Woodland Creature

You Say You Want a Devolution?

Since 1992, as the technological miracles and wonders have propagated and the political economy has transformed, the world has become radically and profoundly new. (And then there’s the miraculous drop in violent crime in the United States, by half.) Here is what’s odd: during these same 20 years, the appearance of the world (computers, TVs, telephones, and music players aside) has changed hardly at all, less than it did during any 20-year period for at least a century. The past is a foreign country, but the recent past—the 00s, the 90s, even a lot of the 80s—looks almost identical to the present.

As a child of the ’90s, I’m not really on board with this statement. Has Kurt Andersen never seen Fuck Yeah Ugly ’90s Clothes? I don’t think you’d mistake any of those people for being from the year 2012.

Yeah, people still wear plaid shirts and jeans and sneakers, but those things all look pretty different today, in terms of cut, fit and color. And some things are just classics that never go out of style — Converse Chuck Taylors, Levi’s 501s and Ray-Ban Wayfarers have all endured since the ’50s. But I think that says more about the timelessness of those items themselves than fashion being stagnant overall.

Obama for America: The Lily Ledbetter Act

barackobama:

“An anonymous coworker—to this day, I don’t know who—had left a pencil-written note on a torn piece of paper with some numbers on it. It showed how much more my male coworkers were making, even though they had less education, training and experience.

I’d been at Goodyear almost 20 years, and was still making 20 percent less than the lowest-paid male supervisor in my same position. I’d been praised and promoted by my bosses, but rewarded with much smaller raises than my male coworkers got.

It hit me in the gut like a ton of bricks. I immediately thought of the countless overtime hours that I worked every chance I could, and realized I was paid for them based on an unfair salary. All those good days of work hadn’t earned me the good day’s pay I deserved.

It was about fairness, and it was against the law.”

—Lilly Ledbetter writing in the Charlotte Observer today. Three years ago, President Obama made a fair pay act that bears her name the first bill he signed into law as president.

Ladies, always make sure you know what you’re worth. Ask friends who have left your company what they think you should be making, ask friends who work in your industry at different companies, ask recruiters who reach out to you with job offers (if you want this to happen, make sure you have a detailed LinkedIn profile set up and connect with everyone you know), do research online (Glassdoor is a good resource and here’s a helpful guide I found for the public relations industry). 

Then, once you know how much you should be making, state your case to your employer as to why they should give you that much (well, that much plus a few thousand dollars more, in case they bargain you down), based on what you’ve contributed to the company. And if they won’t give it to you, and they don’t offer a good reason why, find a company that will. Sometimes it’s as easy as just working up the courage to ask, which men do all the time.

It’s important to remember that no boss is just going to hand you tons more money. That just doesn’t make business sense. But if you’re great at your job, it’s easier and less expensive for them to give you what you’re worth than to try to replace you. So get it, girl!

Source: barackobama