pay secrecy

Jessie is in her first job and while she would never refuse a good job with prospects because it was low paying, she is very upset to learn that she is being paid lower than team members doing similar work and she is especially upset because some of these people lack her educational qualifications.

"Sometimes," says Jessie, "you can be in a job for months if not years before you discover that a team member is earning more than you are and when all things are equal - which they mostly are - you wonder why management allows this unfairness to happen."

How Jessie discovered she was earning less pay than a team member is one of those grey areas that we all wonder about. She didn’t go looking for evidence. She had no idea she was receiving less pay until Fate stepped in her path.

"I accessed the other guy's personal folder on the network to get a document I needed and saw a sub-folder called 'pay slips', explains Jessie. "Okay, it was probably not the right thing to do but it was on a team network, the personal folder was not locked and it contained many documents that needed to be shared."

Jessie felt that something as personal as pay slips shouldn't be on a network shared by all, so she felt that it had fallen into her hands for a reason and sure enough it had!

The other guy was earning $5K more than she was and she was understandably furious because he had no educational qualifications and had started about the same time as she had.

Jessie is aware that when people start jobs there is sometimes a weird clause in their contract stating words to the effect that you are not to discuss your salary with team members.

This is obviously a situation where team members are going to be earning more, or less, than their colleagues doing similar work, and in Jessie’s book of ethics it is a nasty practice.

"I would not have accepted the job had this sort of thing been in my contract," says Jessie.

"I am aware, too, that at interviews some employers will sometimes ask outright: 'What are your salary expectations?' They are perfectly aware of the going rate for your skills, and so are you, and when this happened to me when I was job hunting I refused to play their game."

"I told them that I expect to be paid a salary commensurate with that paid to other members of the team," says Jessie. "In doing so, I made it plain to them that I expect no more or no less than others doing similar work. Also, I am encouraging the employer to be ethical."

To Jessie, companies that enforce 'salary secrecy' clauses in contracts are dividing and conquering the team. Such clauses drive a wedge between team members, negating the whole purpose of putting people in teams.

"I believe in equal pay for equal work, and I do not believe it is ethical for companies to pay workers more, or less, than their colleagues doing equal work depending upon how assertive they are at interviews."

"I believe that people who have spent four year at university gaining qualifications deserve more pay than people who haven't," says Jessie. "But when the work is equal - as in my case - it didn't matter. I was simply angry and humiliated that I was getting less."

At her present workplace, Jessie did not go through that "What are your salary expectations?" question at the interview. The salary for the job was included in the advertisement. It was fixed, and Jessie accepted it as a fair salary.

The guy who was earning more than she was had started on the team a few months earlier, so either he had asked for a higher salary at the interview or it was offered to him.

"No job gets downgraded $5K in three months," says Jessie. "Something very wrong was going on here."

As Jessie points out, workplaces are where you make lifelong friends. You often spend more time with your team than you do your family, and good relations with them are thus imperative.

"If you discover you are earning more than a team member doing equal work," says Jessie, "you may be pleased but you will also feel uneasy wondering whether someone else in the team gets more than you do!"

It is not a good situation to be in. And a far worse situation would be discovering, as Jessie did, that you are earning less than a team member.

Jessie has now been placed in a tricky situation.

If she complains about receiving $5K less than her team member, she will have to admit that she looked at his private file. She does not feel happy about making this admission - but by the same token she feels that she was given the opportunity to look at his personal file for a reason.

That reason, Jessie feels, is to assess whether she wants to stay in her present job knowing that her employer is guilty of treating her unfairly.

Jessie can ask for a $5K raise without mentioning her team member’s salary, or she can look for another job.

"Funny thing," sighs Jessie, "I was perfectly happy with my salary before I discovered I was being paid less than someone else."

don't rock the boat!

Alahna is a quietly spoken married women of 45 who believes that women are better at job survival than men are because we tend not to rock the boat so much.

"We're great people pleasers," laughs Alahna. "We just don't rock boats."

"These traits don't necessarily lead to success -- in fact they are more likely to keep us down in the ranks rather than propel us up the ladder of success," explains Alahna, "and that's a sore point with me because my husband is partially disabled and isn't bringing in very much money."

"Most of the breadwinning falls upon me," says Alahna, "so it's important that I keep my job -- and save enough to send the kids to college -- and that's why I smile rather than scowl and defer rather than argue the point over anything."

"Basically," says Alahna "female job survivors like me are simply concerned about keeping our jobs, and we will do whatever it takes to remain employed."

"Unlike most men, female job survivors don't take charge of their careers and don't take risks -- we can't afford to do so."

"Our job security needs are paramount," explains Alahna. "We are primarily interested in surviving in our jobs and we aren't interested in climbing corporate ladders."

"Most women are quite happy to stay at the bottom of the employment ladder all of their lives," sighs Alahna. "It's nice and safe down there, but not necessarily less stressful."

Alahna believes that money -- to most women workers -- is merely a means to an end. It isn't a judgment on their personal worth.

"We don't judge ourselves by the amount of money we earn -- as most men do -- and we don’t kick up a fuss if we don't get regular pay raises, " explains Alahna. "On the contrary, we're more likely to take a pay cut than jeopardize our jobs!"

"Put it this way, we are more likely to do whatever it takes in order to keep our jobs and secure a future income."

"That's why there are more unemployed men out there than unemployed women!" laughs Alahna. "Men tend to have far more pride than women."

"Also," adds Alahna, "women are better job survivors because the social fabric of the workplace is far more important to them than it is for men."

"It is probably true to say that women tend to congregate at the lower levels because that's where most of the camaraderie happens."

"The higher up you travel, the less likely you are to enjoy the company of co-workers. It gets too competitive up there."

"Depending upon the industry you're working in," says Alahna, "being on the lower levels is sometimes more of a risk than being in middle-management."

"But typical low level women's jobs -- such as secretaries and clerks and process workers -- tend to be safe across the board," adds Alahna. "If you're happy down there, and have no designs to do better, then you're likely to survive in your job indefinitely."

"As women age, though, their job survival prospects tend to lessen in lower level jobs," explains Alahna, "and this is a very good reason why women should think ahead and develop some constructive and active job survival skills."

"A passive desire not to rock the boat is not going to be enough."

"A pretty face may help our job prospects when we're young, but we're going to need a lot more going for us when we get older and find ourselves in competition with women half our age for the low level jobs."

"Ultimately, though," sighs Alahna, "the ability to work harder -- in terms of output and longer hours -- for less pay than anyone else is the clincher."

"The whole idea of women's liberation is a joke, isn't it?"