Mincer and Polachek in 1974 (Frankel Paul,

¶ … Mincer and Polachek in 1974 (Frankel Paul, 1989) argued that because women do not expect to work as much as men throughout their lives, they invest less in acquiring market skills and are, therefore, more costly employees than men are specifically, although not particularly, in managerial positions. This is because, women anticipate having children and leaving the labor force to raise them and therefore take jobs that have relatively high initial wage rates but offer little on-the-job training or potential wage growth. O'Neill (Frankel Paul, 1989) also pointed out that women work as much as 10% fewer hours than men, and that they have a lower investment in their job due to having a higher investment in family. More so, women currently employed have worked 60% of their working lives, while men have worked almost continuously.

On the other hand, however, many women choose to remain single, not tied down by responsibilities of childcare and raising families; and, to the reverse, more men have taken on housework.

Education and skills are also defining factors with the cost of employing individuals being based on what they can contribute. A specific employee may be a potentially valuable resource and, therefore, it may be advantageous of the employer to raise the price in this specific case. Each and every case is different, and no carte blanche statements can be made regarding one gender being more expensive than another. There are single women just as there are married mothers, and there are married mothers who may be invaluable assets to the firm despite their fewer working hours. On the other hand, there may be men in managerial positions who serve as mere appetencies and are unsuitable to their post. I therefore think that each and every case is different and, accordingly, each case should be judged on its own merit.

9.2

The ideal conditions in using psychological tests as preemployment screens are that they are used solely in order to test out the capabilities of the prospective employee. Obligations are that focus should be placed on capability characteristics alone to the exclusion of individual characteristics such as age, sex, ethnicity, disability, and so forth.

Qualified women applicants are expected to be given the same respect, rights, and general job duties as men. Potential cases of discrimination include not hiring a woman on the grounds that she has young children; or not hiring based on age, disability, religion, and ethnicity and any other characteristic that may be subject to interviewer's bias (such as birthplace, ancestry or linguistic characteristics). An age limit for the job may only be specified in rare circumstances where age has proved to be an occupational qualification (Federal Laws Prohibiting Job Discrimination.)

Employemtn tests must also be reliable and validated for the jobs they are being used to hire and for the purposes for which they are being used.