R: Realistic & Fair Wages

Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer, has kicked up all sorts of controversy with her argument that career women can be their own worst enemy and should “lean in” more to their jobs and their ambitions. But the biggest, largely unspoken problem is not that she is elitist, or placing blame in the wrong place. It is that most women can’t rely on their work ethic or the good will of their boss to get ahead— they need stronger legal protections to effectively “lean in.”

It’s a vast, systemic issue. Women’s legal rights – at the moment of hiring, when they receive their paycheck, when they get pregnant, after they give birth – are consistently trampled, and many of them feel powerless to fight back. A recent WSJ/NBC poll found that an overwhelming 84 per cent of American women perceive bias in the workplace.

This week, Martha Roby (R-AL) will introduce the same discredited comp time bill that leaders in her party have been pushing for years. Misleadingly titled “The Working Families Flexibility Act,” HR 1406 would permit private sector employers to offer compensation time in lieu of overtime pay to their hourly work force.

At first glance the idea seems great: flexible time, family friendly. What’s not to love?

Public sector workers can answer this question.  In 1985, Congress voted to amend the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) allowing government employers to offer comp time in lieu of overtime pay.  Family and flexibility had nothing to do with it:  the bill was framed as a cost-savings measure for cash strapped government agencies. The results:  longer work hours and less pay for America’s families.

“I am usually a very shy person, and now I am more outgoing. I was able to teach those children about certain things like snakes that we have and the turtles that we have. … I want to do something toward that, working with children when I get older.”

These inspiring words come from a high school student, who recently testified to fund the Connecticut State Science Center. Aren’t these all things we want for young women? Positive teenage experiences, overcoming shyness, gaining confidence, finding a passion—this girl has got it all, and not only that, but she took the brave step of sharing her experience and participating in the political system so that other teens could have the same opportunities.

Here’s how State Representative Ernest Hewitt replied: “If you’re bashful, I’ve got a snake sitting under my desk here.”

Co-written with Katherine Ullman.

Joan once wrote that the way for women to gain equality was to die childless at thirty, based on data that young women without kids earn almost as much as men. Turns out even that won’t guarantee equality.

A new report released last week by the American Association of University Women (AAUW) finds that the average female college graduate working full-time makes nearly $8,000 less than her male counterpart–only one year after graduation.