:You can’t hit what you can’t see:. That phrase highlights another advantage of having a union contract. Bloomberg drives the point home with I’ll Have What He’s Making…
Researchers say transparency requirements could help reduce long-standing gender- and race-based pay inequities, chronic problems within the tech industry. “The idea is that if you’re not transparent about what people are being paid, you can’t smoke out gender-based differentials,” Lopez says.
“Employers will often anchor negotiations based on the first offer the employee makes,” says David Lopez, a professor at Rutgers Law School and former general counsel of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. If you lack data on pay, “you’re negotiating from a position of weakness.”
A union contract addresses two of these issues head-on. In many companies it is forbidden or highly discouraged to discuss salary with co-workers. A union contract puts the pay of each member of the bargaining unit in black and white. This transparency is what many states are trying to do through law. A union contract has the power of law and solves this problem.
The other issue solved by a union contract is different pay for different folks based on skin color, sex, etc. Job classifications and employee status/seniority are usually the criteria for pay and these are stated in black and white in the union contract.
(free image via clipart)
