Here’s A Foolproof Idea: Let’s Pay Sarah Silverman Less Than A Dude!
The wage gap is all averages and abstraction until someone comes forward and says, “I, personally, I did the same job as a comparable man and got paid way less for it.” Like comedian and lefty icon Sarah Silverman, for example.
As she describes in the clip, she did a fifteen minute Saturday night set at the New York Comedy Club back-to-back with a male comedian, Todd Barry. The owner gave her $10 and Barry $60. When Silverman found out Barry had gotten so much more than she did, she went back and asked the owner what’s up. He played dumb in response, saying, “Oh, you wanted to be paid that much too?”
“We don’t get what we want. We get what we think we deserve,” Silverman concludes. “Go ahead, ask for more.”
Come for the wisdom, stay for the adorably tiny dog! Both are brought to us by the Levo League. The what now?
Equal work by citizens of different skin tones and genders is not rewarded with equal pay. … I used to be an awful asker. I was the 14-year-old who didn’t correct the family I would babysit for when they gave me less money than we had agreed to, because it felt rude and scary. I was the woman in her first job who didn’t negotiate her entrance package, and didn’t take the opportunity to negotiate a raise after successful performance evaluations–ever. I was the woman who learned that I was making less than my male counterpart on my same team (same level of responsibility and same role) three years in. I assumed that, if I put my head down and did great work, what I deserved would come to me. …
I went from the girl who didn’t push back when I was owed something to the girl who raised millions of dollars for a cause I believe in. And you can, too. My love for what we were creating with Levo outranked the awkward feeling at the back of my neck and the fear of stepping out of line. Don’t be me–I shouldn’t have had to wait until my passion for an external cause exceeded my self-worth.
Though millennial women know they should negotiate salary and benefits packages (except at Reddit), most — about 60% — apparently don’t.
Only 41% negotiated any part (salary and/or benefits) of their job offer when they started their current job, and only 21% negotiated any part of their offer on the first job they took out of school.
Why? A majority of women don’t feel comfortable or prepared to successfully negotiate their job offers.
+ 66% report not having known how to ask for more uncomfortable negotiating
+ 58% were afraid of losing their job/offer
+ 56% didn’t know what to ask for
+ 55% didn’t want to come across as pushy
+ 51% didn’t know they should ask for more
This is all in preparation for and ramping up to April 14th, which is Equal Pay Day, a day I didn’t even know existed. But sure, okay! I’ll put it on my calendar and see if I can work up the courage to, in one of my work situations, ask for more. Maybe you should too?
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