Disclosing rates (was Re: Agency Response - margins)

[Becca Price <RP51 -at- CHRYSLER -dot- COM>]

*** Resending note of 05/19/97 13:53

John Wilcox wrote:
1) If you and I were working for the same employer or client, and if one
of us were making $5.00/hr more than the other for the same work, what
is that to either you or I?  Why do we even need to know?  Did we not
both agree to our respective rate of hire?  Isn't an employer entitled
to offer whatever rate he wants?

yes... and no.  That arguement is used frequently to hide patterns of
discrimination.  I'll never forget the job I had in the mid 70s where
a writer with less training and seniority than I had got all the money
that was in the budget for raises, "because he had a wife to support."
This in spite of the fact that his wife made more money than
my husband did.  Nothing was said about skill levels, or fit in the company...
I left.  Quickly.

John continued...
2) I'm no union man.  I believe in the free-enterprise system.  I
believe employers should be allowed to hire, fire, promote, demote,
etc., based solely on merit.  If you're a better writer than I and can
get more money for the same type of work, I say more power to you --
you've earned the extra pay.  But if you want X just because I'm getting
X, forget it.

This is great, if hireing, firing, and money was based on skills and the
other intangibles that make one person more valuable than another.  But,
again, too often that is used to hide discrimination based on gender or
race.

I'm not rabid about much - I'm too tired to be rabid.  But if all things
are equal, then free enterprize is great.  But when I work just as hard
as someone else, and do just as good or better work, but they're getting
paid more than I am because I happen to have two intact X chromosomes and
they don't, then I get angry.

-becca

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