Image: Stockbyte

Period.

Don’t complain about not making money when you give away services for free.  Here’s a tidbit I want all women out there to know: We work? We get paid. There is no such thing as a free service. Nothing is free, it all comes at a price! 

Today’s rant is courtesy of Social Dialect: Helping You Speak Our Language with the article:  Just Say NO to Blogging Contests (and other rules about compensation for blogging).

I will preface this by saying:

1. This article mainly speaks to bloggers, however it applies to any business owner.
2. I don’t like blogging contests, paid reviews or giveaways where I have to physically receive and mail stuff.  While I’ve received great stuff in the past, I really don’t see the inherent value in engaging in these contests. My readers don’t need more stuff and I’ve never been a fan of them. As such, regular readers know that I’ve done a handful of them over the last five years.
3. If I am engaging in a review of a product per request of the brand, I am being paid for it and it is noted as such in my disclosure.

Back to my rant.  While I think Fadra @ Social Dialect means well, I totally disagree with the statements:

“Don’t ask for compensation for a review.”
“Be willing to work without compensation if it helps you build a relationship for future business.”

What’s interesting to me is that when I talk to established male business owners/bloggers the concept of a free service is foreign to them. Customer wants service? They get paid. This is understood. In the book Women Don’t Ask it says:

Men ask for what they want twice as often as women do and initiate negotiation four times more. Men, socialized in a “scrappier paradigm,” learn to pursue and energize their goals at work and home. The two key elements are control and recognizing opportunity.

But with women there seems to be this need to be liked and we become irresponsible with the power of our brand which inherently devalues our service. Positioning yourself as desperate for the gig in order to be liked in hopes that the customer/brand returns puts you in a position to get low-balled or not paid at all. You’ll hate yourself for it when you see your first check.

What do you say to someone who asks that you work for free? Negotiate, don’t apologize and walk away if necessary.  Here’s what happened to me recently when a company wanted me to provide them content for $FREE.99 outside of a standard syndication agreement.

Freeloader:  I’m sorry but we don’t pay for XYZ service.  We believe the benefit you receive is the SEO blah blah blah….

Ginger:  I’ll have to decline being unpaid for this service.  I do value my time and it is my hope that you’d value it as well.

Then you walk away.  Trust me, they will love you for it.

Guess who replied with a rate once I declined working for free? They did. I was content to skip my happy @$$ on to the next one whilst keeping my dignity and value intact. Every legitimate company has a marketing budget because they understand how important it is to get the word out about their product. They also decide who is worth being paid. Working without compensation tells them you’re OK with being devalued while they reap the benefit.

Fadra gives the following rationale for working without compensation. I can’t stress how much it pains me to see women give each other this ratchet advice:

On working without compensation:  “Many big firms want to work with the same bloggers over and over again because they know they are honest and reliable and will do a good job.”

On asking to be paid for a review: “It not only taints your view of the product in the eyes of your readers, but it probably taints your own opinion as well. While some bloggers charge an “administrative fee” for their time for a review or for giveaways, this is not a policy I subscribe to.”

These are the only reasons why you’d not agree to receive greenbacks for your service:

• In lieu of payment, you arrange for something tangible value to you.  This does not include a steep discount on their product or service.
• You give the service in exchange for feedback which helps to build your business while helping you gain insight into needed changes.

Written by Ginger, CEO of Girls Just Wanna Have Funds ™- breaking financial ceilings, one stiletto at a time. There she publishes tips and articles that will help women light up their financial lives and take control of their deepest money issues.  

Source: tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com

In January, victims of North Carolina’s 50-yearlong history of involuntary sterilization were finally feeling like they would have some closure. A task force voted to pay each of the estimated 1,500 to 2,000 living victims of the heinous practice $50,000 as some sort of penance for the mental, physical and emotional toil they endured, but now the Republican Senate has stalled the effort by rejecting the proposal outright.

State Sen. Don East (R) told the Associated Press:

“You just can’t rewrite history. It was a sorry time in this country. I’m so sorry it happened, but throwing money don’t change it, don’t make it go away. It still happened.”

Looks like it’s still a sorry time in North Carolina. Of course, money doesn’t change what happened but it’s at least some sort of compensation, and honestly a way to make the state hurt just like the estimated 7,600 male and female North Carolinians who were sterilized under the authorization of the North Carolina Eugenics Board between 1929 and 1974, according to the N.C. Justice for Sterilization Victims Foundation, suffered. Of course, the senate doesn’t see it that way.

“If you could lay the issue to rest, it might be one thing. But I’m not so sure it would lay the issue at rest because if you start compensating people who have been ‘victimized’ by past history, I don’t know where that would end,” Sen. Austin Allran (R) also told the AP.

N.C. Justice for Sterilization Victims Foundation executive director Charmaine Fuller Cooper told the News & Observer that the victims are now devastated:

“Even though they are 80-, 90-years-old, they remember it vividly. They had to reopen those old wounds. We have had people come forward and relive those memories and have had people tell their families and nothing happens. They’re angry and they have justification in how they feel.”

When the news first hit that the victims were getting $50,000 most felt like even that wasn’t enough, but to hear now that victims won’t get anything is too much. Elaine Riddick, 57, who was sterilized at 13 after she was raped and gave birth to a son, has become the major face of this effort and she said she won’t let this roadblock stop her.

“We’ve given North Carolina a chance to address their wrongs,” she said. “There is a class action suit as we speak.”

Hopefully they succeed on that front.

Brande Victorian is the news and operations editor for madamenoire.com. Follow her on twitter @Be_Vic.

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Source: Fashion Feen

Drake’s really taking this whole divo thing to a new level. It’s one thing to demand bomber jackets for a spring photo shoot, it’s another to expect someone to work for free when you’re buying out the bar and spending $45,000 a month in rent.

About a month ago, Ericka Lee, the woman who was on the voicemail recording in Drake’s song, “Marvin’s Room,” filed a lawsuit claiming Drake promised her co-writing credits and half of the profits from the song which, as you know, was a huge hit. Drake has now finally decided to respond to the suit with a sorry explanation: “she consented to the use of her voice in the song ‘Marvin’s Room’ for no compensation.”

While we obviously don’t know if that’s true or not, even if it is, where dey do dat at? Ericka may have been a little naive if she didn’t lock down a compensation agreement in writing, which I can see happening considering she claims she was more than just Drake’s business partner and that they had a romantic relationship as well. But how is Drake just going to take advantage of someone like that? No credit and no cash? He knows that type of business practice wouldn’t fly with any other artists, why not pay the girl a couple thousand dollars and be done with the whole thing?

In addition to denying he offered to pay Ericka initially, Drake also says he never promised “4-5%” of publishing monies plus a $50,000 payout to go away in November when Ericka first told him she hired a lawyer. He also denies any romantic involvement with her—surprise, surprise. Either way, Young Money needs to come up off the Cash Money. This is trifling.

What do you think about Drake thinking it’s OK to not pay Ericka for her work?

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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Not only should artists watch what they say, they better watch what they sing. Sony Music’s Brazilian branch is paying out $1.2 million ($656,000 in American dollars) in retroactive compensation for a song Brazilian singer, comedian, and politician Francisco Everardo Oliveira Silva released in 1997. The song, “Veja os Cabelos Dela” (Look at Her Hair) has been deemed racist for it’s lyrics which call a black woman a “stinking beast” and liken her hair to “a scouring pad for pots and pans.”

The lawsuit was brought forth by 10 non-governmental associations that fight racism. They argued that black women were offended, exposed to ridicule, and felt violated due to the lyrical content of the song. Sony stood by its position that the song was not intended to offend women and that Silva, who goes by the stage name Tiririca, was referring to his wife in the song and that the terminology in the song is often used by Brazilians to describe both white and black women. No matter how they try to spin it, Sony still has to pay up. Check out the translation of the lyrics below and tell us if you think the organizations were right to file a lawsuit.

Veja veja veja veja veja os cabelos dela (4x)
(Look look look look look at her hair (4x)

Parece bom-bril*, de ariá panela
(It looks like a scouring pad for pots and pans)

Parece bom-bril, de ariá panela
(It looks like a scouring pad for pots and pans)

Quando ela passa, me chama atenção
(When she goes by, she catches my attention)

Mas os seus cabelos, não tem jeito não
(But her hair just isn’t right)

A sua catinga quase me desmaiou
(Her stench almost made me faint)

Olha eu não aguento, é grande o seu fedor
(Look, I can’t take it, her smell is so bad)

Veja veja veja veja veja os cabelos dela
(Look look look look look at her hair)

Parece bom-bril, de ariá panela (2x)
(It looks like a scouring pad for pots and pans) (2x)

Eu já mandei, ela se lavar
(I told her to take a bath)

Mas ela teimo, e não quis me escutar
(But she’s stubborn and doesn’t listen to me)

Essa nega fede, fede de lascar
(This black woman stinks, she stinks horribly)

Bicha fedorenta, fede mais que gambá
(Stinking beast, smells worse than a skunk)

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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(Wall Street Journal) — Need entry-level talent? Be prepared to pay a little more this year than you did last.  The average salary offer for bachelor’s degree graduates rose 6% in 2011 to $51,171, according to a new survey from the National Association of Colleges and Employers.  Some newly minted degree holders, however, will cost even more. Chemical-engineering graduates saw their average salary offer increase 1.8% to $66,058, while offers for grads with computer-related degrees jumped 9.6% to $63,760, NACE reports. Computer-engineering grads gained 4.1%, bringing their average to $62,849.  The priciest recruits? Petroleum-engineering grads are now receiving offers averaging $82,740, or 7.1% more than last year, making these folks the highest-paid majors in the survey.

Read More…

(Washington Post) — As salary increases have gotten smaller in recent years, you might have consoled yourself with the knowledge that at least you were staying ahead of inflation. Now you may not even be able to count on that.  For the first time since 1979, the increase in salaries in the Washington area was less than the rate of inflation. Wages as a whole for metropolitan Washington rose just 0.04 percent in 2011, a new salary survey found. The rate of inflation in the region shot up to 4.1 percent in July (the latest month for which the figure is available) compared to a year ago.  “If you earn $100,000 and get a 2 percent increase and the rate of inflation is 3 percent, you’re already in the hole $1,000,” said Angelo Kostopoulos, president of Akron Inc., a District-based research firm that compiled and analyzed survey data for the Human Resource Association of the National Capital Area.

Read More…

(Detroit Free Press) — The first chancellor of the new statewide special district for Michigan’s lowest-performing schools could receive more than $1.5 million in salary and bonuses over his four-year contract, if he meets all performance targets.  John Covington, the departing superintendent of the Kansas City, Mo., School District, will be paid a $175,000 signing bonus and a $225,000 salary his first year as leader of the new Education Achievement Authority.  His base salary grows to $325,000 in the second year. And if he meets yet-to-be-determined goals, he could make more than $425,000 in each of the last two years of the contract.  As a comparison, the top salary for superintendents of the nation’s largest districts ranged up to $329,000 last year, according to a study by the Washington-based Council of the Great City Schools.

Read More…

By Charlotte Young

A year after the BP oil spill mishap in the Gulf Coast, the company seems to be picking and choosing who receives part of its $20 billion compensation promise.

It’s this kind of injustice that has Operation People for Peace in outrage. The group is determined to secure equal pay-out treatment for everyone. They represent the many black citizens whose lives were wrecked by the oil spill that have yet to receive any kind of compensation.

To make sure their plight was heard, the campaign sent five of their high-profile campaign officials straight to the door of BP’s headquarters in central London on Wednesday Aug 3. The Voice reports that the five then set up a protest outside of the building.

The campaigners say that BP has given more money in some areas and less to others, looking to give first to those with political connections.

“We had to come all the way to the UK because they have refused to do anything,” they told The Voice.

“They have met with us 14 times and have promised us they would pay in two weeks then in 72 hours. But we have received nothing.”

Also known as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the spill started in April 2010. About 4.9 million barrels of crude oil and gas were released in to the ocean, resulting in 11 deaths, 17 injuries and countless financial devastation. BP set up the $20 billion compensation fund after the US government found them responsible for the spill.

Operation People for Peace is demanding that the British company allot $488 million to the many small businesses, churches, hoteliers and minorities they represent that were affected by the oil spill. They have filed more than 10,000 claims.

“Almost 90 per cent of our claimants are single parents with an average of two children,” Campaign chairman Dr. Art Rocker told The Voice.

“Their earnings are below the poverty line. They live in geographic locations and are engaged in occupations that were impacted most by the spill.”

Civil rights activist package Gregory told The Voice that he believes Kenneth Feinberg, BP’s representative in charge of dispensing the compensation, “has done nothing but make false promises of payment.”

“I have come to the conclusion that his job is simply to block payments to poor people, not to settle them,” he said.

In response to the protest, a BP spokesperson informed The Voice that Dr. Rocker came to their office in New Orleans several times and that they understand his concerns. The spokesperson goes on to say that claims for compensation due to the oil spill are managed by the Gulf Coast Claims Facility (GCCF) which administers the pay outs using “their own judgment with respect to the evaluation and payment of claims.” They have so far paid out about $5 billion.

The spokesperson also added that Operation People for Peace had spent 45 minutes speaking with a senior representative of the company even though they had made no appointment.

With the group’s concerns still left unheard, the group is planning to take their campaign to the next level, in a mass call to boycott BP.

By Charlotte Young

After years of living in a community devastated by oil spills, the Bodo people in Nigeria can finally exhale a bit. Msnbc.com reports that oil giant Shell, which is responsible for oil spills in Nigeria, has accepted responsibility for two large spills and will compensate the community in an English court for the environmental damage to their land.

The case is considered the first of its kind because it will take place in a court in the UK, where cases usually have more media coverage and larger payouts.

“The mood music is changing — oil companies are going to have to start no longer employing a double standard for the developing world and apply the same standards for America and Europe,” Daniel Leader, one of the lawyers for the Bodo people told msnbc.com.

Protest groups have become increasingly more vocal in attempts to seek compensation against large western oil companies. The Bodo people, comprised of a community of about 69,000, live in Bodo, Ogoniland, along the oil-rich creeks of the Niger delta.

While their eco-system and livelihood have been threatened by the activities of western oil companies for five decades, Shell has recently claimed responsibility for two large oil spills in 2008 and 2009.

Shell stopped pumping oil from Ogoniland in the early 1990s, but still owns pipelines and oil infrastructures in the region that can leak. Rights groups claim that oil companies have done decades worth of damage to the environment in Nigeria.

According to Reuters, the two spills in 2008 and 2009 amount to about 20 percent of the amount spilled into the Gulf of America by BP during the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

Audrey Gaughran, director of the Global Thematic Issues Programme at Amnesty International, tells msnbc.com that “BP did more in 6-months for the U.S. communities than Shell has done in 50 years for the Ogoniland.”

But this current case opens Shell up to possibilities of greater financial loss in the future. Ben Amunwa, a spokesperson for the British group PLATFORM, an international energy company monitoring group, says that the decision in this case could leave Shell facing a host of claims stemming back to fifty years of environmental desolation along the Niger delta.

A spokesperson from Shell’s Nigerian company tells msnbc.com that the company acknowledges the two big spills, but says that most of the other spills that took place, including 13 in the Bodo area this year, are the result of “sabotage and theft.”