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Lady GotThere
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49
07/02/20 at 10:13PM UTC (Edited)
in
Diversity & Inclusion

Employer side negotiation tactics and better metrics to close the white/black pay gap

Usually when I see graphs measuring the racial pay gaps, for reasons we all understand, they compare whites and blacks at the same title, experience, and year. But that ignores one of the ways I have seen employer side negotiation tactics maintain and drive pay disparities. Here is the situation: A reasonable person understands that wages cannot be forced to decrease year after year as compared to inflation or cost of living. But many workplaces/stockholders expect exactly that. So what happens when wages are failing to cover rent, healthcare, and basic necessities? People with options turn down the jobs. People without options (or worse options) take them. What did this look like when I was hiring, and salary setters (in my case HR) refused to increase the salary bands? White males turned down the jobs or stopped applying. White women took them but left quickly. Black women applied, accepted them, and stayed. I did not see any black male candidates. So, nice that the workplace was diversifying, but quite bad that black people were being taken advantage of. I think a metric that could be internally adopted and tracked to prevent these outcomes is: ( inflation adjusted black wage yr5) /(inflation adjusted white wage yr1) for any given position. I picked a 5yr interval because it seemed like a time period where meaningful change in salary and diversity could be captured. If the metric is less than 1, then you immediately know that something in. your company's practice is going wrong and that you are penalizing the black labor pool. Importantly, it gives you a number to back up the adhoc observation and to use to lobby for change. Please let me know your ideas for -improving this metric, -suggesting a different one, -and how to pitch these without getting fired/slated for a 'layoff'

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Rachel Minnick
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946
Innovative Nonprofit Professional/California
07/02/20 at 11:08PM UTC
Just to be clear, my post was in no way referring to affirmative action. It's one easy step to transparency, which is essential for equity.
Rachel Minnick
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946
Innovative Nonprofit Professional/California
07/02/20 at 8:45PM UTC
Salaries should be in every job description and salary information should not be a secret. When it's hidden, it is a way to exploit the people who can't afford to turn down jobs and are less likely to negotiate at the risk of seeming too demanding or unreasonable.
Anonymous
07/02/20 at 8:52PM UTC
I agree with Rachel M. Salaries need to be transparent. I do not want us to go back to affirmative action and when we give points or years to a non white population that's what it becomes. Non white people are capable of doing the job without this, employers need to stop the systematic racism and unconscious bias.
JDN
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12
07/02/20 at 8:57PM UTC
I’m confused about your response. Are you saying that affirmative action helps unqualified persons of color get jobs?
Anonymous
07/04/20 at 2:33PM UTC
No I am saying because of systematic racism and unconscious bias whites think affirmative action or a points system is needed for non whites to successfully get jobs. But non whites are more than capable of getting a job and succeeding at that job but they just need to get hired to do so.
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