Are you being paid what you deserve?
A chapter from my new book, The Start Of It All
*the second audio here is for the free portion of the essay only. If you’re a paid subscriber and want to listen to this essay, click on the longer voiceover above!
If you haven’t already, check out this week’s essay below on Why I Offer Paid Subscriptions.
Why I Offer Paid Subscriptions
An announcement before we dig into the essay — My book, THE START OF IT ALL, comes out next Friday, May 3rd!!! It has been SO surreal to share advanced copies with friends, and I can’t wait to share …
And if you’re a new subscriber - welcome! Here are a few other previous posts - one free and two that are now partially pay-walled, like today’s.
Bathroom Floor
The bathroom has always been a meditative space for me. Small or large. Simple or fancy. Ever since I was little, I’ve loved to lock myself in and unfurl my wild, cozy, free self. Imagine my delight …
Jury of My Past Selves
I wanna live for many years Make a promise to the plenty Show up for the versions of myself that I have yet to meet Like how are you, it’s me When I look in the mirror, I occasionally stop to think about how little my appearance has changed over the last decade or so, even though so much else has.
Runaway
I think my life might be better if I lived in Colorado, mhm Sit around and get high, sippin' some white wine out the bottle (bottle) I’d throw my phone into a lake And watch it sink to a better place, down at the bottom
Okay, onto today’s piece - a chapter from my upcoming book, The Start Of It All!
For the purpose of this reflection, let’s agree that what you deserve is to be paid the same as your counterparts. You likely deserve way more than you’re making, regardless of industry standards.
When I was 24 or 25, I was completing a temp assignment at a big midtown office on black women’s equal pay day. I thought to myself, I am obviously being paid fairly. There’s no way my white male coworker doing the exact same job is making more than me. There’s just no way.
And yet, he was. I asked him his hourly rate. It was $5 higher than mine.