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Woodland Creature
Obama for America: The Lily Ledbetter Act
“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!
jobs careers women feminism obama equal pay work moneyBeing the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me…Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful…that’s what matters to me.steve jobs quotes apple R.I.P. money
Why I Want to Marry Rich
Ooh! Ooh, I know! “Because I am the worst”? I did enjoy this comment, though.
women money gold diggers WTF
The Ugliness Penalty
Sad/crazy but true:
- Attractive people make $230,000 more than unattractive people, over the course of a lifetime
- Good-looking professors earn 6% more than their average-looking peers and unattractive quarterbacks earn 12% than their better-looking peers (in the latter case, probably due to the endorsement deals?)
- Unattractive women earn 3% less than average-looking women, while unattractive men earn 22% less than their decent-looking counterparts (I’m guessing because it’s easier and more socially acceptable for women to cosmetically alter their appearances than for men to do so)
- Based on an attractiveness scale of one to five, most people surveyed will generally agree on the rating of someone’s looks
- 10 to 15 percent of the population falls into the “below-average attractiveness” category
It is sort of depressing how much of your success is determined by your genes and the life you were born into.
beauty looks money attractiveness statistics studies
Carrie Bradshaw Math
Carrie Bradshaw, you gotta be tripping balls to have us believe that you can sustain yourself that extravagantly on that one stupid-ass column. You lying bitch!…
But listen. Stop trying to pretend that you can live in New York and have this overly successful life based on writing alone. It’s a cruel joke! It hurts my feelings! You have to be poor as fuck because every writer, including myself, moves to NYC and feels oftentimes homeless. A good day is when you don’t think ‘maybe I should cook these garbage rats for sustenance’ and a great day is ‘i have 35 dollars I’m going to finally be able to eat something other than canned beans and Four Loko.’ YOU MAKE NONE OF THE SENSE, BRADSHAW.
I always found this to be obnoxious. All of the other characters have believable sources of income. But, I mean, Carrie was the worst one anyway.
sex and the city nyc money carrie bradshaw
Women With College Degrees Earn $713,000 Less Than Men Overall
Aaand I no longer feel guilty about letting dudes pay for my drinks.
money sexism gender work
I’m trying to get my finances under control because my horoscope said I need to (hey, whatever works, right?). Since I am mathematically/financially inept, I’m giving Mint.com another shot. This is a graph of my 2010 spending, which is a little skewed because the “Uncategorized” section includes cash (who knows where that went) and other mysterious expenses I have no memory of.
Most of my money goes to rent, of course. “Health & Fitness” consists of co-pays that I can’t get reimbursed for because I’m going out of network, which my crappy health insurance plan doesn’t allow (although upgrading in March to a more expensive plan that does allow out-of-network visits should hopefully solve this). I spend a ton of money on food, no surprise there. I do think it’s interesting that I spent more money on gifts and charity donations than on my own “Personal Care” (hair, manicures). Told you I was low-maintenance.
budgets money infographics spending personal finance
I just signed up for Mint.com to see if it can help me manage my finances better. It’s actually really cool, but it was pretty depressing to find out that my net worth is $816.
money personal finance life
