I just started as an
executive director and
was reviewing all the
personnel records and
salaries, classifications,
titles.
There was one group out
of about six groups at the
time where all
the titles were lower
classifications, all the salaries
were lower, and this was a group
that was predominantly
nonwhite and or women
looking at that comparative
data.
I noted that in particular,
the people who were African-American
were substantially lower
than their white counterparts in
other parts of the office.
The case became even worse
as we looked at the data and more
detail.
Essentially, if you were
African-American, particularly
if you were from the local
community, you were making
between 30 to 40 percent
less than your counterpart
of any other racial or ethnic
background, but absolutely
compared to anybody who was white
doing exactly the same work.
I took the issue
globally to try and
put together a proposal
after I'd met with them and said
these are the absolute structural
racist issues I'm
finding.
I put together the proposal
with new classifications
and structures.
They approved all
but one, which was
for an administrative
assistant who had been
kept in an eight-eight two title
with truly a salary that was
below a living wage, that her work
was of the exact same caliber
as our counterparts, and over 20
years with the university.
I went
back to the administrative assistant
who was actually preparing to retire
and said, I
would like to be able to prove to
H.R. that you're able to do much,
much more than
your classification and title would
show.
Would you mind developing a set of
bylaws for how the governance
structure and the advisory
board work?
And she was fabulous.
She did a beautiful job
and that was enough evidence
of her capability
and they were willing to
reclassify her.
That was about a forty
five thousand dollar per year
increase in salary
and then recommended she stay on
for three years.
So that would be her highest
compensation and benefit
her and retirement, which she did.
That was a local black
woman who would have retired
on thirty two thousand
dollars a year.
That sense of
recognizing her commitment,
those of her colleagues ensuring
that they were compensated in a
comparable fashion, engendered
considerable trust and
respect in the group.
It finally empowered them
to feel that they were valued
compared to their their colleagues.
And it actually took away
an undertone of
anger and resentment that had built
up that were, in fact, quite
appropriate reactions
to how they've been treated.
The entire climate improved
across the unit and allowed
us to really move forward with
the other important changes that
needed to be made.