Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!ora!daemon
From: scl@sasha.acc.Virginia.EDU (Steve Losen)
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Subject: Re: how to bash feminism without really trying
Keywords: What you *DO* is what you are.
Message-ID: <1191@uvaarpa.virginia.edu>
Date: 23 Oct 89 16:47:33 GMT
References: <2357@cbnewsl.ATT.COM> <15799@duke.cs.duke.edu>
Sender: ambar@ora.ora.com
Reply-To: scl@sasha.acc.Virginia.EDU (Steve Losen)
Organization: University of Virginia
Lines: 52
Approved: ambar@ora.com

> > When you have several people with similar qualification,
> > hire the one with the *lowest* current income.  

Since women's salaries are lower on average, wouldn't this be a form of
AA for women? :-)

> When I took an interviewer's seminar, they told us NEVER to ask what the
> candidate is currently making, because it is not strictly related to the
> job being discussed and could therefore open up the company to discrimination
> suits. They also told us NEVER to ask the age of the dandidate, whether
> they have children, how they will be getting themselves to work, etc.

> Marcel-Franck Simon             mingus@attunix.ATT.COM, attunix!mingus

Non-disclosure of current salary is an excellent idea, but is probably not
the "real world" rule.  Prospective employers use this all the time, and
sometimes it backfires.

I have a female friend who was the director of a large department.  Her
assistant director resigned and the personnel dept. hired a male
replacement.  Within a few days my friend discovered that her new
subordinate was making about 5k more than she was.  She asked the
personnel dept why, and they said that they had to at least match the
man's former salary.  Naturally my friend demanded a raise of at least
5k.  After all, if they were willing to pay the new man 5k more
than her, she must be grossly underpaid, considering her years of
experience and her higher position.  They refused, pointing out that the man
was married, had kids in college, etc., while my friend was single with
no dependents.  Naturally, she quit.  The man became the new director.
He quit within two weeks, because he was trying to do the work of two
people and learn the ropes at the same time.  This left personnel with the
onerous task of filling the two top positions in a large dept.

Another female friend of mine got a new job for a company that needed
people for a new project.  They had two positions available, one of
which required more technical experience and paid about 10k more.
My friend got the lower position and a man got the higher position.  It soon
became apparent to my friend that the man was less proficient in the project
area, as she often ended up doing more of the work.  Through the grapevine
she found out that when filling the two positions, the company looked over
all the applications and picked the best two.  Since my friend's previous
salary was considerably less than the man's, they naturally offered the
better position to the man.  When my friend made it known that she was
actively seeking new employment she quickly got promoted.

I'm sure it has escaped no one's notice how salary history can
perpetuate the gender gap in salaries.  From what I've seen, if a
prospective employer ever asks a woman her present salary, she would be a
fool to not jack it up by at least 10k.

Steve Losen     scl@virginia.edu
University of Virginia Academic Computing Center