I was a pizza driver. I am not ashamed of this fact but I have hidden it on occasion. Why? Because allowing the fact to be known in these situations would have placed me at a massive disadvantage. Let me explain:

     When the company I know work for called me back and scheduled a sit-down to talk about making me a salary offer I knew that I needed to do a few things:

          1. Get a new set of clothes. I dress like an unemployed lumberjack most days and this simply wouldn't help me in the interview.

          2. Do a bit of research on the Net for the range of salaries people receive for this type of work.

          3. Lie about my current employment. At least omitting my current pizza guy status.

          4. Put on my best poker face for the interview.

     I was in fairly dire straits money wise at the time but I knew that there was no way that the H.R. person could be allowed to know this. So I went to the interview looking my best and appearing to be overwhelmingly confident in m own worth. In reality I was desperate to land the job.

     The H.R. lady was very nice but it was immediately apparent from the first moment of the interview that this was a struggle between her mission to secure good employees for as small a cost as possible and my mission to get the job for as much money as I could get. Throughout the interview she repeatedly tried to find out my current financial and employment situation in a number of oblique approaches (like asking where I lived now (good or bad neighborhood)). I parried and dissembled as best I could an she came away with the (mistaken) impression that I was in college full-time and working small consultant jobs with other government contractors.

     If she had known I was a pizza driver my job offer would have dropped by at least 10% automatically. If I had still lived on the bad side of town? Likely another 5% drop. If I showed up looking like I just walked in from a rave? 5-10% percent. In the end I got the job and a good wage for someone without a degree.

     Now this model is the norm in the Defense industry. Most companies either bill hourly employees to the government at a given rate (more than the employee gets) or they are given a lump sum for yearly employees and keep the overages. this means that you have to be aggressive when you negotiate for money. Usually the company wants to fill the position ASAP since it can't get overage money for unfilled positions. Push hard and get the money you deserve.

     I work with several other people in the same job position but I make more than almost everyone of them. In fact I am pretty certain that the only people who make more than I do here are the team leads and department heads. My closest friend here only makes 65% of my salary and we do the same exact job while one of my female co-workers only makes 70%.

     Is this because of racial or sexual discrimination? Nope, all of these folks simply took the first number that the H.R. person offered because they were terrified that they wouldn't get the job. These same folks also don't really understand that salaries can be re-negotiated when you have more experience or have earned a professional certification.

     On a related note, none of these people are in the company's very generous 401k plan or tae advantage of the company health care either. In Brad's terms they are choosing to remain poor first by not fighting for what they are worth and secondly by not taking advantage of the benefits of being employed by a huge company.

     While employees here and prohibited from discussing their salaries most folks eventually find out who makes what in rough terms. Many of these folks immediately cry "discrimination!" only to find out that they have violated their contract by disclosing their salary to other employees... Viola! You're shitcanned! In reality it wasn't discrimination at all but a lack of the most basic of skills needed to get the wage they could have gotten. Most of these folks wouldn't even dress up for the job interview or the salary offer, allowed the H.R. folks to know that they were a stocker at Target, and let them know that they live in "Frytown" (the worst part of town). These facts are like blood in the water to a good H.R. shark and these folks lost out as a result.

    The reason this is on my mid is a recent interview with Lis Wiehl on the O'Reilly Factor. In the interview she claims that she was discriminated against by a university because she found out that while she was a professor in charge of the largest department she was being paid 5% less than the male professor of the smallest department. In reality it is very unlikely that she was being discriminated against and far more likely that she simply didn't shoot high enough in her salary negotiations. The university didn't allow disclosure of salary info so she went in blind and didn't have any idea what that male professor made. The university (being a for profit organization) is under no obligation to tell her that this other guy demanded more than she was settling for.

     It is called the job market for a reason folks. You have to be willing to haggle. I am not making huge money here (not by a long-shot) but my non-negotiating co-workers are being raped by comparison. Frankly this is the sort fo thing that should be taught to a child before they hit the non fast food job market.