http://www.personneltoday.com/articles/2007/11/20/43323/letters-equal-pay-work-life-balance-and-age-discrimination.html
The above article sparked my interest of equal pay for men and women in the school setting, such as high schools, elementaries, etc... I am extremely close to my English teacher from high school-she has mentored me and is as close to a 2nd mom I will ever get. I called her up yesterday to talk about some of my classes, a paper I had to do, and then I remembered I had read this article. At the very beginning it states how Equal Pay should not be dealt with at a "local level" such as at schools. If it had been anyone else I was talking to, I wouldn't have delved in and asked her about the subject. But, because she and I are close, we started up on the conversation. He husband also works at the same school as the Social Studies teacher. She volunteered the information that she was paid substantially less per year as opposed to her husband. I didn't ask how much or the actual numbers, it's none of my business what their salaries are, but the what she said jumped out at me. He had been working at the school for only 2 years longer than she had, and during those 2 years, she had been employed in a neighboring school district. The Equal Pay problem in our counrty is real and that hit me when she told me this. Something needs to be done!! This is affecting people that I know and love so it makes it that much more real and problematic than ever before.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Wow, Rachel--I'm glad you asked. One thing mentioned in a past reading was that, because of social norms about the rudeness of asking about others' salaries, we often don't know just how unequal our pay is compared to our male counterparts.
I wonder if it isn't time for us to recall the old slogan, "The personal is political" and say that equal pay is a PUBLIC issue. Perhaps it's time for us to make those inequalities more visible, risk rudeness, and fight exploitation.
What do you think? Did you ask your mentor if she had considered doing anything about the obvious pay gap? Has she asked for a raise/questioned the unequal pay?
It's completely ridiculous that an individual doing the same amount of work as another individual is getting paid a substantially less amount. I was totally oblivious to the unequal payment between men and women, and this class has been a real eye-opener for me. I agree- more needs to be done to remedy this unfair situation. Women are supposed to be equal to men, but this inequality sticks out like a big pimple. What are we going to do about this?
Post a Comment