 |
| ... and other nice ideas. |
Maybe you're in a trade union, and your union negotiates set payscales and annual raises for you during meetings that are held publicly. Or maybe you work for a very large public corporation that determines comporatios using a fancy algorhthym (making sure to adjust down by ~20 percent for females, people of color, and people with disabilities, naturally). But if you're anything like the vast majority of workers in the United States, the amount you are paid for the work that you do is determined through a process that is both opaque and sinister.
 |
| Look! It's a plane! It's a bird! It's a bell curve! |
I'll let you in on a little secret: Your employers have a vested interested in keeping you as in-the-dark as possible as to what's a fair rate for the work you do. A well-informed employee is difficult to manipulate, and certainly difficult to underpay. Fortune, in this case, favors those with the power to keep secrets. If Susan learns that Bob is paid $15,000 more per year than she is to do the same work, it suddenly becomes very difficult to motivate Susan to work hard without shelling out some cash. And so in most HR handbooks in the US, you'll find a clause that prohibits discussing compensation packages with coworkers.
 |
| Are you being paid in salted legumes? |
When it comes to salaries, corporations and society in general are ignoring a golden rule: Open and honest discourse, along with the free flow of information, is good. Sure, the purging process can get ugly (WikiLeaks. Watergate. Whatever.), but secrecy solves nothing.
It's time for us to admit that it's not always hard work or talent or creativity that lands employees raises and promotions. Often, it can be completely random, or informed by nepotism, or malice. On the whole, employers simply pay people as little as they think they can get away with - rewarding cocky employees or savvy negotiators while punishing more quietly effective ones.
I'm not advocating the violent overthrow of the government here, but I am advocating something that will probably shock people around you. Just try following these simple steps next time you're at a cocktail party:
 |
| "OMG, ferserious you guys, that crazy chick so totally just asked me how much I make a year." |
1. Ask someone point-blank how much money they make.
2. Watch them sputter in shock.
3. Observe as other guests within earshot shoot you nasty looks.
4. Ask again.
5. Wait for someone to try to take your keys away, because clearly you are too drunk to drive home.
It's funny, kind of. But mostly it's just sick and twisted. We can easily find ourselves in deep conversation about the things that surround money - the type of cars people drive, the neighborhoods our houses are in, the schools we send our bratlings to. But the minute you ask someone to put a concrete figure on exactly what it is that enables their lifestyle, bit it Bimmer or Wheelbarrow, you're an antisocial little freak.
So join me in my awkwardly-talking-about-money-revolution. Follow the five steps above, and please, let me know how it goes.
I will be taking you up on your challenge this month at various holiday get-togethers. I'll try to remember to come back and report on what happens!
ReplyDeleteHmmm. On the one hand, I would like to be able to compare notes with my colleagues about what we're paid. On the other hand, it *is* an individual negotiation. I might demand (and get) a higher salary than my co-worker because I have a longer commute. I might get a lower salary because I'm less skilled. It's hard to know what fair compensation really is.
ReplyDeleteAnd I won't be asking how much my friends make, because it's really none of my business. There's little I could say at a cocktail party that would have anything to do with the income level of the person I'm talking to. It simply doesn't matter.
And salary histories are Right Out. If pressed, I explain that by all the employment agreements I've had, my pay is confidential and I can't discuss it. And no one sees my W-2 except my current employer, my accountant, and the government.
@Lydia I’m so glad you’ve decided to participate in my campaign for social awkwardness! I would absolutely love to hear how it goes – reactions to my awkward questions have run the gamut. Once I actually stopped conversation at an entire party and got a “woah, there, crazy lady” from a spectator. Other times my queries engender earnest discussion about why we get paid what we do, and strategies for upping our pathetic salaries. I’ll try to worm in a few more awkward questions at a holiday party this weekend, and I’ll be sure to report back on exactly how much social scorn I incur (or conversely, how much relief others feel in finally being able to talk openly about money) here.
ReplyDelete@Marnen While it certainly is an individual negotiation, and there are a lot of moving parts and factors to consider for both employees and employers, I am of the mind that more information is better. The more information we have about salaries – whether, for example, a long commute is reason enough for a higher salary – the better equipped we are to negotiate from a place of knowledge and power, rather than ignorance or timidity. Oftentimes a web site that lists generic salary information is not enough – perhaps you work in a weird industry, or your job responsibilities straddle two or more positions. Maybe you accepted a below-market rate to work for a start-up or a nonprofit. What if you found out someone at your same organization of equal or lower rank, experience, etc. was paid significantly more? How would that effect your conversation with your employer the next time they told you they simply couldn’t afford to pay you at a market rate?
ReplyDeleteI also understand your hesitancy to ask how much your friends make – there is less merit in knowing how much folks in unrelated industries or jobs make than in knowing how much colleagues make. However, many people (and I’m not saying you do this, but many do) make quick estimations in their heads – Sally drives a Mercedes and lives in a tony part of town, so it’s clear that she makes more than Harold, who drives a 1992 Tercel and lives in suburban apartment. Discussions that happen between friends every day – what we did last weekend, where we got our new scarf – can easily have a subtext of money, which is why friendships often do not cross class lines. So in a way, we are all talking about money much of the time without actually talking about money.
For me, it’s thrilling to break social taboos like talking about money, and if we can break them in our circle of friends, it might become easier to break them in the workplace. I also find merit in bringing social subtexts out into the open – when there is open discourse, it is easier to find and solve problems in the light of day, rather than letting them fester in the dark.
Oh, and @Marnen again: What a great strategy for discussing your previous salary history with potential employers! I never knew that was possible – is that what you mean by saying they are Right Out?
ReplyDeleteAwesome piece, but very culturally specific to American Whites (and maybe Blacks too, I'm not too sure).
ReplyDeleteBut peep into an Asian group (whether it be Indian or Chinese or any other - and maybe even the non-Asian Jewish cultural group), and t...he first point of discussion is money and salaries. People in our cultures are so brutally inquisitive that one of the first things Asians who wish to emulate Whites do is learn to stop asking questions about salary and money. This is the widely considered the first step for Asians to learn about personal privacy and boundaries - a concept non-existent in Asian cultures. So much so that Asians who display this sense of awareness of privacy are treated by other Asians as cultural traitors or self-hating wannabe-whites. :-) (I speak from experience of being at the receiving end of this kind of ostracism)
I personally am not comfortable with the level of inquisitiveness and intrusiveness present in Indian (or Asian) cultures. So I'm ok with distancing myself a little bit. But I did realize that because of this financial inquisitiveness, Asian are some of the shrewdest salary negotiators out there. I'm no good at it, but I know that my folks, by and large, are. So your suggestions are definitely bang on target, and they'd work well too, as the Asian folks clearly show us.
What a great idea! Of course these days most of the people I know are either unemployed or retired.
ReplyDeleteSo Sarah. What do YOU make?
ReplyDeleteArvind - good points all! I wonder a great deal how US culture's squeamishness about salary is taken by those who are more open/inquisitive about it, and asked my Indian friend after writing this how he felt about the difference. He had an interesting take, in that being asked about salary by his Indian family and friends seemed natural, but if I had asked him about it, it would have made him very uncomfortable.
ReplyDeleteAnother girlfriend of mine, also from India, was explaining matchmaking to me and said something I found highly awesome: "When choosing a spouse, we(Indians) consider things you (Americans) don't think about, like income, education, and family history." Which of course, we here in the US do consider - we are just too polite/repressed/what-have-you to admit it.
From my perspective, it seems as if Indian and Asian cultures are honest about their desire to know someone's salary - just coming right out and asking - whereas WASPy US culture's inquisitiveness is masked and underhanded, but still very much present. Then again, the grass is always greener, eh?
Hattie - I just read that the unemployment rate is up to nearly 10 percent. How terrible, and how much worse it must be for those that want work but can't find it. Still, I wonder if there is a difference in the amount of unemployment benefits and retirement benefits people get. As I understand it, unemployment benefits are calculated based on a percentage of your income whenever it was you lost your job, therefore would it not follow that those who made more while employed would also make more while unemployed? And similarly for those who are retired - those who were able to contribute more to their 401ks and/or social security would be more well off in retirement?
ReplyDeleteKalvyn - Ironically (or fittingly), my own HR handbook prohibits this kind of useful dishing. Which, actually, you'd think wouldn't be a necessary rule in HR handbooks, since it's so socially ingrained in us that talking turkey is a no-no. Like pooping in public, or something equally reprehensible. I can tell you, however, that all the snark you find on here is completely free of charge.
ReplyDelete