Post-meetup: Women at work

Do you know how much the person at the desk beside you makes?

It would be totally obscene to ask, right? Well, if I don’t know it makes it pretty hard to judge whether I’m being compensated equitably for my work.

Wish I could find an image with Canadian money...

This was one of the challenging dilemmas that came up in our last get together, where Fiona gave us the low-down on work that she’s taken on that just makes me want to give her a great big bear hug. Fi has been working on this monumental project (that she’s not even being paid for!!!) to examine and challenge the value placed on different kinds of work when the powers that be are determining salaries. Like, caregiving jobs (women’s work) are very low-paying and yet incredibly hard work and important to holding up society. Our girl Fi is fighting the good fight to straighten this stuff out.

Let’s give her props AND do what we can to back her up. Which might mean talking about our salaries with coworkers. It might be negotiating for higher salaries in the interviewing process (which, we discussed, is something that men seem to take as a right and women don’t often realize they should be doing.) It might be applying for those advanced positions (again, men seem to be doing more of this and so reaping the benefits.) Being vocal in your company about how they distribute the dough. Writing letters so these opinions go on the record.
I’m thinking about making myself a t-shirt that says “Support worker – $3-,—.–” Once, uh, I find out what that number is, exactly.