Archive for the 'Jobs' category

Are Obama-Biden Good for Women?

Aug 28 2008 Published by Turk under Barack Obama, Candidates, Democrats, Jobs, John McCain, Pandering, Political Parties, Politics, Republicans

Not on equal pay and glass ceiling issues. After Biden’s cry for equal pay in his acceptance speech last night, I took a look at equal pay in his office and posted the following thoughts at The Next Right.

One of Joe Biden’s major applause lines tonight came when he demanded equal pay for women. That’s a worthy cause to be sure. But is Biden practicing what he preaches?

Maybe not.

Despite the fact that Biden employs 27 women and only 14 men (could that be a Clinton problem?), very few of the women and men share common titles. The one job where there is overlap is staff assistants. These are traditionally entry level low-wage jobs in congressional offices.

So how do Biden’s salaries stack up?

The average male staff assistant in Biden’s office (based on the most recent salary figures) made $39,162 in the time period.

The average woman in that position made $21,323.

Hey Joe! Before you demand something of others, maybe you should lead by example. Why not start by giving the women in your office a raise?

Update: It also looks like the highest salaries are reserved for men, despite their minority status. 4 out of 14 men made more than $40,000 in the period, but only 5 of 27 women cleared that mark. Two of the men earned $70k, but the highest paid woman made only $46,000

Update 2: Does Obama walk the walk? It looks like he’s certainly better than Biden. A review of his staff for the same period at least shows remarkable consistency in pay for the jobs carrying the same title. Although of the twenty highest salaries in his office, 13 are men and 7 are women.

Update 3: It also works going the opposite direction. Of the 20 lowest salaries in Obama’s office, 13 are women and 7 are men. (And please note, there is no overlap between those two lists, and I have not included anyone that worked less than the full time period.)

Update 4: For those who asked, one final note before I do some real work. Of the 20 highest salaries on John McCain’s staff, 13 are women, and 7 are men.

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Genetic Protections Pass Congress

Apr 25 2008 Published by Turk under Craziness, Jobs, Society

A bill on its way to the President’s desk will prevent employers and insurance companies from using genetic indicators in hiring or coverage. The President is expected to sign it.

The legislation’s passage could make consumers and patients more willing to have their DNA tested for disease-indicators, which could swing the door wide-open for so-called personalized medicine in which genetic and genomic data is used to tailor treatments. It could be a major win for genomic testing companies like 23AndMe and Navigenics, who are collecting and analyzing unprecedentedly large amounts of genetic information from their clients.

Genetic testing advocates worried that the adoption of testing would be slowed by the lack of government protection. Surveys appeared to back that sentiment with an overwhelming number of Americans saying they wanted their genetic data safeguarded from employers and insurers.

This demonstrates, to me at least, ‘an overwhelming number of Americans’ have very little idea how little protection they actually have when it comes to hiring decisions. Employers can’t refuse to hire someone based on race, religion, etc. We’ll apparently soon add genetic markers to that.

There is not, however, a prohibition on hiring because you’re overweight, unattractive, wear glasses, etc. etc. etc (Ok, technically DC and a few other places actually prevent discrimination based on personal appearance, but still…) Even if there were, there are a staggering number of other reasons you could cite in defense of your practices. If someone doesn’t want to hire you, they’ll find a legally defensible way not to hire you.

Passing more laws won’t get you around that. Unless you pass a law that says the first person to apply automatically gets the job, someone will always be rejected.

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She’s My Girlfriend From Canada. You Don’t Know Her.

Feb 26 2007 Published by Turk under Craziness, Jobs, Self-Promotion, Technology, The Economy, The Internet

It’s sad to see a cottage industry rise up to meet the demand of the nerd set. It used to be if a geeky kid wanted to pretend he had friends he’d cut a picture out of a catalog, slip it into one of the plastic sleeves inside his velcro wallet, and pretend he had a girlfriend. Any questions about here would be met with irritation ad comments that “You don’t know her. She’s not from around here.”

Well, nerdy kids can rejoice. A company has sprung up to meet the needs of today’s friendless dorks.

FakeYourSpace.com, a business founded by Brant Walker… offered users of MySpace.com and similar sites a way to enhance their page with photographs and comments from hired ‚Äúfriends‚Äù ‚Äî mainly attractive models ‚Äî for 99 cents a month each.

The company was shut down after the royalty-free photo service they were using to supply the pictures demanded they stop. Oddly, they expect to be back up and running quickly after securing models for the effort.

I guess there may be more money in this than I would have assumed. I guess the $5 per lawn the little spaz down the street charges me has to go somewhere.

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A Day Late and 100 Million Bucks Short, Don

Nov 08 2006 Published by Turk under Craziness, Government, Jobs, Politics, Republicans, The President

Judging by the speed with which the Administration announced both the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld and the nomination of Robert Gates to replace him, I’m wondering why they couldn’t have done this… oh… maybe a week ago… It seems like that might have been helpful…

Look, I understand loyalty. It’s admirable. You should have your friend’s back. This, however, passed from the sublime to the absurd some time ago. The loyalty shown to Rumsfeld may never be equaled on this planet again.

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Aleksey Vayner

Oct 16 2006 Published by Turk under Craziness, Jobs, Marketing, Miscellany, Self-Promotion, The Internet

If you have ever had a friend who fabricated much of their life, or if you caught last week’s episode of How I Met Your Mother, you should relate to this one. I once discovered that a very good friend of mine was passing off details of my life as his own when he met people.

A mutual acquaintance one day began to tell me of an experience that Dan* had related to her. As she got into the details, I realized she was telling me about an event from my own life. I corrected her and suggested she may have been confusing something I had told her at some point. She told me they had just discussed this the day before, so she was quite sure it was him.

When I confronted Dan*, he denied ever having told her that story. When I asked why he would pass of my life as his (especially considering that my life is not all that interesting), he again denied it.

I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, but related the event to a third person. They confirmed that Dan* had told them the same story on more than one occasion.

I’m sharing all of this merely as a way of introducing Aleksey Vayner. He has been making the rounds on the Internet based purely on his ability to make stuff up. It has generated a lot of buzz, and resulted in this article in The New Yorker.

On its face, Vayner‚Äôs C.V. may be the world‚Äôs greatest, which raises the question of why he‚Äôs looking for an entry-level finance position‚Äîthe fallback for so many unremarkable Ivy Leaguers who lack dual backgrounds in espionage and Eastern medicine… Meanwhile, Vayner‚Äôs legend grows, like that of a latter-day Paul Bunyan. Acquaintances report hearing that he is one of four people licensed to handle nuclear waste in the state of Connecticut, that he must register his hands as lethal weapons at airports, and even that he has killed two dozen men in Tibetan gladiatorial contests.

As one poster to the Yale Alumni web site put it, “A guy with this level of grandiose and delusional thinking would either be homeless or president in twenty-five years.‚Äù

Based on my own experience, I’m betting for “homeless” but who knows.

* Names have been changed to avoid admitting I know the real person. He has likely violated parole again and is probably being sought by law enforcement personnel in as many as three states.

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