The Neglect of Subjectivism Is Central to the Feminist and Interventionist Fallacy of Comparable Worth

Neglect of subjectivism is central to the fallacy of “comparable worth.” According to that doctrine, fashionable among feminists and interventionists, the worth of work performed in different jobs can be objectively ascertained and compared. People performing different jobs that are nevertheless judged alike, on balance, in their arduousness or pleasantness, their requirements in ability and training, the degrees of responsibility involved, and other supposedly ascertainable characteristics should receive the same pay; and government, presumably, should enforce equal pay. Formulas should replace wage-setting by voluntary agreements reached under the influences of supply and demand. . . .

The comparable-worth doctrine neglects the ineffable individual circumstances and subjective feelings that enter into workers’ decisions to seek or avoid particular jobs, employers’ efforts to fill them, and consumers’ demands for the goods and services produced in them. Yet wages and prices set through market processes do take account of individual circumstances and personal feelings.

--Leland B. Yeager, "Why Subjectivism?" in Is the Market a Test of Truth and Beauty? Essays in Political Economy (Auburn, AL: Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2011), 25.