Evil HR Lady readers get a 10 percent discount at AIHR.
Enter the Code “evilhrlady” at checkout for a 20 percent discount.
E-mail me!. Unfortunately, I can’t answer every question, but I do try to do as many as I can. To increase your chances of getting your question answered, please limit yourself to two-three reasonably sized paragraphs and try to figure out what your real problem is. Punctuation and capitalization are pluses.
All HR people are evil, it’s in our job description. Or at least, that seems to be the prevailing theory. In reality, there’s just more going on behind the scenes than most people know. I’m here to demystify your Human Resources department and tell you just why you worked your tail end off all year and still got a 1.7 percent bonus.
I hate to say this, but it flies in the face of previous statements saying that men and women are paid equally. I will argue that men and women may be paid the same, but not equally. In short, an average performing man and a high performing woman will be paid the same.
There are also issues in so-called meritocracies. Studies show that a mans work will be graded higher than a womans work, even when it is the same. This again means that a man will get a bigger pay raise.
It is better than it was 30 years ago, but still not equal.
I don’t think it has anything to do with who will negotiate. I think it’s still the good ol boys network where they make sure men get the money. I had a coworker who got a promotion and raise each time his wife got pregnant because his boss thought that a man with a family needed the money. But the single mom raising her family got little to nothing. It’s still the same old stereotypes.
Except if that were the case, then the raises wouldn’t be equal in the situation where there weren’t discussions. That’s what’s so fascinating here–it’s not a total disparity, it’s a disparity based on a particular circumstance.
I suppose a company truly committed to equality could then refuse to discuss raises, but one equalling effect would be that their employees are equally mad.
I think that it is both. While there is still discrimination against women, that doesnt’ always apply. I work with all women and have women bosses. It is the squeaky wheel that gets the grease. Generally, when faced with a decision, a manager is going to know who would complain and who goes with the flow. If a manager knows that a person will complain about a small raise, they may give them a bigger one to keep from having the conversation. I work with 95% women and I can honestly say that one of my cowokers gets a lot of the good projects because she is more vocal than I am. And…I bet she makes more money because of it. Women are raised not to make waves and to not question. I am now working on myself to be more “like a man” at work and guess what? It is working. I’m getting more respect and more projects…and this leads to a higher raise.
There is blatant discrimination against women in some workplaces, but we need to rise above the stereotypes and stop worrying if we are “whinning” or “nagging” about a low raise. Get in there and have that talk that managers hate and you will see results.
You know it’s bad when EHRL – whose posts indicate a strong belief that problems women have with compensation are almost always due to their own personal choices – is admitting that even the most skilled can’t negotiate their way out of this trap.
I like to believe that most people and managers are basically decent sorts and don’t sit down methodically plotting ways to disadvantage half their employees. But this is a reminder that the unconscious notions we harbor about other people impact how we treat them, and there are very real employment consequences to this, even for people who do all of the right things.
And it’s also a reminder of how much of what we do in the workplace is motivated by a desire not to be hassled! I definitely agree with Rachael that women, as a group, need to be more assertive in order for this playing field to be leveled. But it’s super hard to fight what your culture expects you to be and how your culture expects you to behave. These are huge structural changes.