My Salary is My Business

Happy Equal Pay Day.

What's that mean, you're wondering? Well, according to the numbers, if My Sweet Baboo were the average male and earned a full dollar in 2013, and I were the average female I would have only earned 77 cents last year, and it would have taken me until today to earn the last 23 cents needed for me to have a 2013 dollar too.

Rather than arguing whether or not a there is a pay gap, and whether or not it's 77 cents to a dollar, and whether or not it's self-inflicted because women take low paying jobs, or have babies, or aren't driven or don't have the right personalities, or are held back by a glass ceiling, let's talk about today, about President Obama signing an executive order and issuing a presidential memorandum to help address that wage gap.  They both have limited impact, but there's at least some chance -- however slim -- that they could become law for all employers.

The first one, the executive order, will prohibit contractors working for the federal government from taking action against employees who talk salary with coworkers. According to the White House,

It is important that women and all employees feel they can seek information about pay from colleagues without the threat of being fired.

The memorandum directs the Department of Labor to get data from those federal contractors, compensation data broken down by gender and race. The thinking here, again according to the administration?

It aims to allow for more efficient enforcement and even voluntary compliance.  Employers often don't realize there is a pay gap until they're confronted with it. 

I can't speak to the second point above, but I can to the first. I've worked at companies where discussing salary was strongly discouraged, even if there wasn't an official policy on the subject. I have friends who have worked (or still do) at companies where asking someone else their salary was grounds for dismissal, as was answering the question if asked.  Admittedly this was back in the day but I'm reasonably comfortable there are still companies with policies like that. And, frankly I am reasonably comfortable with a policy like that.

Maybe my sensitivity to discussing my salary comes from my childhood, seeing my Dad's name and salary published in the newspaper back in the 70s when he was a teacher with a master's degree who made a ton of money -- barely more than one of his former students made working as a union janitor at a local factory, and almost as much as a friend's dad who was a truck driver.  Yeah, that could be why.

Or maybe it's because I don't feel a sense of sisterhood (or any other kind of hood) to such an extent that I'd share my personal information with someone out of solidarity.  Yeah, that could be why, too.

Regardless of what the company policy is, or what the executive order says, my policy has always been and will always be don't ask, don't tell.  Because there are only a handful of people who need to know what I make:  me, my boss, the taxman, and My Sweet Baboo.

And I'm not sure how much he cares, as long as I can afford to buy the groceries and the cat food.