Posts Tagged wage

A Toolkit for Women Seeking a Raise

Posted by Tetyana Matychak in Budget on May 31st, 2010

Even now, when women represent half the work force, they’re still paid considerably less than men — and part of that pay gap may be a result of what happens at the salary negotiation table.

That’s assuming that women make it to the table, since research shows that they are less likely to ask for raises. Even when they do, their requests may be perceived as overly demanding or less agreeable.

“We have found that if a man and a woman both attempt to negotiate for higher pay, people find a woman who does this, compared to one who does not, significantly less attractive,” said Hannah Riley Bowles, an associate professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, who has conducted numerous studies on gender, negotiation and leadership. “Whereas with the guy, it doesn’t seem to matter.”

So what’s a woman to do if she feels her work merits a raise?

A new study concludes that women need to take a different approach than men. Women, it suggests, should frame their requests in more nuanced ways to avoid undermining their relationship with their boss. Read the rest of this entry »

,

No Comments

Awareness Rises, but Women Still Lag in Pay

Posted by Tetyana Matychak in Budget on March 12th, 2010

Companies in the United States, Spain, Canada and Finland lead the world in employing the largest numbers of women from entry level to senior management, according to a report published Monday by the World Economic Forum. Yet the report also found that, despite increasing awareness of gender disparities in the workplace, women at many of the world’s top companies continued to lag behind their male peers in many areas, including pay and opportunities for professional advancement.

Moreover, many of these companies have yet to implement policies to address these gaps, despite pressure from many of their governments to do so.

The forum, based in Switzerland, surveyed 600 heads of human resources offices at the largest employers in 20 countries representing 16 different industries.

The poll assessed companies according to a range of criteria, including rates of female representation, whether the companies measured or set targets for gender balance in pay or promotion, and whether they offered benefits, like paid family leave, to promote work-life balance for their employees. Read the rest of this entry »

No Comments

U.S. unemployment rate hits 9.4% in May, highest since 1983

Posted by Tetyana Matychak in Budget, Favourites on June 5th, 2009

The Labor Department report offers some hope, however: The 345,000 jobs lost last month are the fewest since September and half the average of the previous six months.

The nation’s breathtaking pace of job loss slowed significantly in May, bolstering hopes that the worst of the recession is over. But millions of Americans and their families face continued economic pain with the unemployment rate jumping to 9.4%.

The contrasting trends underscore a painful economic reality: even as the recession winds down, hundreds of thousands of workers may continue to lose their jobs — and the unemployed may be among the last to reap the benefits of recovery.

The Labor Department reported Friday that the U.S. economy shed 345,000 jobs in May, bringing the total number of jobs lost in the recession to 6 million. The unemployment rate rose to the highest level since 1983, a full one-half percentage point above the 8.9% in April.

Normally, losing more than 300,000 jobs in one month and seeing the jobless rate near 10% would be cause for alarm. But May’s job losses are the lowest since September and were only half the average monthly losses in the last six months. Read the rest of this entry »

, ,

2 Comments