The comparable worth issue has become heated in the 1980s and is especially important to minorities and women. The debate, explored in this eighth chapter of a book on school law, concerns the causes of and cures for the earning gap between employed men and women. One major cause of the gap is occupational segregation. Comparable worth advocates offer three approaches to cure wage inequities--broadening the Equal Pay Act's equal-pay-for-equal-work concept, requiring that wages be proportionate to the worth of a job, and using statistical techniques to isolate that portion of a wage differential attributable to sex discrimination. Basic comparable worth theory has not yet found judicial approval. However, the recent Supreme Court decision in "Gunther v. County of Washington" allows plaintiffs to press comparable worth under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and raises the possibility that employers cannot simply rely on the labor market in setting wages. School boards need to prepare for possible legal battles with those in positions held predominately by females by reviewing wage structures and justifying wage differentials. (Author/WD)