Another point that was not made is the fact the young lady could get fired because she was discussing salaries. That is usually a big no-no in the professional industry. She really should fume quietly, and at the appropriate time, prove her merits and ask for a raise

except that its illegal.

its called the EEO act. look it up.

the only time you can get fired for knowing someone else's salary is if you came about the info wrong - ie snooping. however her coworker told her! she can't get fired for information he decided to tell her.

sayraht:

except that its illegal.

its called the EEO act. look it up.

the only time you can get fired for knowing someone else's salary is if you came about the info wrong - ie snooping. however her coworker told her! she can't get fired for information he decided to tell her.

According to my employer's policy, any discussion of pay between employees is grounds for termination. In fact, every company I have worked for had that same policy.

As someone in Human Resources we respectfully suggest to our employees to keep their salaries to themselves and private, but if they choose not to we will not terminate. Many employees do and say things that are in violation of a company’s policy daily and while to reprimand and do a “write up” are sometimes necessary it is up to either the supervisors or Human Resources to determine the severity of the offense. Each company has their own policies and procedures not to mention reasons for terminating. Although to get to termination there does need to be a path laid out beforehand by the employer to protect the organization i.e. wrongful termination. The intern needs to find out the policy for her company and proceed from there, if her and the intern are equals in every way than she does have a right to address the discrepancy; if the policy is such that she could be reprimanded or terminated then why not just go into the supervisor's office and ask for a raise. Either way the internship discrepancy should be reported to the supervising professor.

dumb_blonde:

According to my employer's policy, any discussion of pay between employees is grounds for termination. In fact, every company I have worked for had that same policy.

And don't you wonder why? This is a rule that was made by men to keep women and minorities from finding out that they were being underpaid.

Just like when they explain to this intern that her male counterpart deserves a dollar an hour more than her because he "presented better" than she did at the interview. Nothing illegal about that and most women don't have the balls to see it for the obvious jab to their ego that it is and they just slink away to cry in their haagen dazs and wonder what's wrong with me and why don't the boys like me?

IMHO she's going to be a very unhappy person if she believes the fish tales about everyone else's salary and continues to compare herself to others during her career. The only one she should be competing with is herself and if she doesn't think her pay is commesurate with her work, then she needs to address this on it's own merit and stop spinning a web of speculative drama based on one thing her coworker told her.

That's a bit cynical, it's a rule made by most HR divisions inside a company to keep co-workers focused on work and not who gets payed more. People with more work experiance will often ask to be paid more than someone with little to no work experiance, and they deserve it, even if they are working on the same type of projects.

I have seen this back fire first hand. Some temporary employes were getting bonuses every 800 hours and some were not. It was all down to what occured during the highering process and finer details of temporary contracts. Those who complained to HR were written up as in violation of company policies and could have even been fired.

If the one hiring made the offer of what each would make, and told them they would have the same responsibilities, then the company is violating the law. However, if the one hiring asked how much they wanted and based their wages on their responses, then she shot herself in the foot by undervaluing herself.

There could be other factors, as well. For instance, if the other student has a certain number of hours credit and she doesn't, it may be company policy to pay the extra dollar for the extra education. Someone else pointed out he might have work experience she does not.

However, it is true that many companies make it a policy to fire anyone discussing wages. They probably have the right to do this, unless it's merely a cover-up for criminal activity. She could go straight to the EEOC to report the discrepancy, and let them work it out. This would have a number of negative consequences, plus any settlement she may be due she wouldn't see perhaps for years.

It would put the company under government scrutiny when it is possible everything actually is on the up and up. It might cost the supervisor his job, even if he did no wrong. It probably would mean that the company would cease to accept interns, particularly from her college. It might even cause the company to be more cautious about hiring women to do the same jobs as men in the future.

At a minimum, it would be the death knell for her career, when it hasn't even begun yet. Whatever she does, she needs to consider carefully what she really wants. The safest thing might be to ask someone in HR what the range usually is for her position. If she's at the bottom of the range, perhaps she can ask for a bit more; though, it would probably reflect poorly on her for future employment consideration there.

I do agree that she's lucky to get a paid internship. They are becoming more and more rare.

The "no discussing pay" policy that many companies have is an example of what economists call "price discrimination".

It's like how a catalogue can advertise the exact same hair trimmer one one page for humans, and on another page for pets, and sell the supposedly human hair trimmer for more.

Or how supermarkets sell the prepackaged mushrooms for twice as much as the loose ones by weight.

Or how online retailers charge people different prices based on their previous purchase history. A customer with a record of buying expensive items gets charged more for the same book or CD as a customer with a record of being a bargain hunter.

It is beneficial for companies to price discriminate because in the end they make more money. If they set the prices of their products uniformly high, they would scare off the bargain hunters. But if they set them uniformly low, they would miss out on customers who are willing to pay more. So they try to let each customer (roughly) set their own price.

Price discrimination relies on 2 things:

1. Giving people an opportunity to reveal that they're wiling to pay more for what is essentially the same thing.

2. Maintaining an environment of imperfect information. The supermarket puts the packaged mushrooms on the other side of the store as the loose ones, hoping that most people won't bother to compare. The online retailer charging different prices relies on it being unlikely that different customers tell each other what they paid for the same thing. (With Amazon.com, when people finally caught on, they complained, and the company had to end the policy.)

Likewise, the company allows employees to reveal that they are willing to be paid less in initial interviews, and then makes a policy that hinders them from getting information about what other people make. So if on average, women are psychologically more risk-averse and are shyer about negotiating their wages, they will end up being paid less than men. They have been put in an environment in which it is easy to price-discriminate against themselves.

And that is also incidentally why the workings of the free market won't smooth out the pay disparity on its own.

When I first started in the print business (19 years ago), I was working with 23 men, no other women but me. I was hired at the same starting pay as the guys, I surpassed almost all of them in quality & quantity, at 9 months, I became the shift trainer. With in a year, I had received a couple really good raises, based on my job performance. Pretty soon, I was one of the highest paid. The production expectancy was based on me. I had made senior operator faster then everyone else. I lifted those 50lb cases of paper just like everyone else. I got forklift certified & trained on the paperwork & trained with the techs to make minor repairs. I earned my level of pay, Intern needs to earn hers.

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dumb_blonde:

When I first started in the print business (19 years ago), I was working with 23 men, no other women but me. I was hired at the same starting pay as the guys, I surpassed almost all of them in quality & quantity, at 9 months, I became the shift trainer. With in a year, I had received a couple really good raises, based on my job performance. Pretty soon, I was one of the highest paid. The production expectancy was based on me. I had made senior operator faster then everyone else. I lifted those 50lb cases of paper just like everyone else. I got forklift certified & trained on the paperwork & trained with the techs to make minor repairs. I earned my level of pay, Intern needs to earn hers.

It is possible to do a good job and still get the shaft, but that's where you vote with your feet.

How about "male intern needs to earn his level of pay?" These kids are just staring out, and haven't had 19 years to build up an excellent work record like you have. All they've got are the classes they've taken, and maybe a past summer job or two--not enough to equal big pay discrepancies for performance yet.

dumb_blonde:

When I first started in the print business (19 years ago), I was working with 23 men, no other women but me. I was hired at the same starting pay as the guys, I surpassed almost all of them in quality & quantity, at 9 months, I became the shift trainer. With in a year, I had received a couple really good raises, based on my job performance. Pretty soon, I was one of the highest paid. The production expectancy was based on me. I had made senior operator faster then everyone else. I lifted those 50lb cases of paper just like everyone else. I got forklift certified & trained on the paperwork & trained with the techs to make minor repairs. I earned my level of pay, Intern needs to earn hers.

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I am happy that you were treated fairly at your workplace. However you were fortunate to work for such a company; you lucked into the exception, not the norm. As countless detailed studies have shown.

I really think that the more you complain and throw a fit about the disparity the more resistant people would be to take you seriously. You might get the $1/hr raise but you will be forever labeled a trouble maker.

This doesn't mean sit back and take it. If there is gender bias in your workplace why do you want to be there? If it was just one manager, maybe you can make a change. But most likely it is a company wide climate. Go somewhere where you can be judged for yourself. I really liked mermaids comment . . .

mermaid33:

IMHO she's going to be a very unhappy person if she believes the fish tales about everyone else's salary and continues to compare herself to others during her career. The only one she should be competing with is herself and if she doesn't think her pay is commesurate with her work, then she needs to address this on it's own merit and stop spinning a web of speculative drama based on one thing her coworker told her.