Nurses Hit Reagan Opposition to Lawsuit : Administration Accused of ‘Ridicule’ in Comparable Worth Case

The American Nurses’ Assn. and its Illinois affiliate charged Tuesday that the Reagan Administration’s opposition to their “comparable worth” lawsuit is part of a larger effort to undermine the nation’s sex discrimination laws.

The Administration interceded in the case last Friday, filing a court brief siding with the state of Illinois in its legal battle against nurses who are seeking higher pay on grounds that they do not earn as much as men in comparable, but not identical, jobs.

Although Administration officials long have opposed the idea of comparable worth, last week was the first time that they had taken such strong action against the concept. On Tuesday, Eunice Cole, president of the national nurses’ group, said the move was “no surprise to the nation’s nurses.”

‘Many Months’

“The action culminates many months of ridicule of the principle of pay equity for working women by this Administration,” she said at a news conference.

Comparable worth is championed by many seeking to close the historical gap between lower-paying jobs traditionally held by women and more lucrative jobs held by men. Advocates insist that many women performing jobs comparable to those held by men are being paid less, and they want wages to be based on factors such as job skills and working conditions.

The nurses’ class-action suit, filed in May, 1984, cites a state study that concluded that Illinois paid substantially less for jobs occupied predominantly by women than for comparable jobs held mostly by men. The study found, for example, that a nurse was paid $2,104 a month, but an electrician hired by the state, whose job rating was not as high as a nurse’s, made $2,826 a month.

Before Appeals Court

A District Court judge dismissed the case in April, but the nurses appealed, and the case is pending before the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago. The Justice Department has urged the appellate court to uphold the lower court ruling.

Assistant Atty. Gen. William Bradford Reynolds said that the Administration advocates the concept of “equal pay for equal work” but charged that the comparable worth theory “makes a mockery of the ideal of pay equity.” President Reagan previously has called comparable worth “a cockamamie idea . . . that would destroy the basis of free enterprise.”

Diana Rock, a spokeswoman for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said Tuesday that the union plans to intervene in the case on the nurses’ side. The 1.3-million-member union won a federal court decision in a comparable worth case last year when the state of Washington was ordered to pay $1 billion in back wages to women.