Comments on: The Supreme Court Doesn’t Have to be the Last Word

By: Work It, Mom! | A Community for Professional Moms

Work It, Mom! | A Community for Professional Moms — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 13:13:09 +0000

[...] the issue of wage discrimination against women, the Supreme Court gave us a major setback. And it got loads of [...]

By: scjaqmowhx

scjaqmowhx — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 04:16:11 +0000

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By: David

David — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 01:43:26 +0000

wasn’t this one of the opinons Justice Ginsberg read aloud? it’s very rare for the Justices to do that.

By: Kelly

Kelly — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 15:04:09 +0000

I’m personally not a huge fan of using the legislature to address this problem. I think it is not feasible and we could end up causing more problems for ourselves that way. Instead, we all need to go into every situation assuming we have been offered less than our male peers. We need to collectively do one thing -Negotiate! I know it is painful and difficult, but that’s why men are getting more. A recent book, “Women Don’t Ask”, highlights this problem: Women are far more likely to accept the first offer than men and it almost entirely accounts for the pay gap. We start out of college with $4000 less (because they asked for more than the first offer and we didn’t) and by the time we retire it can be more than a million dollars. How can we expect congress to force employers to give us more when we don’t even ask for more ourselves. Put your manager hat on for a moment. Do you routinely give out money to people who haven’t asked for it? Do you bump up an offer to someone after they have agreed to your proposal because you think they are leaving money on the table? And don’t feel guilty about asking. Since we already know we are getting less we KNOW THEY HAVE MORE TO GIVE! Further, it is completely irrellevant what other people are making. We need to begin to think of ourselves as valuable assets whose time and brainpower is worth money - in many cases more money than men. It’s time to go ask for what we want and what we objectively deserve.

By: Nataly

Nataly — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 13:56:30 +0000

Ok, can you help me understand how women would even know that we’re getting paid less? Seriously, an honest question. When I worked at a venture firm it was a small employer - 7 investment professionals. I found out after a new guy was hired that they paid him more than me - and although he had more experience, our responsibilities would be the same. So I went to my boss and asked for a raise - which I got, probably because they were afraid that as the only woman, I would make a fuss. But that’s a small firm - how do you know in a bigger firm?