family responsibility discrimination :: ABC News

Quote:

"The fact is in many situations, workers with family responsibilities are not treated the same as workers without family responsibilities," Williams explained.

Same Work, Less Pay

A recent experiment at Cornell University seemed to suggest the same. It found that when subjects were asked to pick from among the resumes of potential job applicants, mothers were 44 percent less likely to get hired than nonmothers with the same resume. What's more, when they were hired, the mothers were paid $11,000 less.

"The great majority of employed women do have children, so this is impacting a huge number of women in the workplace," study author Shelley Correll told ABC News.

There are two possibilities:

1. Those with family responsibilities do the same work for less pay. In this case a company is not maximizing its profits. It should replace the more expensive workers with the equally productive but less costly workers with family responsibilities.
2. Those with family responsibilities are not as productive. They are paid accordingly.