Related to yesterday's guest lecture, I visited the International Equal Pay Day Platform and had to laugh about this video: Global Equal Pay Day Campaign
I know, this issue is not a new one. In fact it is as talked to death as global warming and the unstoppable climate change. Nonetheless, it did not lose in importance. It is turly incredible that women still have to face the fact that they are earning less than men for the same work and effort.
Personally, I feel that there actually should not even be the need of never-ending discussions about this topic in the first place!
Thus, not to talk this explosive issue to more death (sorry for this "highly creative construction"), just watch the video and quietly grin to yourself about our conservative society and outdated way of thinking.
(If you would like to comment, however, please feel free to do so ;) )
Hey there :)
AntwortenLöschenThanks for this nice video. There's not much to say except that this should NOT be reality, especially not in a country like Austria which we like to think is so progressive. How progressive can a country be where women get paid up to almost one third less than men (highest difference in Vorarlberg 31,4%)? Considering that the average difference in Europe is about 17%, this is simply embarrassing.
I also say thanks for that video. I think it uses a nice way to illustrate the topic. As you already said: there is not much to comment on this. In my opinion the permanent discussion made people look at an important topic, like it was something ridiculous and plainly annoying. Just think about the many times we talked about this topic in vaious language classes and the reactions the teacher got...
AntwortenLöschenAs Verena said: it is embarrassing.
What I really don't understand is how this can still happen? It's nothing that needs extensive planning or a genius idea how to solve the problem. It makes me angry and sad that this issue still has to be discussed. It should be self-evident that you get the same money for the same job. I can only agree with you: It's embarrassing.
AntwortenLöschenthanks for the video, it's really a nice illustration of this topic. As you all said already it's simply unfair and should not be something that needs to be discussed in public. But sadly it still is reality even in such progressed countries like Austria or Germany.
AntwortenLöschenBut for me the big problem is not only the unequal payment, but the general unequal treatment of women versus men in the business world. Not long ago, a friend of mine had a job interview and one of the last questions the employer asked was "And what about family? do you want to have kids in the near future?". As she is only 25 and not planning on having a family soon, of course she said no. In the end she didn't get the job, instead they took a man. This illustrates perfectly how unfair the situation is. Even so, a future employer shouldn't ask for such private things, they still ask for it. And even if you negate it and emphasize on the point that you want to focus on your career and not have kids at this moment, they still will have in their mind that one day you might get pregnant and leave the company. Whereas with male candidates they don't really have this problem..
Another problem are the child care facilities which are still really poor in Austria compared to other countries in the EU. Especially when you're not living in a big city, you actually have no possibilities where to put your children before the age of 2 or 3 when you want to return to work. So many mothers acutally don't have a choice but to stay home for quite a long time after they had a baby and of course, the longer you're away from your job, the harder it is to return and get back your initial position.
I read all your replies and tried to very carefully formulate my reply.
AntwortenLöschenI agree with all of you, that it should not be that there are different salaries for the same work.
But recent studies showed that female employees do not ask as often for higher salary as the male employees do.
That might be a reason.
The following only concerns what Anja wrote:
We also have to consider everything from the side of the employeer.
In my opinion the legal framework that protects female employees in case they get pregnant, also reduces the chance for a female applicant to be hired.
Whereas this framework provides more possibilities and rights for female employees, it limits the employeer and causes challenges.
The employer has to find a replacement for the time during maternity leave. This new employee needs training and the current operations may not be handled properly during this time.
When the maternity leave ends, the former female employee may come back and if the company doesn´t have enough funds, the other employee, which replaced her, has to be fired.
Or she wants to work part time, which means that again, there may be only enough money to hire another parttime employee. So the one, who replaced her, only has the possiblity to work part time.
We also have to consider that the female employee don´t get the work experience, they would get without pregnancy.
It is even more complicated for sales as you have personal relationship with your customers, which are now looked after by someone else.
In many areas it can be valueable to have employees with the experience of a mother, but there are many where it is not.
In case of TNT they might prefer to have a good working climate, where nobody has to be afraid to get fired for their family plans.
But there are companies, where money is the most important determining factor for success.
Once again, this is not my personal opinion, but I know that many employers are thinking that way.