Comparable worth, as a standard applied to eliminate
inequities in pay, insists that the values of certain
tasks performed in dissimilar jobs can be compared.
In the last decade, this approach has become a critical
social policy issue, as large numbers of private-sector
firms and industries as well as federal, state, and local
governmental entities have adopted comparable worth
policies or begun to consider doing so.
This widespread institutional awareness of comparable
worth indicates increased public awareness that pay
inequities-that is, situations in which pay is not "fair"
because it does not reflect the true value of a job-
exist in the labor market. However, the question still
remains: have the gains already made in pay equity
under comparable worth principles been of a
precedent-setting nature or are they mostly transitory,
a function of concessions made by employers to
mislead female employees into believing that they
have made long-term pay equity gains?
Comparable worth pay adjustments are indeed
precedent-setting. Because of the principles driving
them, other mandates that can be applied to reduce
or eliminate unjustified pay gaps between male and
female workers have not remedied perceived pay
inequities satisfactorily for the litigants in cases in
which men and women hold different jobs. But
whenever comparable worth principles are applied to
pay schedules, perceived unjustified pay differences
are eliminated. In this sense, then, comparable worth
is more comprehensive than other mandates, such as
the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and Title VII of the Civil
Rights Act of 1964. Neither compares tasks in
dissimilar jobs (that is, jobs across occupational
categories) in an effort to determine whether or not
what is necessary to perform these tasks-know-how,
problem-solving, and accountability-can be quantified
in terms of its dollar value to the employer.
Comparable worth, on the other hand, takes as its
premise that certain tasks in dissimilar jobs may
require a similar amount of training, effort, and skill;
may carry similar responsibility; may be carried on in
an environment having a similar impact upon the
worker; and may have a similar dollar value to the
employer.

43. Which of the following most accurately states the
central purpose of the passage?
(A) To criticize the implementation of a new procedure
(B) To assess the significance of a change in policy
(C) To illustrate how a new standard alters procedures
(D) To explain how a new policy is applied in specific
cases
(E) To summarize the changes made to date as a
result of social policy

Please provide explanation to support your answers