Workplace Equality

I hope you all had a great holiday weekend. If you haven’t responded already, I’ve emailed you a question and would like you to go into as much detail as you feel necessary to answer.

One question I find lurking at the office water cooler is the question of equality in the workplace. While there are many resources about gender equality, I’d rather talk about workplace equality in regards to your degree. Do you feel you will be treated equally with the type of degree you’re earning?

Workplace fairness has been around for some time now and has been advocated for my many diverse groups. But how far have we come? According to an article by Stephen Ohlemacher of Washington, employees with bachelor’s degrees earned an average of $50,000. Ohlemacher also portrays the message that of states with numerous high school diploma graduates the number of college degree graduate will also be high. ***By the way, Florida doesn’t rank high!*** What does that mean for people who earn a degree in a less than well known area of study? Currently, the mentality in the United States is centered on specialization of work to the extent that our universities offer degree programs just for those specialized jobs. For example, if you wanted to be a human resources manager there is a degree program for that. But you can also have an interdisciplinary studies degree and be a human resources manager. So the question becomes, with the trend in specialization that our society has, do you think the employee with the interdisciplinary studies degree be treated equally with the employee with the specialized degree? In an article by James Lardner, upward mobility is discussed relative to several factors, one of them being degrees. Lardner states, "upward mobility is determined increasingly by a college degree." And a New York Times article regarding the economic disparity of college graduates asserts that the gap between college graduate and high school graduate employees is diminishing. According to the NY Times article, the reason for the rise of inequality is a "lack of strong policies and institutions that broadly distribute economic gains."

If your answer to the interdisciplinary studies versus specialized degree question is no, I have another question for you: what can be done to correct the situation?

Revamping the workplace is one start point. The Out & Equal Workplace Advocates provide several steps for creating equality in the workplace. Granted they are more concerned with inequality related to sexual orientation, but a few of their suggestions can be applied broadly: create an employee resource group, hold degree diversity seminars (or cross training sessions), market and advertise employees varied backgrounds and degree studies, and advocate for leadership development in employees with different degrees.

Another way to correct the workplace inequality is to update policies and create organizations to advocate for benefits. This is what was encouraged in the New York Times article by Levy and Temin. They argued that we had unions and affirmative action groups years ago and today we don’t have those benefit advocates anymore. They also state that employer policies are outdated and should be revised.

If you find that you’ve been discriminated against based on your degree you should pursue the matter further with risk management or human resources. This may not always be the case, however, as you are the marketing tool for your degree. Do not hesitate to promote your education to your employers. Hopefully, you will never experience workplace inequality. If the situation ever arises, I think you should reflect on ways you can work with your employer to correct it and then advocate with your local workplace equality group.

“Economic Life After College.” 11 June, 2007. New York Times. Retrieved 06 July, 2009 from http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/11/opinion/11mon3.html?_r=2&oref=slogin.

“Fifteen Steps to an Out & Equal Workplace.” Out & Equal Workplace Advocates: Workplace Resources. Retrieved 06 July, 2009 from http://outandequal.org/steps-to-equal-workplace.

Lardner, James. “Mobility Check.” The Progress Report. Retrieved 06 July, 2009 from http://www.progress.org/2004/labor06.htm.

Ohlemacher, Stephen. “Monetary Success a Matter of Degrees: Bachelor’s Brings in $23,000 More a Year.” 26 October, 2006. Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 06 July, 2009 from http://archives.chicagotribune.com/2006/oct/26/news/chi-0610260286oct26.