Yesterday was “equal pay day day” which is supposed to represent how far a woman needs to work into 2015 to make as much income as a man did in 2014. While lots of people disagree with the premise that the difference in pay is based on discrimination (the Washington Post, for instance, gives the claims “2 Pinocchios” meaning that the claim contains “significant omissions and/or exaggerations. Some factual error may be involved but not necessarily.”) people want to make sure that things are fair.
Many women feel they face wage discrimination and some do face wage discrimination. Many women aren’t facing gender discrimination but rather the result of their choices–but if they had better options, they’d make better choices. So, true or false, we need solutions. Here are what 5 smart people and companies are trying to do to rectify the situation.
To read the 5 ways, click here: 5 Ways Smart People Are Solving Income Inequality
The problem with “choices” it’s that many times are conditioned. I mean, if you don’t have the same oportunities and options that your male counterparts, then you would make different “choices”.
For example, if your male coworkers get to choose asignaments first, then you “choose” the left overs. Or if your male boss assumes that you’ll choose family over work and decided not to give you a rise based on that, maybe you’ll react doing exactly that, since your work commitement it’s not valued the same as your male coworkers. Or a pregnant women passed on a promotion for that reason, but still expected to do the job as if she has been promoted since “she already knew the job while the male coworker who got the promotion didn’t”.
The worst part is that the people who do that kind of asumptions think they are being “nice and helpfull” since the “take away the pressure”. Of course, it’s only the title and money, because at the end of the day work must be done, and usually it’s done by the same person who didn’t get the promotion because it was “to much pressure”.
+1000
I like the idea of making wages public. I think it will help with the whole negotiating thing. I have never had to negotiate a salary until I got my current job. I did horribly and the company low balled me. When I found out how bad they low balled me than I tried to renegotiate my salary it didn’t help. I love my current job (the people, environment) but knowing that I am making $2.50/hr less than the person before me (and I pretty much every other employee has complained about her and she wasn’t as qualified as me) makes me rethink this job.
Inequality does exist and it is very pervasive especially when you are talking about women in traditional fields. Imagine having two college degrees (required for the job) having a job that requires nights and weekends and then when the wage survey for your city comes out, finding out you make less than the garbageman with a high school education instead of (as you should) being paid at the same level as the city engineer who has a comparable amount of of schooling.