Thoughts? it occurs that there are many areas where pay is "constant" or fixed. This is fairly accurate even for academic institutions. Now, here is the clincher - if there is no ability to negotiate for a higher pay, what incentive does a person (male or female) have to do their best and/or maximize their productivity? If everyone is paid the same, there are clearly some people who are outstanding and some that are simply sailing along (we have all seen these people). One could say that if a person is more productive, they can get promoted and if they fail to meet minimum standards of the job they can get fired. But, if the potential of promotion or risk of getting fired are the only incentives (and note that these two occur at the extreme ends of the distribution), what about those that fall in the middle? These people basically are being told that there is no significant incentive to do better.