Tag Archive for pay

Why Do Teachers Strike? Don’t They Care?

They’re out there with signs in the street rather than in their classrooms. Some people drive by and honk in support; others shout insults about overpaid/under-worked people always demanding more money.

Why is it that teachers strike? According to Rebecca Tarlau, who did extensive research on the subject, there are three main reasons that teachers take this action (and I quote her here):

First is the acceleration of market-based education reforms, including the expansion of charter schools.

Second is networks of teacher activists organizing and transforming their unions to focus on broader social issues.

Third is the framing of teacher union action as part of the struggle for racial justice.

All of these factors come back to one thing–the good of their students and offering them the best education possible.

Read about these factors and what else she discovered at What’s Behind the Teacher Strikes?

Worth-less Women

Remember all those reports about women making 70 – 80 cents less per hour than men doing the same job? Those were short-term reports. The gap is even larger, according to a 15-year study by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. They say it’s actually 49 cents for every dollar a man makes in the same job.

Yes, there are laws that are supposed to secure pay equity. But they’re being ignored or circumvented by such devices as hiring two people to do the same job yet giving the man one title and the woman another title.

That gap really affects families and children, because half of the people in the workforce are women. If you’re a single mom, that hurts. If you’re a two-salary family out of necessity, that hurts. If you’re a child in either situation, that hurts.

This, then, is more than an economic or fairness issue–although it’s decidedly both.  It’s also a human issue, one that puts women and children, and even men, on the edge of financial disaster and out on the streets.

Do You Know this About Your Car Insurance?

I learned the hard way.  I thought I was covered and financially protected from bad guys.  Not quite true.

I came out of a store, loaded with groceries, only to find that someone had damaged my car.  There was no note, and no culprit in site.  A hit-and-run.  My insurance agent said No problem–it’s  covered and, since it wasn’t my fault, I wouldn’t have to pay the deductible.  He was wrong.

Apparently, because there wasn’t any other person to blame it on, the insurance company had no other person or insurance company to go after to pay for the damage.  Since my company had to pay, they charged me the  deductible (which is pretty hefty).  And this practice is true throughout the insurance industry.

Not your fault, but you have to pay.  Be warned.

The Mom Project

Women DO get paid the same as men–when they first graduate from college.  The wage gap starts to open up as a woman ages toward motherhood.  Moms make 29% less than dads do in the U.S.

Is a woman less smart, capable, or able once she becomes a mother?  This short video from MomUpAmerica.com answers that question with a bit of stinging humor.

 

 

Secret Payment

I’d add one thing to today’s Thursday Thought:  Better still if nobody knows you did it.  The secret good feeling is more than enough payment.

 

A High-Flying Job–Seeking Applicants

Here’s a job for an adventurous soul: astronaut. NASA is seeking people to “person” the next generation of space ships.  If this sounds like a job for you–even though it pays far less than what you’d get as a CEO of a corporation–check out the benefits and requirements at http://www.scribd.com/doc/72816419/Astronaut-Job.

Applications are supposedly available right now, but when I tried to get the link for you none of them worked.  I’m sure if you simply called the Lyndon B.Johnson Space Center and asked for an application for job #JS12A0001 they’d be more than happy to send you one….

 

 

Sock it to Her…Again

Love soccer and are good enough at it to play in the World Cup?  Go for it, but, if you’re a woman, don’t expect to be paid the bigger bucks the men get.  Comparing women’s tournaments with men’s is “not worth debating” and “nonsense,” according to FIFA’s Secretary General Jerome Valcke.  He doesn’t anticipate any pay equality in the near future, nor does he see a reason for it, even though women’s soccer is becoming more and more popular.

This is yet another area in which gender discrimination rears its ugly head when the same job is being performed by women as it is by men.

Read more about the situation with the World Cup in the Huffington Post article, “FIFA Has No Plans to Give Women Equal World Cup Pay Any Time Soon.

 

 

Women are “Like Men, Only Cheaper”

Women have real worth: they’re cheap.  That’s why the filthy-rich founder of an online advertising company hires them.  They do the work of men, but he doesn’t have to pay them as much.

Well, at least he admits it.

Read this fascinating article by Sarah Gray.  And take note that this is happening in America as well as in Australia–and where else?

 

 

Explain to Me Why We Have to Pay

Can you explain something to me, please?  When my father needed a new oven in the family bakery he saved up and bought it himself.  When my son’s handicap equipment sales and service shop needed painting and plumbing repairs, he paid for it himself.  When I needed updates to my computer and printer so I could carry on my writing and editing business, I used my own money.  None of us went to our customers and said they had to chip in.  And why would they, anyway?

Yet, our gas and electric company is seeking a rate hike–which the PUC will probably give–again–so they can repair and upgrade the pipes that carry their product.  In other words, we customers will be the ones paying for their repairs and upgrades, not the shareholders or the company itself.

I don’t get it.

 

Women Deserve to be Paid Less than Men

Women are just lazier than men. That’s the argument New Hampshire State Rep. Will Infantine makes for higher pay for men.  He calls the pay gap “justified” because men willingly do riskier jobs and work more hours.  Read more about this at the Huffington Post.

If you think there’s any truth to what he claims, you can read the report by the American Association of University Women, “Graduating to a Pay Gap.” It looks at men and women a year after graduating from college with the same major and accounts for other factors that might affect the results. That 7% pay gap is still there.