Black employees work tirelessly, often taking on more projects than their colleagues, but for some reason, there’s always an unknown justification for why they aren’t compensated fairly.
I was robbed once, that I know of anyway. Not by a person in my community or stranger. Instead, I was stiffed by my employer and for three years, never knew it. We often think of wage theft in the context of low-wage earners working in the retail and service industries. Wage theft isn’t just limited to employers who don’t pay overtime or make workers clock-out for legally-mandated breaks. It happens at the professional level, entry-through executive, where Black women and men are making less than their counterparts for doing the same and oftentimes, more work.
For me, wage theft looked like discovering I was making anywhere between $12,000 to $22,000 less than my white counterparts, despite having more education, more experience, being a department of one and managing multiple office locations and projects simultaneously while receiving little to no support.
For my friend Lisa*, wage theft was her making $7,000 less than the assistant, despite her having the more senior position.
I discovered I was making less than my white counterparts by accident. I can’t recall how the conversation started, but one of my coworkers revealed his salary, and I was dumbfounded. When I shared what I was making, he was appalled, stating he just assumed I made the most on the team, next to the leader. Do you know how wrong you have to be to leave a white male stunned and appalled?!
Chileee, after he found out how little I made in comparison to my colleagues, he spilled the tea, lemonade and pumpkin spice latte. He revealed a document that was available on a publicly shared folder that listed everyone’s title and salaries. Side note: Racism and discrimination are rarely subtle. You just need to know where to look. Despite sharing the same title as others on the team, I was making the least. I was even making less than the person who worked under me. Now, ain’t that a _____.
Rage. I felt rage. I was also embarrassed. I thought I had negotiated a pretty decent salary, considering what I was making at a previous position. I felt used.
Detour: B*tch better have my money became my anthem. If you ask me, the entire song was about wage theft. I’ve included some lyrics to support my point.
I discovered this information after paying for a wedding and purchasing a home. While I was able to do both within months of each other, it would have been that much less stressful had I been getting what was rightfully owed to me.
Kamikaze if you think that you gon’ knock me off the top
Furthermore, when I accepted the position, I was a single mother doing the best I could to provide for my toddler son. I was the head of the household. And as more and more Black women become the breadwinners in their families, getting fair compensation isn’t just morally right; it is part of our survival.
Organizations need to make known the pay scale for different positions and put the salary expectations in the job posting. Being upfront about pay and salary gives everyone insight into how much their role is worth, if it is the right financial fit for them, and what tangible steps they need to take to achieve higher compensation. Failure to do so is similar to sharecropping. During the period following emancipation, Landowners would hire Black people to work their land and pay them after harvest. However, there were always “expenses” that were deducted that the Black person never knew about, and as a result, they made meager wages. In this context, Black employees work tirelessly, often taking on more projects than their colleagues, but for some reason, there’s always an unknown justification for why they aren’t compensated fairly.
Every time I drop I am the only thing you’re playin’
I confronted my supervisor the same day I discovered the pay discrepancy after also starting a file with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
“You were one of the people that I budgeted for a salary increase,” they said.
Who y’all think y’all frontin’ on? Like brrap, brrap, brrap
B.S. Getting equal pay for equal work shouldn’t have been dependent on budget approval since you had gone through three budget cycles since I started. You got caught and are attempting to save face.
“Let me see if I can fast-track your raise,” they responded.
“Let me see? Let me see if I can fast-track a lawsuit,” I thought to myself.
Please don’t call me on my bluff, Pay me what you owe me.
I followed up with everything in writing. I learned early in my career to follow everything up in writing and email a copy to your personal email and the email of a trusted friend is the only way to truly CYA. As my mother would say, “don’t let me catch you out here with dirty underwear.” I left the inquiry with the EEOC open.
Sh*t, your wife in the backseat of my brand new foreign car. Don’t act like you forgot.
It took me a full two months to get my raise. Describing getting paid the same as my white counterparts as a raise is disingenuous. I was getting back-pay for my stolen wages.
Pay me what you owe me!
I left the organization about a year later. I knew then that no matter what was said to my face, behind my back, I was not valued or seen as deserving. With my leaving, I took years of institutional knowledge, expertise in my craft and my willingness to improve the workplace experience for all the employees. I even took the best food for the organization’s potluck, but that is for a different dispatch. I never closed the EEOC file.
Younger generations are more comfortable openly discussing salaries than previous generations. These conversations lead to more transparency and equality about pay. These kids will have all your business on tick-tock and dare you to try something. It can also open workplaces up to more discrimination lawsuits if they can’t justify the discrepancies.
Workplaces shouldn’t have commitments to diversity or release statements in support of the Black Lives Matter movement if they aren’t compensating their Black employees fairly. Black life mattering doesn’t start and stop with extrajudicial killings. It includes paying us for our labor so we can adequately provide for ourselves and our families.
In the words of Rihanna, “B*tch better have my money!”
Dispatches from the Plantation is all about the workplace experience from the perspective of Black people and what we want organizations to stop doing. If you have a story you would like to share, email Laniece.Williams@gmail.com.
