My concentration has been shot lately. I don't know if it's the meds, weather changes, old age or what. It stinks but there's an upside. (There's always an upside in my happy, optimistic world.) I've been expanding my online horizons and finding all kinds of interesting things.
Yesterday, ABC News ran a story about a class action lawsuit against the company owned by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. In the suit, 72 women claim pregnancy bias saying that they were demoted, lost career opportunities and suffered reduced wages as a result of their pregnancies. The article states that according to charges filed with the EEOC, the company has a "systemic, top-down culture of discrimination" created by Mr. Bloomberg himself.
Earlier this week, personal finance blogger, FruGal, posted an entry about a conversation she had with a business owner acquaintance who admitted that if he has two candidates of child-bearing age, he'd rather hire a man than woman. He sees hiring as an investment in his company. Men are the better bet because men don't have to divide their attention between work and children. He'd rather hire men even if the women applying for jobs don't actually have children.
Last week, the findings from a study on the impact of gender views on wages were released. The study followed male and female participants over a 25 year period . The study found that men who held traditional views on gender roles earned, on average, over $11,000 more a year than men who held less traditional views. (I won't mention the wage differences between the men and women. There's no such thing in my happy, optimistic world.) I told one of my co-workers about the study and said that in order for him to get ahead in the wage game, he had to tell his wife to get barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen. He said he'd have plenty of time to earn more money when he saw his kids every other weekend after saying that to his wife.
Obviously we now know why Michael Bloomberg is richer than God, FruGal's acquaintance owns his own successful mid-sized company, and my co-worker is languishing away at company X.
Here are links. Enjoy.
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Blotter/TheLaw/story?id=5940693&page=1
http://www.totallymoney.com/frugal/?p=374
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/21/AR2008092102529.html?sub=new
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