Pay Gap between men and women

Sicilian asked me what are the stats on women's salaries in the Fortune 500 companies (and she bet they are much lower than the men's salaries). See below for the pay gap between men and women; the good news is that the gap is shrinking.

Women leaders Help Boost the Bottom Line

A recent study showing that Fortune 500 companies with the highest proportion of female directors are more profitable and efficient, on average, than those with the lowest: an 83% higher average return on equity, 73% higher return on sales, and 112% higher return on invested capital.

Note that these correlations do not necessarily mean senior women cause superior financial performance. Rather they points to the fact that a "gender balanced" environment is more conductive to better business performance.

Few workers connect to the company emotionally

According to a new survey, only 21% of workers worldwide are "engaged" (HR term for 'ready to expend some extra effort at work'), while 38% are either disenchanted or disengaged. Among all nations, Japan has the lowest portion of engaged workers, only 3%, and 72% are disenchanted or disengaged (this got has something to do with the Japan's life-time employment). Below the full list of engagement levels by country:

Yearn for our own business

According to a survey of 1,000 people between the ages of 25 and 55, 72% of those surveyed said they dream of starting their own business, and 84% said that if they started their own business they would be more passionate about their work. The biggest draw to owning your own business? 40% of workers said it would enable them to "do what they love." Another 24% said they most like the idea of being their own boss and 21% said they'd favor the flexible schedule. The survey focused on people who don't already own a business.

If we can be in charge of our destiny, wouldn't that be awesome ?

Jobs have high rates of depression

According to a new report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 7% of all full-time workers in US battled depression in the past year.

The job has the highest rate of depression is the Personal Care, almost 11% of workers-which includes child care and helping the elderly and severely disabled with their daily needs-reported depression lasting two weeks or longer.

Workers who works in restaurant industries-prepare and serve food, bartenders, waiters and waitresses-had the 2nd hest rate of depression at 10.3%.

In a tie for 3rdre health care workers and social workers at 9.6%.

The lowest rate of depression, 4.3%, occurred in the job category that covers engineers, architects and surveyors.

The news which is not depressing? just working full-time would appear to be beneficial in preventing depression. Although the overall rate of depression for full-time workers is 7%, it is 12.7% by those who are unemployed.

Relaxed workplace

Heard from NPR radio (9/12/2007):

in a recent survey, more than 40% of employee said they wear jeans, or anything they feel comfortable, go to work routinely; more than 45% employees admitted they slept at work; more than 21% employee admitted to drinking alcohol while at work.

Impact of whiter teeth on key first impressions

According to a recent report, whiter teeth can create good first impressions, which then can leads to greater success in work and love. In one study of randomly selected individuals who participated in two simulated job interviews, after participants teeth had been whitened, 58% were more likely to be hired (no change for the rest of 42%), 53% received higher salary offers; 65% were viewed to be more professional, and 61% were viewed to be more confident.

In a similar study about people involved in romantic first dates, whitening teeth led to 54% of participants (no change for the rest of 46%) became more desirable for further relationship, and 59% were viewed to be more outgoing.

Who knows? People have been told to not judge other people by the color of their skin; now teeth get in the way.

Wasting time at work

Working hard at job or hardly working ?

An online survey of 2,057 employees in US by online compensation company Salary.com found about 60% workers, especially who feel bored and underpaid, admit to wasting time at work with the average employee wasting 20% of their working day.

Personal internet use topped the list as the leading time-wasting activity according to 34% of respondents, with 20.3% then listing socialising with co-workers and 17% conducting personal business as taking up time.

Moms tired of working

Corporations of America be aware - full-time working mother are tied of working. In the past decade, the percentage of working mothers who say full-time work is ideal dropped from 32% to 21%, according to a new survey by the Pew Research Center. Now, 60% of them say they'd rather work part-time, up from 48% in 1997.
Likewise, only 16% of stay-at-home moms say they'd prefer to work full-time. That's down from 24% a decade ago. Nearly 50% of at-home moms say not working at all is ideal, up from 39% in 1997. Not surprisingly, 72% of fathers prefer working full-time.
Rating themselves on a scale of 1 to 10 on how well they've done at parenting, 43% of at-home moms said 9 or 10. Only 28% of full-time working moms rated themselves so highly.
Finally, 44% of at-home moms think it's bad for society to have so many mothers away at jobs, while just 34% of working moms think that.
I can list at least 3 reasons for this major attitude change from working mother - longer commute times to work; more demanding working environments; deteriorating children care services.

Employer discrimination against women with children

There is a long history of records showing employer discrimination against mothers (but not fathers) when hiring and promote people - the so called 'motherhood penalty'. Mothers were often rated as less competent, less suitable for hire, and deserving of lower salaries.

In a latest study in this subject, researcher of Cornell University performed both a laboratory experiment and an audit of real employers. Their results showed significant and substantial penalties for motherhood among both white and African-American women, among them:

1. Childless women are 2-time more likely to be hired than equally qualified mothers.
2. The recommended starting salary for mothers was $11,000 less than that offered nonmothers.
3. Mothers were rated as less promotable and less committed.
4. Fathers were offered the highest starting salaries.

Can you be a better boss ?

Think you could do your boss' job better than he or she can? You're not alone. According to a recent survey (Chicago Tribune, 6/18/2007) conducted by the executive recruiting firm Korn/Ferry International, nearly 75% of employees think they could outperform their boss if given the chance, and most would jump at the opportunity. A full 65% of workers said they aspire to their boss' position.

Some people think above number is a sign that while many employees respect their boss, they feel underutilized at work. I think in some cases this is the lake wobegon effect at play again.

Food chain of book publishing business

New York Magazine has a fascinating set of business case studies investigating how New York businesses turn a profit. The one interesting me most in the study about book publisher Random House. On the weekly bases, the country’s biggest trade publisher releases 67 new books, out of its 33,000-book backlist.

According to this study, out of every 8 books, 1 is very profitable, 1 is very unprofitable, and 6 either break even or lose money. On average, for a paperback which retail for about $10, $5 goes to the retailer; $2 covers publisher's overhead costs (buildings, admin, payroll); $1.50 goes to author payments (that is 15%); $1 goes to paper, printing, and binding; only $0.50 is profit (that is 5%). The best ways to make money? Underpay writers. "The most-profitable books are highly successful authors early in their career with a contract that doesn’t reflect their success".

The insane commuting in America

According to a Chicago Tribune article today, annual commuting costs for US working family was reaching 5 figures in 2005. In major metro areas, the cost is the highest in Atlanta ($10,890), lowest in New York ($7,880). So for a middle-class family with a annual income of $50,000, 20% of the money are just enough to get to and back from the work, not to mention commuting being non-productive and environment polluting.

Numbers of our times

Video below (from YouTube) presented many numbers on current global affairs (technology and culture changes). They are simply fascinating.

Today's link - obesity, startup

1) here is a obesity infographics of the percentage of population older than 15, with a body-mass index greater than 30. Out of 27 countries on the list, and US man is on the top with 31%.

2) a recent survey shows between 2005-2006, 0.29% of US population started their own business. The immigrant rate of entrepreneurial activity increased from 0.35% in 2005 to 0.37% in 2006, much higher than the rate for the native-born population, 0.27%.

Midwest region had the lowest level of entrepreneurial activity of all regions - Detroit is 0.13%, Chicago is 0.18%, well below the national average.

Versatility just part of managers' job

We know beside managing projects and staff members, most office managers perform many different jobs - customer relations, human resources, accounting and computer support, etc.

Early in 2007, when Staples (a US company) web site asking office manager's input for their job descriptions, 8,000 managers responded. 75% of them consider themselves workplace housekeeping supervisors; and 71% of them lend an ear as office psychologist.

Some side jobs performed by office managers are "breaking up an office romance, cleaning pigeon poop off the sidewalk, unclogging the toilet while on the phone and signing for a delivery..."

I have never been a manager, and no plan to be one in the near future.

Source: Chicago Tribune (April, 30, 2007)

Why we hate lawyers

According to this story, a lawyer is suing his dry-cleaner for $65 million because they lost his pants. The original cost is only $10.50. The lawyer says he "deserves millions for the damages he suffered by not getting his pants back, for his litigation costs, for mental suffering, inconvenience and discomfort".

Do women work more than men do ?

All wives, universally, believe they work more hours than their husbands do. Common sense tells us women work more than men do. However, if you take a scientific look at this, as 3 economists (Michael Burda of Humboldt University in Berlin, Daniel Hamermesh of the University of Texas, and Philippe Weil of the Free University of Brussels) did in their research on 25 countries (rich and poor), the answer to the title question is, on average, a sounding NO.

Researches divided daily 24 hours into four broad activities: "market work" that is, work for pay, typically outside the house; "homework," including housework and child care; "tertiary time," including sleep, eating, and other biological necessities that people can do only for themselves; and the time left over, which is leisure.

Throughout the world, men spend more time on market work, while women spend more time on homework. In the United States and other rich countries, men average 5.2 hours of market work a day and 2.7 hours of homework each day, while women average 3.4 hours of market work and 4.5 hours of homework per day. Adding these up, men work an average of 7.9 hours per day, while women work an average of, well, 7.9 hours per day.

Two more interesting findings from the same research report:

1) although men in many rich countries do not work less than women, they do enjoy about 20 to 30 minutes more leisure per day because they spend less time on sleep and other biological necessities. Men spend almost all of this additional leisure time watching television.

2) while men and women spend about the same time working in rich countries, women do work more than men in poor countries, and the gap widens as countries get poorer. It appears better educated husbands in rich countries are more willing to help their wives.

The bigger his house, the worse the CEO

In a recent research paper, two finance professors (David Yermack of New York University and Crocker Liu of Arizona State ) identified the primary residences of 488 CEOs of the (US) S&P 500 Companies, and demonstrated that there is a relationship between CEO home-buying behavior and their company's stock performance.

The mean residence of a CEO was 6,145 square feet, 12 rooms, 5.37 acres of land, and a market value of $3.1 million. In 2005, the stocks of companies whose CEOs lived in larger homes (i.e., above the average for all CEOs) returned, on average, 3.35% less than companies whose CEOs lived in below-average homes. And the CEOs who lived in the biggest homes (at least 10,000 square feet or over 10 acres) underperformed their peers who inhabited more modest homes by 6.9%, on average.

Two professors also looked at stock returns for 164 companies whose CEOs bought new homes after becoming CEO. They found a significantly negative stock performance following the acquisition of very large homes by company CEOs on the order of 1.25% performance lag per month.

The explanation for the relationship may be complex, but soon, somebody could use this information when deciding which stock to own.

In retrospect, may be we all should sell Microsoft significantly underperforming stock in 2000, when we knew Bill Gates moved into his gargantuan home in the late 1990s.

In Doctors' office

1. the No. 1 patient complaint about doctors is - you got it - waiting room delays. (source - Reader Digest, April 2007, p184)
2. according to Robert Sutton, a professor of management science and engineering at Stanford Engineering School, among all occupations, medical doctors are most horrible bosses. 90% of nurses report 6 to 12 incidents of verbal and emotional abuse per year from doctors.