Pay Doesn’t Reflect Skills
by Adrienne AndersonLink to article
I’m a 39-year old, fourth-generation native San Franciscan who attended college and worked in the City and County of San Francisco for many years. During the first Dot-Com Boom (I call it Web 1.0), the housing costs and general cost of living in the City and County San Francisco skyrocketed, pushing me and my mother out of the City! My mother and I are both administrative professionals, and during the time we were being pushed out of the City, there were no positions that could ever match the pay needed to stay in the overpriced apartments in S.F.
I’ve also recently noticed how the profession has changed exponentially, though the pay doesn’t reflect the change. Though I’m technology-literate (and have held multiple IT positions), my mother is not. My mother’s job has practically remained the same, while I’ve noticed that the administrative jobs have turned into highly skilled, technologically-focused, underpaid positions. “Admins” now are expected to fulfill the role of both the “old school” adminstrative skills (dictation, cold-calling, scheduling appointments, etc.) to “new school” skills (networking desktops, web-development and design, IT support, etc.), though the pay doesn’t reflect these new skills.
I’m convinced that because these positions have been traditionally help by women, that many workers still expect the positions to serve as a “submissive surrogate wife” …including some women who hold higher level positions! In addition to the change in the position, support jobs are becoming more expendable with workers tearing each other apart for low-pay/high skill positions in it. I’d like to see a workplace that rewards workers for their skill, intelligence (not just educationally) and hard work. If a CEO gets a $100K bonus, what do her/his assistants get?
Tags: administrative_jobs, Dot-com-boom, underpaid
June 17th, 2007 at 2:41 pm
I also invested too many years playing the technician game. Unfortunately, technical work has become the “property” of the young professionals who literally live their work 24/7. That isn’t the life I wanted to live so I changed my focus.
Essentially, I created my own niche profession that relates to both technical and advanced clerical. Interestingly enough, it is working quite well.
How can I provide you with encouragement and ideas to change you life and that of your family? Let me know & I’ll do what I can.
June 21st, 2007 at 10:47 am
I have been working in an administrative capacity for 20 years. This is not necessarily out of choice. I received my Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Information Systems in 2000 in hopes of doing something I really loved - working on/with computers (and making a nice living while doing it). That unfortunately never happened. I continue to be pigeonholed into administrative positions and have yet to truly use my IT skills. The really sad part is that I was told by an IT manager 2 years ago that my degree was obsolete and I might as well resign myself to working clerical/administrative for the rest of my career.
I am a single mother of 2 and I’m am making just above the poverty line. I can’t even afford my student loans.
I can certainly relate to your frustration. It’s ok to offer your expertise, but it would be nice to get paid what that expertise is worth.
Take care.