All Articles Tagged "salary"
On Wall Street White Men Earn Twice As Much As Black Women
It’s not exactly a shocker that white men are at the top of the economic chain on Wall Street, but the fact that their average earnings are more than double that of black women makes me want to go occupy something.
Here’s the breakdown of average annual salaries according to the recent Progress and Pitfalls of Diversity on Wall Street report:
White men: $155K
White women: $100K
Black men: $90K
Black women: $60K
The numbers are based on the 2005 to 2009 American Communities Survey and show a 15% increase in earnings for white men compared to data from the 2000 federal census.
Hmph. Cheers to the 99%. Did you suspect white men were banking that much more than black women on Wall Street?
Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.
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Cost of Entry Level Talent Going Up
(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.
The Secret Lives of Retail Managers: Lots of Work But Lots of Pay
By H. Fields Grenée
Its three minutes before six o’clock in the morning. Gazing out the locked front doors at the small crowd gathering to take part in the traditional after holiday sales – you prep yourself for what is sure to be a hectic day.
Yet beyond the customer purchases, disputes and sales floor reorganization – is another layer in your seasoning as a retail store manager. This is your profession, not just a job.
“Working in retail is a huge personal sacrifice that some people do not always realize,” says Victoria Staten, vice president of Established Brands. “In retail, you often have to be at the store the day after a major holiday at three or four in the morning which prevents you from being able to celebrate the way everyone else does, because you have to be on point early the next day.”
“Also the busiest days in retail are Saturdays and Sundays. So, if you don’t want to work weekends, you won’t be able to advance in your career,” she points out.
Staten knows firsthand about such trade-offs. During her twenty plus years in the fashion industry; working both on the wholesale and retail side, she has been tapped for management positions at Kenneth Cole, acted as former Group Vice President at New York’s
fashion house and now is an international expert in baby appeal.
This was all made possible through years of retail experience. Driven by her interest in clothes; accessories in particularly, she got her first job at a retail store inside a mall in high school and continued to work her way up the chain.
Sales Managers usually plan and direct the day-to-day operations of a retail store. They also develop strategies to improve customer service, drive store sales, forecast staffing needs, develop a recruiting strategy and increase profitability. Most importantly, they are the ones to ensure that customer needs are met, complaints are resolved, and service is quick and efficient.
For this, average salaries range from $28,000 to $40,000 for store managers. Levels ratchet up to $33,500 to $49,500 annually (in addition to a percentage of store sales) for mid-to-upper level in-store managers with five to nine years experience. Furthermore, managers: in-store or district with 15 or more retail industry years of experience can easily break the $70,000 mark, according to survey analysis from glassdoor.com, an online site that provides an inside look at jobs and companies.
A breakdown of these numbers showed that Retail Store Managers at The Limited stores received $49,833 compared to $38,480 for Assistant Retail Store Managers at Old Navy locations.
Inflation Swallows Raises in the Washington Area
(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.
Unequal Pay Part of Detroit's Comeback
(New York Times) — They are a cornerstone of Chrysler’s unlikely comeback: 900 employees turning out a Jeep Grand Cherokee sport utility vehicle every 48 seconds of the working day at an assembly plant here. Nothing distinguishes them from other workers at the Jefferson North plant, except their paychecks. The newest workers earn about $14 an hour; longtime employees earn double that. With the economy slumping and job creation once again a pressing issue in the White House and Congress, the advent of a two-tier wage system in Detroit is spiking employment for one of the country’s most important manufacturing industries. The new jobs, which are seen as long term, are being watched closely by economists, executives in other industries and Washington policy makers eager to increase employment in manufacturing and other areas. For many, the opportunity for steady employment is welcome, even at a lower wage and with no certainty when it might increase.
Salary Scale: Nice Guys Do Finish Last
(Chicago Sun Times) — At work, it pays to be a jerk — literally. A paper co-authored by a University of Notre Dame professor shows that moderately disagreeable men earn an average of 18 percent, or $9,772, more than the average of moderately agreeable men. Both groups of men, though, earn more than the average salary for women — regardless of their workplace disposition. And while women are still lagging behind men in pay, disagreeable women earned 5 percent, or $1,828, over their more pleasant peers. “I don’t think anyone would look at that and think that’s fair, that’s OK,” said Timothy Judge, a Notre Dame management professor and paper’s author. “Our job is not to describe the ideal world but the world as it is.”
Ask For An Absurdly High Salary to Receive Better Pay? Yes, It Works
Have you received a job offer? While this is great news in a difficult market, don’t let the slow economy be a reason for selling yourself short. You can still negotiate a high salary, rather than accept a decent offer out of desperation. How?
Researchers have found that even in this competitive employment field, asking for a sum that might seem absurdly high is the best negotiation tactic. The reason? Something called “anchoring,” which sets a price point in the mind of a hiring manager regarding your perceived worth. By throwing out an extremely high “anchor” amount — even in jest — discussions proceed from there instead of a more expected figure. The result is the potential to garner an income that is almost ten percent higher than could be achieved through asking for remuneration in the normal range. Time.com reports on this unexpected phenomenon:
Todd Thorsteinson, a University of Idaho psychology and communications professor, recently published the results of a few salary experiments in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology. (Hat tip to Harvard Business Review and lifehacker.)
In the experiments, participants entered into a simulated job salary negotiation—some volunteers were job candidates, others hiring managers. Would-be candidates previously had annual salaries of $29,000 and were offered new jobs as administrative assistants. When the topic of salary came up, some participants were instructed to kiddingly request $100,000—and those who did so wound up getting 9% higher offers, on average ($35,385 vs. $32,463), than those who played it straight.
Window-Washer and Other Unexpected 6-Figure Jobs
I moved to the United States from Tanzania on a scholarship to the University of Chicago. I studied economics and did really well, so I worked in banking for a while when I finished school. But then my visa expired and I couldn’t get it extended. No one would hire me — it didn’t matter how capable I was. So one day, I was walking around the city trying to think of jobs I might be able to do, and I saw windows all over the place — and I said `That’s it! I’ll be a window washer.’ So that’s what I did. It doesn’t matter if you have visa, as long as you have a Social Security number and pay taxes.
Why $40K Is All You Need to Live Well
(Daily Finance) — Danny Kofke is a special education teacher in Atlanta. Married with two young daughters, Danny recently wrote A Simple Book of Financial Wisdom: Teach Yourself (and Your Kids) How to Live Wealthy with Little Money.
