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Ask HN: How to address female coworkers getting paid less

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31–40 of 82 posts

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

#33
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.

This information wasn't "shared" in any sense of the word

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

#36
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Probably because the second part of that sentence isn't entirely true. It's part of the reason it's generally seen as a bad idea to have "serious" relationships with coworkers.

Business isn't the place for emotion.

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

#37

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…

The big reason for the taboo against talking about income is jealousy. Almost every job feels harder than it looks, and almost everyone feels more skilled at their work than they look. So if you tell someone your salary, your job probably feels more difficult to you than it looks to them, and you probably feel more productive than they think you are. If you make the same or more than they do, there is a very high ris…

Read patio11's words on this: "We have strong cultural training to not ask about salary, ever. This is not universal. In many cultures, professional contexts are a perfectly appropriate time to discuss money... If I were a Marxist academic or a conspiracy theorist, I might think that this bit of middle class American culture was specifically engineered to be in the interests of employers and against the interests of employees."

(Don't Call Yourself a Programmer: www.kalzumeus.com/2011/10/28/dont-call-yourself-a-programmer/)

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

#38
post #3

Parallel construction. Become friends with the relevant coworker, casually ask one day how much they make, and that's a great opportunity to point out that you were making more when you were that experienced so maybe they should ask for a raise. I would personally be pretty offended if you read my offer letter even accidentally, despite being very happy to tell you how much I make.

There could be other reasons that affected the decision for the wage for your coworker.

It might be that we are in a recession at the moment and works are not that plenty ( at least where i am ). Someone might have noticed something on your CV or on the interview and did decide that you were worth a bit more.

Salaries have decreased dramatically in the company that i am in. Some position as 2 years ago is 300Euro lower.

But i believe the right approach for that is the one that sweettea has mentioned. Casually bringing it up.

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

#40
One sort of rational explanation for a lower wage is that females might get pregnant and need leave for that, although that probably does not justify the difference (I haven't done the calculations). That is also why insurance prices offered to females / males are often different insofar the law allows it.
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