects of America's free enterprise economy. A popular actor in a hit movie or TV show may not spend any more time acting than the studio stagehand spends moving scenery around. Which one gets much more money because his training, skills and work bring in more money for the studio?

I joined the Navy at age 18, graduated from boot camp and was assigned to a ship. After a few weeks aboard, I was sure I was much smarter and more productive than all of the sailors and officers who ordered me around. I was wrong, of course, but that's what I thought. I could have spent the rest of my Navy time sitting around griping about the unfairness of it all.

Then, with a little research, I found there were many ways of improving my lowly place in the Navy pecking order. I took advantage of all I could, including college-level correspondence courses and striking (apprenticing) for higher rates. I also volunteered for extra duties... forget that old salts' warning: don't ever volunteer ... and did the best I could at every task. Some of the lowly jobs were awful, including chipping deck paint, working in the galley (kitchen) and cleaning heads (toilets). But you never saw any cleaner soup and/or toilet bowls.

Whatever those dumb-dumbs in charge of me ordered, I did it and did it well. Of course, after a couple of months at sea, I began to realize that most of those dumb-dumbs were actually much smarter than I had originally thought. And I even admitted one or two were smarter than I was.

I took all the tests I could, and by the time I had served 18 months, I advanced from the lowest seaman rate to petty officer second class. I took a Navy-wide competitive exam and was promoted to chief petty officer at the very junior age of 23.

That career progress wasn't easy, and it took a lot of work and determination. There were obstructions and some traditional prejudices ... not based on male/female equality ... along the way, but I worked through them. I believe every American citizen must be treated fairly in all possible legal ways, but employers and the free marketplace ... not some outside agency ... should determine which ones, male or female, deserve to be paid more.

Learn more about this author, Ted Sherman.
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