Should US companies be required to provide equal pay to women and men? – Part 75
Though companies have the right to have free reign over their employees, as well as the company itself, there does need to be government guidance at times. There are laws made to protect the working man for reasons. We do not live within a country where applying for a job is equivalent to striving to become a slave of some sort. Yet, often, we find that we must need a bit of oversight from the powers that be to get he things that we are entitled to. Equal pay is one of them. Two people doing the same job, no matter the race, nor the gender, should receive equal pay.
I am fortunate enough to be employed by a wonderful company with very good benefits. My company is fair, and generous, though I suspect are guilty of this very crime. Within my department alone there are several people, some that have quite a bit more tenure than others, and most of us are women. We do not get paid proportionally to the men in th shop, yet our jobs are a bit less grueling than the men. However, with my personal job, I work quite hard. I do my job correctly, and very well, yet my male counterpart is beyond useless. He not only does things incorrectly, but blatantly so. He is lazy, messy, and disrespectful, and has worked there for much less time that I. It has been rumored that he does make more than myself. That angers me, because I both respect my job, and appreciate it.
How do I know that he makes more than I? Well, I don’t for a fact, but I have heard rumors, and his father is close to a boss. What solidifies my assumption that he makes more? Women on average get paid .77 cents on the dollar that each man receives. Which means if I make ten dollars an hour, a male could make three dollars more than I. This, you see would not bother me if I was lousy at my job. Yet, those three dollars that the company may save each hour that I work, is eaten up by the vast mistakes that my male counterpart makes. Where is the sense in that?
Every woman I know prides herself on the hard work that she performs. Instead of being rewarded for it monetary-wise, we must make up for it in virtue. We must remind ourselves that we do, indeed do what is required of us, and beyond. We must keep in mind that we carry the load and without us the company would most-likely lose money. We must toil and sweat, and repair the mistakes of those that surround us. We must work longer hours to be able to pay for our livelihood, and we must keep it in our hearts that we are doing the right thing, and will have no doubts when meeting our maker.
The constitution says that all men are created equal, yet it did not mention women. Does that mean that for the rest of our lives we must cling to the lifeboat that all men captain? I say not. Perhaps Hillary Clinton can make a historical move and take a stand for women everywhere. Maybe that will be the only way that we get treated equally and fairly amongst our peers. Instead, it is said that Hillary has ridden on her husband’s coat-tails to get to the Presidency. Never mind that she was a hard working woman with her very own career, her own term in the Senate, and was begged by millions of American’s to run for office. Yet, she may not win because she is a woman and it is assumed that she can’t handle the job. Not only could a woman handle the presidency, she may excel and change the world as we know it. Women should get paid more than men because we must prove ourselves able and capable in every situation, and work harder just to please the attitude that surrounds woman hood. We are far more efficient then men, and we put more heart into our work. I think that I deserve to make more money because of the ridicule that being a woman entails.
Should US companies be required to provide equal pay to women and men? – Part 11
Equal pay for equal work is mandated by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Therefore, it is the law today. However, the burden of proof seems to lie with the employee.
Recent proposed legislation, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, would have given employees with wage disputes more time to lodge their complaints and sue employers who did not adhere to the Title VII mandate. Currently any wage disputes must be lodged within 180 days of the employer’s first violation, per ruling by the Supreme Court.
Unfortunately, the legislation died in the Senate. So the current regulations still stand.
This presents a problem for the employee who suspects discrimination, but cannot access the information within the 180 days to prove it.
Presently, according to an editorial in the Miami Herald, American women earn about three-fourths the pay of men doing an equal job. For black and Hispanic women, this figure is even lower.
Women are no longer the secondary breadwinners. Today, many women are the sole head of household. Married women today must also take an equal responsibility in earning income as it is difficult for most families to survive on one salary. Women are no longer working to get out of the house, to gain personal fulfillment, or to just benefit society by contributing their talents and skills. Although these may be factors, most women work to survive. Even withstanding this state of affairs, women deserve equal pay because they have equal investment of preparation, time, and energies in their work.
There are some possible reasons for the disparity between salaries, though, that women could rectify by being more pro-active. Women need to ask for the raise. They need to know their worth and not take less just because they have a husband who brings home a good salary. Before taking a job, women need to interview with at least several companies, and they need to find out from other women which companies are gender biased and which ones are fair.
How can women go about this? First, women and all working people for that matter, need to keep their resumes up to date and include all information that sets them apart from the crowd: advanced training, professional accomplishments, and excellent performance reviews.
Women should join their professional and trade organizations. Networking with others in a similar occupation is valuable in learning about what others are being paid, what other job opportunities are
Best websites for hair and beauty tips – Part 1
There are so many tips out there for caring for your natural afro-textured hair that if you know how to “Google” you’ll find a plethora of detailed information. Information may be overstating the findings, but you will come across some interesting bits to help you in your quest for healthy, gorgeous natural hair. The key is knowing what is tried and true and what will just leave you with dry hair or so many issues that you quickly decide natural is just not for you. Here is a list of my favorite natural hair websites. As I come across more I’ll be sure to share them, we naturals have to stick together!
1) www.motowngirl.com
MotownGirl is the first stop you should make before you even decide to chop off your relaxed ends. But once you do she offers tips, styles, and her own experience in growing and maintaining natural hair. This site is cream of the crop.
2) www.happycurls.com
Happy Curls is great if you don’t mind the forum set-up. You can ask questions and get a diverse group of women replying. These women have been natural, many of them, for at least 3 years which in natural years is a long time. They know what might work for your hair based on their own experiences and even have Fotki accounts so you can see their natural journey. If you want forum-style interaction, there’s no better site than Happy Curls.
3) www.veer.com
When I need a reminder as to why I decided to go natural I simply visit the stock photo site and enter “african american hair”. There are children, women and men rocking natural hair styles that will solidify your reasoning to go natural. If you can’t see the beauty in your hair, at whatever point in your natural journey you are in, after visiting veer.com you don’t need hair…natural or otherwise! This website will keep you entertained for quite some time and motivate you to try out new styles and just enjoy the beauty of African Americans! It really doesn’t get much better than that!
4) www.carolsdaughter.com
The last website I find very useful in the upkeep of my natural hair is Carol’s Daughter. Check her out, she has an entire line of natural products for your hair and your body but the best part about the site is that she tells you how to use the products and what they are good for. If you live near a brick-and-mortar Carol’s Daughter store…run, don’t walk, and get yourself a few products. Your hair will thank you!
Should US companies be required to provide equal pay to women and men? – Part 74
PAYMENT ON PAR
Should American companies pay women the same wages or salaries as they pay their male counterparts? Of course they should!
Equal work warrants equal pay. Unless job descriptions, on-the-job performance, seniority, experience, qualifications or other wage-related issues apply, employees should earn similar pay. Merit may affect pay levels. Value added to the employer’s business may affect earnings. But gender, age, race, religion and other personal issues should not.
START SHOPPING.
Do retail establishments charge women lower rates than they charge men? No way! Everyone pays the same prices!
Suppose a man and a woman enter a grocery store at the same time. Both of them purchase milk, eggs, bread and ice cream. (After all, who ever leaves a store without ice cream?) They carry their items to adjacent checkout stands.
Let’s assume they selected the same brands, sizes and versions of all items. Will their register tape totals be the same or different?
SCAN A STATEMENT.
Do utilities, credit card companies, banks, home sellers, mortgage holder or other organizations offer different rates for male or female clients? Duh!
If they did, they would be charged with discrimination!
Suppose a man and a women occupy adjacent apartments in a downtown building. The square footage is exactly the same. Will the landlord offer two different rental rates? Not on your life!
ESCHEW OLD ARGUMENTS.
In ages past, many employers maintained that male workers should be paid higher wages than females, simply because men had to support their families.
Times have changed. A woman is nearly as likely to shoulder the responsibility for supporting the family as a man. In fact, many women fund their families alone, as single parents.
So why should women have to work more hours for the same pay?
COMPARE COSTS.
A dollar is a dollar is a dollar. And an hour is an hour is an hour. If employees work a specified number of hours, then fairness dictates that they should be paid the same number of dollars. After all, isn’t the employer realizing the same amount of profits from each worker?
Should US companies be required to provide equal pay to women and men? – Part 52
Unfortunately we absolutely do need laws that require companies to pay men and women equally for
the same job done. Quite sadly there are still some men lingering in today’s society that honestly do believe it is fair and just to pay women less simply because they are women.
Some employers pay their help based on quality of work done. If a woman is doing the exact same job as a man and doing it equally as well then should be getting the same rate of pay as her male counterpart, taking into consideration length of time employed with the company.
Other companies have standard starting pay along with periodic reviews and raises. Those companies especially have to guard against discrimination for they do not base the pay rate on quality but on seniority. To pay the women of the company is absolute discrimination.
I have heard all sorts of arguments from opposing sides of women’s rights in the workforce and have yet to hear one that was not from a man with a very bloated ego and distorted sense of self-worth. This type of mindset does not discriminate women alone. They are generally very Archie Bunkerish and have no discretion of whom the discriminate against!
Sad as is it, there has to be laws in place to protect us from such discrimination.
Should US companies be required to provide equal pay to women and men? – Part 37
I strongly believe that US companies should be required to provide equal pay to women and men. It is alarming that in the 21st Century we are still having a debate on this issue. Women have convincingly demonstrated that they are intellectually equal to men, and in some cases, just as adept in manual labor jobs (with some obvious limitations-jobs requiring a great deal of physical strength). There is no logical justification for discrimination with respect to wages solely on the basis of sex.
Federal law has clearly mandated that wage discrimination based on sex is prohibited. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 states, in pertinent part, “No employer having employees subject to any provisions of this section shall discriminate, within any establishment in which such employees are employed, between employees on the basis of sex by paying wages to employees in such establishment at a rate less than the rate at
which he pays wages to employees of the opposite sex in such establishment
for equal work on jobs the performance of which requires equal skill,
effort, and responsibility, and which are performed under similar working
conditions…” See The Equal Pay Act of 1963
Even though women have more recourse today than they did prior to this Act (a complaint can be filed with the the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which administers and enforces the Equal Pay Act), discrimination based on sex is still prevalent in some US Companies. Often the problem for a woman is how to go about proving that they are receiving less pay than their mail counterparts, for performing the same jobs with the same skill level or level of seniority. Usually a women finds out through a co-worker that she is being paid less than her male counterpart for performing the same job.
There is no rational basis to justify paying a women less than a man, where a women is equally (or more) qualified in terms of education and experience. Hopefully, as a society we will come to a point where there is no disparity between men and women when it comes to wages.
*Portions of the text of The Equal Pay Act were cited in this piece.
Should US companies be required to provide equal pay to women and men? – Part 23
The question of equal pay for men and women will continue to be a hot topic until such equality exists. Many people, young and old alike, have been lulled into a false sense that the feminist movement of the 1960’s and 1970’s provided women with all of the equal rights which had been sought. There are even those with the naivety to believe the Equal Rights Amendment was passed and is now law. Young women believe there is no current need for a feminist movement of any kind.
Yet here we are in the 21st century and women continue to make a substantially lower wage, as much as 25% lower, than men for the work they perform. Many times women must work harder than men in order to compete with men in order to continue their employment and be considered for pay raises.
I have been in such positions throughout my working life. In one position I held I found myself taking on double the work load of my male counterparts for $2.00 per hours less in wages. The men who were making the higher wages had been hired because of their physical size. It was felt, by the employer, that their size would deter the psychiatric patients from becoming aggressive. It was also thought that if the patients did demonstrate aggressive behavior these men would be able to bring the situation under control much easier.
In time, however, the employer discovered that this was not the case. Instead of lowering the level of aggression patients became more defiant and aggressive especially with the males on staff. It was a badge of honor for them to be able to state they had gotten the better of staff. Many patients and staff were injured in these situations. Additionally, many times the male staff would step away from the situation and call on the female staff to defuse the problem. Not because they were not trained to take care of these things but because they feared injury. The main factor in this was that these men were local football players who were afraid of a career ending injury. The female staff would have to step in and perform physical restraints in order to bring the situation under control. As an additional jab for the women the very men they were taking over for were given pay raises at twice the frequency.
This is only one example of the wage discrepancy which women face but this is one of the worst from my experience. So when you ask if men and women should be paid equally, my answer would have to be yes. If a woman is expected to, and does, perform an equal job then she should be paid an equal wage. She should also be given pay raises and other incentives at an equal rate. Until today’s young women realize the continued need to protest the National wage discrepancy this will not be achieved.
Should US companies be required to provide equal pay to women and men? – Part 43
Unfortunately this is still not only a debate, but it is still a problem. I too have been the victim of pay discrimination. When I applied and was hired for a position that had previously been filled by a man; I later found out that I was making about 22,000.00 less than he had been paid.
Complaining to the higher ups would do no good; the employer, a very large one, had two pay scales, one for men; one for women. I had silenced the meeting room once before when I had brought up this subject. Afterwords, one of the employees had approached me with this remark, “You really took a chance bringing that pay thing up.”
I had worked hard at this office for a number of years in the hopes of moving up in my field. I qualified for the position. I did everything that I was asked to do and put in numerous hours of overtime. Still, I was a woman and equal pay just wasn’t allowed. The sad thing was that the other women who worked for this employer hated this as much as I did, but accepted it. Too many needed to keep their jobs as is often the case.
I know that there are men who will claim, “Well, you can go elsewhere. You can start your own business.” It’s very easy to say when you are a man. But, let’s see you try to do it as a woman! It’s not really any easier to find that success elsewhere nor to be a female entrepreneur. I am not saying that it can’t be done. But, you run into sexism over and over. By the time you do see success; if you see success; you’ll probably be old enough to retire.
It’s so easy to sit back and claim that women don’t deserve as much pay, but today there are more single women; many of them with families to raise and they are doing it alone. Many are paying Child Support; Alimony. Some are supporting aging or invalid parents. Their expenses are equal to, if not more than those of many men.
It’s no easier for single women; many of us want to go back to school, but can’t afford it or don’t have the time. If we were paid better, we’d be able to quit our jobs and go back to school full-time.
Single women have bills like everyone else; actually we pay twice as much as some married people. Consider that in two income home, there are two people splitting the bills, while single people often foot the entire bills all on their own. We have needs like insurance, food, clothing, etc., so single women should not be paid any less than a married woman or their male counterparts.
It is unfortunate that our government,
Should US companies be required to provide equal pay to women and men? – Part 24
Of course men and women must be paid equally for their equal contributions. This goes without saying and should never be open to debate. There is a “but” to this statement that has to do with the choices that each of us make with regard to our careers, personal lives, and ultimately our ability to remain competitive. Realistically, women and men make different choices over the course of their working lifes which often lead to what appears to be unequal pay among peers. It is in fact not unequal. The statistics that have been used for years to “prove” that women and men are not compensated equally are not telling the whole truth. All to often they advance an agenda that is not necessarily in anyone’s best interest other than which ever special interest group is using them at the time to make their point. So while the answer is a resounding YES men and women must be paid equally for equal contributions, we must also define what this means.
Where men and women have the same credentials, capabilities, time in market and on job; then the only difference in their compensation will be based upon their ability to negotiate. Call this + / – 10%. This is a reasonable differentiator over time, especially in the higher salary brackets. The ability to negotiate better total compensation is certainly a skill that women must learn if they want to be on parity with their male peers in the executive office of the future.
At the entry level of college graduates there is a different dynamic at work and most studies show that women entering white collar professions overall are earning on parity if not slightly above their male peers. Where the differences start to arise is as women begin to leave the market after children. Each time a woman takes a break, whether for a short or extended leave, she loses “time” in her career. This time in fact equals “experience” which translates to pay. The greater amount of time a woman leaves her career to care for family the greater amount of “experience” she loses. Over time her original peer group will advance in experience and thus pay.
This is the reality of the workplace. Women make different choices than men. They also often choose careers that allow them greater freedom to balance work and life and thus are in lower paid career fields. Finally, women more often than not choose work and career paths that are not “dirty” or physical in nature; some of this is due to the difficulty in entering these jobs but
Should US companies be required to provide equal pay to women and men? – Part 51
This is not the cave man era any longer. Women have grown stronger and more boisterous. Now is not the time to discriminate between genders because it is the women who are teaching the men and the men whom are fighting for the women. We need both to survive and treating one gender more valuable than the other just defeats the importance of life. Both are equally needed and both are equally used.
A man may think a women is beneath him because of the words in the bible or what use to be. Currently, it is the woman whom is bringing home the bacon and cooking it. The world of man is too busy fighting a war that does not belong to us rather than care for their own country. So it is up to us to teach our future how to survive. But how are we suppose to teach if we are taught to be valued differently than others. We work just as hard and long as anyone else. We struggle and strive to keep our families together. That is our job as women. We are strong for a reason. We have come past suffrage, we have come past depression, we have also come past employment opportunity because there was a time where a woman could not even find work. We will get past ignorance and the status quo because that is just what this is, ignorance. People are afraid of what they are not used to. Women have never been in a position of power or control and that takes domination out of the man’s hands and equally divides it amongst the two.
A woman is just as valuable as a man and though money does not define a person, equal pay is a step towards justice and penance for years of ignorance. When slavery was abolished, that included not just races but genders as well. Having a woman work for much less or less than a man is slavery justified. Slavery justified is legally working someone for less than their worth. They are just enslaving us and that takes us back to where we started. United States should be better than that. We are a powerful country, we need to show that we’re justice and equality as well.
