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Ask HN: How to address female coworkers getting paid less

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Re: Ask HN: How to address female coworkers getting paid less

#21

Post by Bahamut »

sirwolfgang wrote: post #10

This is fundamentally one of the biggest cultural changes we have to make. You have to be ok with talking about your personal earning. In a lot of places talking about earnings is more taboo then talking about sex, and sex is generally taboo. Company culture of not talking about earnings only helps the company. It allows them to pay lowest market value for anyone, under the (often true) hopes that they don't know the…

People need to be ok with talking about it, but at the same time, it still should ultimately be each person's choice to talk about it.

[$67/hr, 2 years of experience, senior frontend engineer, Palo Alto]

Re: Ask HN: How to address female coworkers getting paid less

#22

Post by oneeyedpigeon »

mycroft-holmes wrote: post #11

Is it worth bringing up the validity of "equal pay for equal work"? What if this woman isn't as experienced as someone else? If people actually support equal pay for equal work, shouldn't this apply to every job and industry? Should bench warmers in the NBA be payed the same as LeBron James?

Really, you should be paying someone based on their position and performance rather than their experience. Of course, this is difficult to do right away. Anyway, the OP addressed this: his female coworker has exactly the same level of experience.

Re: Ask HN: How to address female coworkers getting paid less

#23

Post by driverdan »

ripb wrote: post #2

It is absolutely not your problem to comment on this matter. It's actually none of your business. Also, admitting that you were looking at offer letters when you should have known straight away from first glance that it was none of your business could bring some heat on you and your career that you certainly won't appreciate. Mind your own business.

This fear of sharing income information is crazy. Get over it.

Re: Ask HN: How to address female coworkers getting paid less

#24

Post by philh »

oneeyedpigeon wrote: post #20
Cthulhu_ wrote: post #8

It's a difficult matter, because there's often a taboo around comparing income - and whether that's a good or a bad thing is up for debate. Good because you get less jealousy (X earns Y but I don't believe s/he deserves it), bad because you can get inequality (same pay for same job / skill level, etc). I'm inclined to believe it's none of your business and it's something between HR and the new hires (there may be rea…

Ultimately, though, you should be able to eliminate jealousy because a) you pay everyone exactly what they're worth b) you don't hire irrationally jealous people :-) (oh, and c) you pay everyone a decent base so that they really don't have anything to complain about anyway)

If jealousy is a common trait amongst humans, and it doesn't interfere with their ability to do their jobs, then why would you choose not to hire jealous people?

Re: Ask HN: How to address female coworkers getting paid less

#26

Post by agilebyte »

sirwolfgang wrote: post #10

This is fundamentally one of the biggest cultural changes we have to make. You have to be ok with talking about your personal earning. In a lot of places talking about earnings is more taboo then talking about sex, and sex is generally taboo. Company culture of not talking about earnings only helps the company. It allows them to pay lowest market value for anyone, under the (often true) hopes that they don't know the…

Company culture of not talking about earnings helps me not feeling bad if I were to find out that my colleague who does the same job is paid more, or be on the reverse end. I'd rather not know. On the other hand, differences between different companies I can explain/comprehend/think are useful.

Re: Ask HN: How to address female coworkers getting paid less

#27

Post by philh »

> I accidentally discovered the hourly wage that some of my newly hired female coworkers make (offer letter left in the open)

When you say "some" of your female coworkers, do you mean "one"? As others have said, you can't compare without also knowing what your new male coworkers (if any) are getting paid; but one man versus one woman also wouldn't be strong evidence for anything.

Re: Ask HN: How to address female coworkers getting paid less

#29

Post by equal_pay_q »

philh wrote: post #27

> I accidentally discovered the hourly wage that some of my newly hired female coworkers make (offer letter left in the open) When you say "some" of your female coworkers, do you mean "one"? As others have said, you can't compare without also knowing what your new male coworkers (if any) are getting paid; but one man versus one woman also wouldn't be strong evidence for anything.

Two, my supervisor mentioned that he made them the same offer when hiring them.
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