"Equal pay for less work"?
Roy Baumeister gave to a talk to the American Psychological Association entitled Is There Anything Good About Men?. Basically it's the observation that while men dominate the upper ranks of society they also dominate the lower echelon as well. Anyways, in there he arrives at the following statement, one which I'm not quite sure how he arrived at or on what basis he'd argue for this:
That means that if we want to achieve our ideal of equal salaries for men and women, we may need to legislate the principle of equal pay for less work. Personally, I support that principle. But I recognize it’s a hard sell.
His previous statements noted that men on average work longer, in more dangerous jobs, with greater flexibility, and more volatility in an unstable economy.
I'm wondering primarily two things (in addition to serious questions about the equitability of such a scheme). Is this a way to force women who're stay-at-home mothers into the workforce, as "equal pay for less work" would seem to require that a father supporting a stay-at-home mother and children would seem to have to have their wages reduced to support such a scheme? Second, is this intended to weaken marriage by reducing financial interdependency - i.e. would such a scheme increase the divorce rate?
Perhaps he answers this question in his book...