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The Church and the Wage Gap

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Wage Gap Church Marquee

There are few forms of discrimination that have as much wide-spread and consistent impact on success then the wage gap. The wage gap references the statistical gap between men and women’s pay for equal work. To date, all skills and experience being equal, white women earn 77 cents on the dollar that white men earn. Men and women of color fare worse.

The Equal Pay Act was signed in 1963, making it illegal for employers to pay unequal wages to men and women who hold the same job and do the same work. At the time of the EPA’s passage, women earned just 58 cents for every dollar earned by men. By 2006, that rate had only increased to 77 cents, an improvement of less than half a penny a year. Minority women fare the worst. African-American women earn just 64 cents to every dollar earned by white men, and for Hispanic women that figure drops to merely 52 cents per dollar. –InfoPlease

And if you don’t think those pennies add up, consider that a college graduated women will lose over $1 million in wage earnings compared to her male counterpart due to wage discrimination.  This sort of discrimination is intolerable and even more so because there is a lot that we can do to address it.

How can the church begin to address this issue? There is much we can do, and plenty of resources to guide us. The following is a simple plan for taking action in your church.

  1. Document and Research
  2. Collaborate and Learn
  3. Talk to the Boss
  4. Celebrate!

1. Document and Research – There are some compelling reasons to make our salaries known. The taboo on sharing how much you make is one of the reasons this sort of discrimination can thrive. Knowing what others in your field make will help you be aware of if you are being unfairly paid.  Churches as communities and action centers are a perfect place to coordinate this kind of sharing. Researching wages within your field and if you are being appropriately paid is something many people already do individually. While individual research has benefits, imagine the collaborative ability a church body has to gather this type of information and keep it shared and public within the community. Within the church, opening conversations about our incomes could have all kinds of other implications as well. Documenting also means letting it be known when you feel you were mistreated or unfairly dealt with as it relates to your wage. If any place should be a safe haven and a place to share those things, it should be the church.

2. Collaborate and Learn– Caring after the orphans and widows in their distress has to do with a lot more then providing clothing and shelter (though that’s good too). Acts of charity are good things, but wouldn’t it be amazing to see the church as a collaborating force to ensure women were treated and paid fairly? The church, as a unified body, is just the sort of community that can provide the resources and preparation for demanding fair wages.  If someone had concerns about their unfair treatment at work, the church should be able to provide contact information and resources for learning how to negotiate, rather then just an offer to pray for the person.  An African American women earning the dollar (rather then 64 cents to a white males dollar) she deserves for her work doesn’t need to depend on the charity of others to survive and she can have the pride of standing on her own two feet, rather then being the victim of oppressive discrimination.

3. Talk to the Boss– Probably the most intimidating and daunting task of many people’s jobs is asking something of their boss. Especially for single-income households, talking to your boss about your pay, or any acknowledgment of being unsatisfied with work, can be a very scary task as there is probably a great fear of getting fired. Once again, the church has an important role in this step. The churches role is to be a supportive and loving body in the midst of injustice. So, not only do we help empower and prepare people to ask for equal wages, we are also there to support them should their demands be met with resistance. It’s much easier to stand strong against mistreatment and discrimination if you have a loving supportive community around you.

4. Celebrate!– I’d urge churches or small groups to have Wage Parties, or maybe Against Injustice parties. When my house mate paid off his last school loan and became debt free, we had a celebratory party. It was a beautiful thing. Like a celebration after finding a lost coin or sheep, we should celebrate when unjustly stolen salaries have been given back. The church should be a place of praise and celebration, for fair wages as much as anything else.

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source:  The steps used are based loosely on an article, Mind the Wage Gap, from the fall 2005 issue of Ms. Magazine.

(This post was originally posted in April of 2007)

Money & Stewardship

Ask The Readers: How Does Your Annual Spending Compare?

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I figure a lot of folks are doing their taxes these days, so it might be a good time to ask a budget and spending question. I’m curious as to how your annual spending compares to the Federal Poverty Guidelines. Here are the 2008 stats, find the number of people in your family and look at the column on the right.

2008 HHS Poverty Guidelines

Persons
in Family or Household		 48 Contiguous
States and D.C.		 Alaska Hawaii
1 $10,400 $13,000 $11,960
2 14,000 17,500 16,100
3 17,600 22,000 20,240
4 21,200 26,500 24,380
5 24,800 31,000 28,520
6 28,400 35,500 32,660
7 32,000 40,000 36,800
8 35,600 44,500 40,940
For each additional
person, add		 3,600 4,500 4,140

I don’t know how many of you keep close track of your monthly spending, have a monthly budget or anything like that, but if you do, follow the steps below and fill out the survey questions.

  1. Find the Poverty line for your household size on the chart.
  2. Take your monthly or annual budget.
  3. Subtract from your monthly or annual budget any school loans.
  4. If you have a mortgage, subtract the Principal and Interest portion, and only include the taxes and home insurance. (Anything you’d continue to pay even after you no longer had a mortgage and completely owned the home).
  5. No compare your budget and the Poverty Guideline.

How do they compare? Fill out your answer in the survey below (it’s anonymous).

I know, kind of a bizarre question. I’ve posted on this topic before, but I’m working on some more financial related posts/articles and wanted to do a quick reader survey. Thanks for humoring me. Definitely post comments if you have any on the topic.

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What If We All Did Small Things?

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As we talked about a couple days ago, there is definitely a difference between “small things” and “big things” in the lifestyle choices that we make. Yesterday, we talked about, on a practical level, what the day in and day out lifestyle of an ethical person might look like. Today, it’s time to contemplate and consider if all those “small things” really do make a difference. We’ll talk about reducing energy, buying sweatshop-free clothing and fair trade coffee.

What if we all reduced our energy consumption (like turning down our heat)? Instead of using 80% of the world’s resources we take only our fair share? Maybe global warming is true and we save ourselves from utter destruction. Maybe it’s not true and we simply take a step down from our high pedestal and join the rest of the world.

What if we all bought sweatshop-free clothing?
If everyone made a small decision to change the brand of clothing they bought from Hanes to say, Alternative Apparel, it would have a huge impact. Yes, it is true that many pocketbooks would be a a bit thinner, but not that much. Almost overnight millions of once sub-living wage, oppressive jobs and corporations would be lost and other just and fair jobs would fill their places. Communities in the third world would begin to thrive off of fair wages rather then suffer under practical slave wages.

What if we all purchased Fair Trade Coffee?
The impact would be similar to that of the clothing industry, lighter pockets in the USA, thriving communities in the rest of the world. And everyone lives happily ever after.

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CRM Summer Project: Socially Responsible Investing

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Corporate Responsibility Mondays
As Summer quickly approaches it’s time for Corporate Responsibility Mondays to come to a close. It’s been a fun series as Josh and I have co-blogged about corporations in similar industries with differing records:

  1. Clothing:
    Bad: L.L. Bean
  2. Technology:
    Good: Dell and Green hosting
    Evil: Apple
  3. Clothing:
    Good: Maggie’s Organics
    Bad: Kohls
  4. Sweets:
    Good: Equal Exchange
    Bad: Sara Lee
  5. Shoes:
    Good: Tom’s, Hersey, No Sweat, Adbusters, etc.
    Bad: Nike
  6. Bananas:
    Good: Fair Trade
    Bad: Chiquita
  7. Clothing:
    Good: No Sweat Apparel
    Bad: J. Crew
  8. Fast Food:
    Good: Chipotle
    Evil: Burger King
  9. Stocks and Investing:
    Good: Socially Responsible Investing (SRI)
    Bad: Fidelity (and Playboy)

This week, as the Corporate Responsibility draws to a close, Josh and I will be talking about investing. Josh is highlighting a invest firm/stock you might want to stay away from. I’m going to take a different approach today and simply introduce you to the area, not a specific company, of Socially Responsible Investing.

Socially Responsible Investing (which I’ll call SRI from now on) is a fairly simple and straight forward concept, which is simply to have a goal of investing responsibly. What this entails will vary person to person and company to company so it’s something that takes a bit of research.
SRI has taken some criticism because the term doesn’t have clear standards with it or criteria by which to understand what is “responsible” and what is not. Critics say that anyone can simply write up a righteous sounding mission statement and label themselves SRI there by drawing customers and not really being required to perform at the same level of other Mutual Funds and stocks. In an industry that’s fundamental existence has to do with the bottom line, any one suggesting ethics or responsibility come first will be expected to be challenged and looked at funny. The critics do have a point. There are companies out there that have simply taken the label of SRI, but are neither being ‘responsible’ nor seriously ‘investing.’ Yet, that shouldn’t cause use to ditch the whole industry and invest without regard to our values.
If you have any intention of investing your money in the stock market during your life, whether for retirement, college, or just long-term investing, it’s important that your values are reflected in what your choosing. Some SRI stocks focus on environmentally green companies, others seek to avoid tobacco and alcohol, others actively avoid military and gun companies. SRI involves to components usually, screening and activism. Screening is like a mentioned above, filtering companies and stocks based on certain value criteria. They would decide what makes up their portfolio based on avoiding certain companies and seeking out other ones. Activism is the idea of using your investment and stake as a shareholder to encourage change in companies. So, an SRI Mutual Fund might invest in Apple computers so that they can advocate at the annual shareholders meeting for Apple to research more environmentally friendly ways of producing and recycling their products.
The hardest part of SRI is actually doing it. I’ve researched the field off and on for about a year. When I had the chance to set-up a pension with my work I didn’t have much of a choice, there was only one SRI to choose from, Calvert. I’ve been happy with Calvert so far, but I plan on doing more research this summer and seeing what I come up with. Hopefully after this brief lesson your interested in researching Socially Responsible Investing too. That’s why I’ve dubbed this the CRM Summer Project. Maybe this post can be come the conversation hub for our research on SRI and what conclusions we come to on were you should invest. Here are some links to get you started:

Full Disclosure: I currently have some Mutual Funds that are not in SRI funds. I had them before I discovered this important concept and had a desire to align all of my life with my values. I plan on moving them, but didn’t want to make any snap decisions, but rather move them once I understand what’s best.

Corporate Responsibility Mondays have been a ton of fun and I hope you’ve found them interesting and useful. I’ll continue to try and highlight important companies as I discover them, but for now it’s time to say goodbye to the weekly co-blogging with Josh and open Mondays once again.

Be sure to check out Josh’s final post on a stock to avoid.

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Corporate Responsibility: For Clothing Meet Maggie

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Corporate Responsibility Mondays

Corporate Responsibility Mondays continue as we turn toward clothing
companies. It’s something you and many generations before and after you
need, whether you like it or not. Ever since the fall there’s been a
market for us to cover ourselves, and a beautiful opportunity for us to
do so in a responsible way. What you wear is not just about fashion and
style, there is so much more to it, there are real people behind the
label.

In cooperation with Josh, Corporate Responsibility Mondays are our chance to introduce you to both the troubling facts behind some of our big brands (thanks to Josh)
and to people and corporations that are doing business in a way you can
support and believe in. Today we are talking about the clothing
industry. Josh will talk about one of the big names in the business, and I’ll introduce you to a company that is doing business in a way I think we can all be excited about.

Maggie's Organics

The most common response I hear when I start talking about trying to
make purchases in a way that is just and fair, is “yeah, but I’m sure
every company has problems if you look for it.” In other words, people
justify their choices by convincing themselves that everyone’s corrupt
so there’s no real point. We’ll I’m proud to say that you can point all
the Cynic’s to Maggie’s Organics. From the plant to your foot, every step of the clothing production and process is something to be proud of.

Maggie’s purchases their merchandise from Nueva Vida Women’s Sewing
Cooperative (COMAMNUVI), the world’s first WORKER-OWNED Free Trade
Zone. This isn’t just a big corporation out to make money in the name
of social responsibility, this is a genuine business, where the power
rests in the hands of those that matter most, the workers.

Their website says it all:

In Nicaragua there are many free trade zones where mainly women work in “sweat shops”, producing clothing under unacceptable labor conditions, long hours and low pay. In a cooperative,
the workers are the owners. We are working together to create
sustainable employment in the community so that we can support
ourselves and our families.

If your even more interested in how the cooperative came to be, I’d
encourage you to check out their video, Ants that Move Mountains, which
I made available on youtube (Ants 1 and 2).

Maggie’s Organics
is a great distributer and has most of the basics that everyone needs,
from socks to simple t-shirts. The neat thing is that there prices are
fairly reasonable too. You can buy t-shirts from $13 and score them on closeout for $10. Socks are more expensive then the sweatshop made ones, but I think the trade off is worth it.

When compared to companies with practices like Josh describes, a fair
trade cooperative, is clearly the best option out there. An interview
of a local worker at a major factory (possibly one operated by the company Josh discussed) and one at the coop shows some of the differences (pdf).
Everything from working conditions and wages, to paid time off and
vested interest in the product and company, it’s apparent that Maggie’s
Organics and the Nicaraguan Cooperative are doing some amazing things.

When it comes to the clothing industry I don’t think we can make
excuses about not doing what’s right. I see two options… Either buy
your clothing second-hand or buy it new from a fair trade company like Maggie’s Organics.

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Salaries, income and the wage gap

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I ran across this article about making salaries open rather then a secret and it reminded me I haven’t posted on the church addressing the wage gap.
The article was basically about the dangers and negative outcomes of companies keeping their salaries a secret.

There are three major reasons why salaries secret are silly:

1. It frustrates employees because any unfairness (real or perceived) can’t be addressed directly.
2. They’re not secret anyway. People talk, you know.
3. It perpetuates unfair salaries which is bad for people and for the organization

Making salaries public (inside the company of course) has some major advantages:

1. Salaries will become more fair. The system gets a chance to adjust itself.
2. It will be easier to retain the best employees because they’re more likely to feel they’re getting a fair salary.
3. The pressure is on the people with the high salaries to earn their keep. Everybody has to pull their weight – the higher the salary, the larger the weight.

I thought it was a pretty good case and figure not just companies but communities (like the church) could probably learn something from this.

As a church, we are a body of people who share some of the same beliefs. Some of these beliefs include this idea that we are “brothers and sisters,” that we should love one another, care for and meet the needs of one another. The idea of sharing all our possessions in common might be a little too radical for most, but maybe opening up our check registers and bank statements might be an honest way to start challenging ourselves and one another to live in a way we believe is Biblical.

I had a discussion the other night with a bunch of folks about stewardship, money, etc. and what the Bible says about it and what that means for our lives. I wanted the conversation to be very practical and relevant to our lives, specific to our lives even. I think some of what the conversation lacked though was the specifics. We talk about how we don’t really know how much someone might be giving, and I see the biblical justification for that (don’t make a show of your giving, etc), but I also think the reason we don’t challenge each other and a reason tithing is so stinking low in the church is that we our so secret and private with our money. Let’s be a little more open shall we?

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Abba Ephrem gives his thoughts on Righteousness and Stuff

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Abba Ephrem also said,

“God sells righteousness at a very low price to those who wish to buy it: a little piece of bread, a cloak of no value, a cup of water, a mite.”

Woe to me. How much bigger the plank in my eye then the speck in my brothers. I realize often how far short of the righteous, selfless calling of God that I see in the Bible. I spend the morning writing a post about how surrendering means giving up things, and I feel puffed up pointing out others faults and list none of my own.
I like to eat. Far too often I eat more then I need for my own good and I indulge on the things that I will enjoy. I hide my desire for pleasure in a cloak of fair trade and financial stewardship.
I excuse laziness as faithful stewardship and sacrificial living.

How dare I spend my mornings passing judgement on those around me when I two stand so far from God’s standard and calling for following Christ.

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Your problem with Giving is probably You.

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Financial lesson #2: Giving

I think most of us, if we are completely honest with ourselves, are quite selfish even in our giving.
When I give I want it to be on my terms. I don’t like a knock on my window when I pull up to the stoplight asking for some money for lunch. They should know the only change I have is for emergencies and this doesn’t qualify. I’m much more comfortable knowing that I commited to paying $30 a month to sponsor a child, and it will cost me just $30.
When I give my hard earned money I want it to go to a deserving organization. I want to feel good about it. I often want to be recognized for it. I mean, after all, isn’t this my money I’m giving away?
Many of the thoughts I mentioned above are perfectly okay, but there are a few reasons that sometimes they are not. You see, a major part of the call to give is to teach you that money is not your god or master.
Take Jesus’ encounter with the rich young ruler* as an example (I’m not a ruler, but I sure feel young and rich). Did Jesus ask him to give everything he had so that the needs of the poor would be met? That was probably one reason. Most of us recognize though, that it was very much about him being willing to let go, and follow Christ. I far too often hear the response to that passage being that we aren’t required to give everything away, we just should be willing to if God ever asked it of us (and lo and behold I know not one person who God has ever asked to give away all they had).
Well today is the day. It’s time to for you to open your tight fist and release your tight grip on money, so that you can grip easily the hand of God. Today we stop making excuses and being self-centered in our giving, instead we give because we NEED to give to release our tight grip on money; to acknowledge that money is not our god.

Your Assignment for the Week/month: Take $100 (For most people with an income that’s probably less then half your tithe each month) out of the bank in $1 bills. Over the next month: give to anyone who asks, drop bills in places they’ll be found, try to give a dollar to a random stranger, hide them in findable places at work, drop them out the window at a school bus stop. Have fun, and give with no expectations or qualifications on your giving.