Equal Wages From Myth To Reality

Employment forms the economic base for people's lives and
it is important to ensure a gender-equal society. The Indian Constitution not
only grants legal equality to women, but also empowers the State to adopt
measures of positive discrimination in favor of women for neutralizing the
socio-economic, educational, and political disadvantages. The Fundamental
Rights, among others ensures equality of opportunity to all citizens in matters
relating to employment. Article 39(c) ensures equal pay for equal work. Article
42 directs the State to make provision for ensuring just and humane conditions
of work and maternity relief and Article 15(3) makes a special provision
enabling the State to make affirmative discriminations in favour of women.

Therefore, women are entitled to equal wages and positive
bias in employment and work under the various sections of the Indian
Constitution. Let us look at the social reality on the ground.

S Lavanya, a student in first grade, is taught the answer
to questions-“What does a father do?” as “A father goes to work and
earns money,” and “What does a mother do?” as “Mother stays at home,
cooks food, and takes care of the family.” Lavanya failed her class test
because she wrote, “Mother goes to work, earns money, and takes care of the
family.” The irony is that her teacher is a female.
This is just an example of today's social conditioning of the young
that results in the wider perception that a woman's income is just for extra
expenses and it's her husband who really earns the 'needed' money.

According to a study by Accenture, globally women are paid
77 cents when a man in the same job gets a dollar.

Durana Habib, technical engineer, Pakistan says, “I think
women are paid lower wages because they aren't thought to be primary
bread-winners in Pakistani. They're probably thought to be less productive in
terms of putting in extra time.”

Bettina Blair, lecturer, Ohio State University agrees. She
says, “I think that women's work is generally undervalued, both in the
private and public sector here in the US.”

Though not all employers think this way, a majority of them
do. Even among the more 'progressive' employers, the higher paying jobs such
as management ones are given to men. So in short, lack of opportunity keeps
women at lower pay levels.

Nithya Ramanathan, software engineer, USA says, “In my
own experience I've repeatedly dealt with discrimination-though it has been
worse in academia. I didn't think it was much of an issue, while I was working
(worked at HP and Intel in computer chip design for 5 years). Now that I'm
back at college-the sexism is prevalent.”

Equal wages is a myth for now. So how do we make it a
reality? We cannot keep quoting the Indian constitution or that of other
countries, can we?  Here are three
steps you can adopt to make equal wages a reality.

Know Your Worth

This is the all-important first step. Just because all your childhood, you
have been treated as second to either your brother or your fellow male student,
doesn't exempt you from knowing your worth as an adult. Salary discrimination
or other red flags from the interview process or corporate culture of a
particular company would tell you, you don't want to work there. So learn
about the company before you apply for a job. Learn to say 'NO' to salary
discrimination. It may seem hard, but accepting a job where you think you are
being 'used' and not recognised for your worth can result in depression. Dr
Nathaniel Branden, a psychologist in his book The Disowned Self talks about how
this leads to 'lowering self-esteem and self respect.'

Nicole Parker, systems engineer, Boston, US says, “I
think you only get paid less if you let that happen. I spent a lot of time laid
off in the past 2½ years, but am happily re-employed. I think knowing your
worth is key and not worrying that asking for it will revoke the job offer.
I've never accepted a red flag job, even if no other job was immediately on
the horizon. Of course, I only have that luxury because I am fiscally very
responsible and was able to afford that decision. Also making the wrong decision
would be much more costly in terms of health and well-being. My husband and I
didn't merge finances until marriage in 2002, so it isn't just that we each
had 'marriage' the security. It was a personal decision.”

Employers and clients will definitely try to pay a woman
less than a man for the same services. This is no corporate conspiracy, but the
psychology of being raised in a patriarchal modern society. So learn to be
assertive and speak up when you think you are being paid unfairly.

Negotiate

It never hurts to ask, so learn to negotiate. It may sound insane, but most
women who can haggle superbly with the vegetable vendor seem unwilling to
negotiate when it comes to their own salary or contract.

Dara Vargas says, “It's my belief that women are
sometimes more passive in their approach to negotiate salaries.”

Claudia Woods, LAN engineer and technical trainer,
Washington DC agrees. She says, “It seems that many women are reluctant to
negotiate. From my own experience, when women do negotiate, some men are less
willing to negotiate with women, but I definitely feel that many men aren't
used to dealing with women who are assertive in anyway.”

In his bestseller, You Can Negotiate Anything: How to get
what you really want, Herb Cohen says, “Almost everything is negotiable.
Nothing is fixed and Signs are not placed by the Big Printer in the Sky.”
Remember it is only a printed sheet of paper and there is no Big Printer in the
Sky, which Krista Luoto found much to her surprise. Krista says, “I think the
reason that I've been paid less than what I thought I should be is that I'm
unable to stand up and negotiate what I deserve.  I'm often uncertain of my value to a company and so I value
myself at the low end of the scale. I'm afraid to demand more. However, in
2003, I had a job offer. I did ask for more money than what they offered and to
my surprise they came back with a better offer! Next time I will have more
confidence when I do this.” 

Take Action

Ever wondered why actresses get paid less than one-third of what the actors
make in our movie industry?  Can you
imagine directors making movies without women forever? Who would go to see them?
Why aren't the actresses getting together and demanding equal pay?

Eileen Machida says, “Women are discriminated against in
all fields except health care. In health care, if a woman works for a large
hospital, she'll be delegated to the pediatric ward even if she's trained as
a surgeon. But among health care workers who are on their own, women can command
the same kinds of rates that men do, and in fact, more and more people prefer a
woman doctor.”

According to Jennifer Bumgarner, executive director, NC
Alliance for Economic Justice, there is a 20-30% wage gap between men and women
in the same job titles could not be explained by different amount of experience
or education, or reputation of the universities attended, and appeared to be due
to gender discrimination.

People protest at the drop of a hat in India. The issues
range from anti-war to cruelty to animals, but never a protest rally for parity
of wages for Indian women, especially women who work in the so-called 'male'
fields of technology. Why? Because subconsciously may Indian women techies think
like Krista. Most believe our incomes are 'additional' and we value
ourselves less resulting in low self-esteem. Well we need to come out of it. As
engineers, many seem to consider it a privilege to be hired to work after
marriage!

As long as men make the rules and hold power in
corporations, governments, policies, even those disguised as 'affirmative
action' are designed to keep men in power and the rules set up so that only
men know what they are.

Equal qualification, experience, and talent should get
equal compensation-this should be the mantra.  

So know your worth, negotiate, and take action-three
steps for making equal wages a reality.

Deepa Kandaswamy

The author is a writer and engineer based in Trichy, TN, whose
articles have been published in six continents.

She is also the founder-moderator of the IndianWISE e-group

mail@dqindia.com