And I Thought We Were Past This

It’s hard to imagine in today’s world the following story even had to be written about. But it did. And the justification of the decision need not be debated.

A federal court in Maine recently ordered a nonprofit hospital to pay treble damages to a group of female psychologists who were paid about 40 percent less than the men who provided the exact same services. In essence, the hospital was paying the men somewhere just less than $100 per hour for their work and the women around $50 an hour. All had the same general qualifications, education, licenses, and general work habits/patterns. And I thought this was the 21st-century.

My mother could’ve been a terrific journalist. But like many other women of the time, it wasn’t a viable option, plus she made the decision to be a great mom. But she does tell the story of one of her first jobs in television broadcasting when she was told she got the job at a local television station in large part, as the station manager said to her directly because he could pay her half as much as a man. That incident happened more than 50+ years ago and yet this issue, according to reports from Maine, doesn’t seem to be dead.

To no one’s surprise, I’m a male. I’ve never had to deal with this issue in any way shape or form. And maybe there’s some denial that it really is a problem. But when you see an outcome from a federal court with these details, it sometimes makes you wonder and shake your head. While I love music from the late 1960s, like the time my mom was told her worth was half that of a man’s, I’m not interested in going back to those times from a compensation perspective.   What an embarrassment and travesty in today’s world.