3 responses so far ↓

• 1 Miko // Dec 4, 2006 at 11:31 am

  incidentally, I’ve been compiling these links for a while and so am not totally copying Mr. Pilgrim’s post…just mostly…

• 2 Elise // Dec 5, 2006 at 10:17 am

  As a career-motivated, full-time working, educated and competent woman, I am concerned with the wage-gap between genders. I have felt the stings of being a woman in the corporate world, whether it is from trying to find a way to break the barrier of the seemingly “boy’s club” at work or realizing that I have a very hard time relating to a boss that spends his free time watching and talking about football. I hate to think that I would earn less for doing a job simply because I am a woman. Unfortunately, I know that this discrimination exists far too often in the workforce.

  I agree that the courts should not allow unjustified excuses from employers for gender-based pay discrimination. But the law described in this article - putting the burden of pay discrimination on employers by not allowing them to use the excuse “she didn’t negotiate her pay and he did” is not the solution. It is not the solution because too often, it is a real and justified reason for difference in pay.

  Putting myself in the shoes of the person who is negotiating her pay, I find myself reflecting on the work I do to prepare for an evaluation involving a pay increase or promotion. Or just the act of getting hired in the first place. In college, I paid special attention to my grades, my relationships with my professors, and my lists of corporate contacts in order to land the job I have now. As I prepare for promotions, I pay special attention to the quality of my work, put in longer hours than necessary, build important relationships with coworkers and clients, and try to go the extra mile. Allow me to switch gender roles for a moment - if I did all of these things and a male counterpart did not, and he got the same promotion as me simply because of the fact he was a man and my company didn’t want the legal hassle of dealing with wage differences, I’d be PISSED. Sometimes the “she didn’t negotiate excuse” may be a lame cop-out, but too often it may be valid.

  What if we made a stronger effort to incorporate classes in high schools and colleges that specifically prepare students for the job-finding process, teaching them not only resume and interview skills, but also negotiation skills? Women may not be as inclined to negotiate as men, but the CAN negotiate. They do it all the time - they just need to learn how to harness that talent and use it specifically in the wage negotiation.

  I think we need to continue to work toward gender pay equality. I just don’t think the specific law described in the article above is the answer.

• 3 Miko // Dec 5, 2006 at 7:25 pm

  Elise–thank you for sharing! I had a discussion regarding this with my step-mother-in-law, specifically regarding the fact that, often, girl-children and boy-children are taught different things with regard to money. For example, my husband was given one share of a stock as a birthday present when he was 15. This was to help teach him about the stock market. I, on the other hand, was sent off to college with a checkbook, my first introduction to finance. I’ve always been taught that, if I do work worthy of recognition, it will be recognized. But, if it’s not, I’m not certain I’d know how to argue that it merits recognition. Now, this is certainly also a difference in my husband’s parents vs. my parents, but I think they may be indicative of a larger trend. “Not asking for it” can’t be an excuse if women are taught to ask; if they’re taught not to, however, that can be an excuse, and a valid one, until parents and society start treating men and women similarly (in an intellectual sense).

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