When two individuals in a company do similar work at the same level of qualification yet are not paid equally, this is wage inequality. Such situations are illegal. They are considered discriminatory. Yet wage inequality tends to creep in. As an example, imagine a work situation where the manager puts the 'slick talking boy' into scale 2 right from the start and the 'timid girl' at the bottom scale 0, although she is equally qualified. This first wage scaling can haunt one for years. It is hard to say to what extent wage inequality exists. Several investigations speak of residual gender pay gaps that cannot be explained away. Possibly these unexplained gaps indicate wage discrimination. To complicate matters: such wage differences that can
