Hillary Clinton: It's Time For Wage Equality 'Once And For All'

[onehandle]

Last edited Tue Feb 24, 2015, 09:56 PM - Edit history (2)

Source: Huffington Post

Hillary Clinton lamented the number of women in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math at a Silicon Valley women's conference on Tuesday, and called for more action to close the wage gap.

"Sixty percent of college graduates are now women, yet they earn only 18 percent of computer science degrees. That's actually less than half of what it was in the 1980s, when women earned 38 percent of those degrees. We're going backwards in a field that's supposed to be all about going forward," Clinton said in a keynote address at Lead On Conference for Women in Santa Clara, California, for which she was reportedly paid a whopping $300,000.

The former secretary of state addressed an overwhelmingly friendly crowd made up of many employees from Silicon Valley's biggest tech companies, including Intel, Oracle and Cisco. Introduced as a "modern day suffragette," Clinton empathized with the audience by noting the difficulties women still face in male-dominated Silicon Valley.

"You bump your heads on the glass ceilings that persist in the tech industry today," she told the attendees.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/24/hillary-clinton-wage-quality-gender-gap_n_6747468.html

[antigop]

1. oh, dear lord, how tone deaf can she be?

There's a reason women aren't going into STEM fields:

They know better... there is little to no job security when your job will be replaced by an h-1b visaholder.

[1StrongBlackMan]

9. Oh please! ...

Women already in STEM are not entering STEM fields because of VISAsand those already in STEM are receiving disparate wages and being blocked from promotion because of VISAs?

[peacebird]

42. My salary rate has been dropping precisely because of h1b visas. I am in software qa, companies

Hire h1b workers for less than half what i made. I like my co-workers but after years of this the standard wage for my position is now LOWER, so companies let go more expensive staff and the new gig is at a lower wage.
Fact.
My husband, who is a software engineer has faced the same.

[1StrongBlackMan]

45. No, I understand that the VISA program is being badly abused ...

it is suppressing wages and contributes to unemployment/umder-employment among American STEMs. But that is not what the person I was responding to was saying.

[quadrature]

2. how much does a Falcon50 cost per hour?

she needs that $300K

[stevenleser]

13. What does that have to do with wage equality for women? Nt

[bravenak]

3. That's alot of money. Could pay for lots of females to do some tech training.

[whereisjustice]

4. What she's saying is that until we are all making $7 an hour and living in a slum in India

there can be no equality.

[peacebird]

44. That's pretty much where corporations are heading, why pay Americans more if I can get it done

cheaper in India?

And H1B visas are hastening the wage losses here in America. Companies hire cheap H1B workers, let go the more expensive American workers, the average wage cost for workers in "x" job drops to a lower dollar amount because of the flood of lowcost H1B workers and the American worker is offered less at their next job.

[spooky3]

5. your link did not work for me (404 error).

[Demit]

6. Link:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/24/hillary-clinton-wage-quality-gender-gap_n_6747468.html

[msongs]

7. how dare she criticize the Obama adminstration's + Congress tech visas program nt

[peacebird]

43. That tech visa program is HURTiNG home grown tech engineers and reducing our wage level.

See my post above.

[AtomicKitten]

46. Her support for cheap foreign labor precedes the Obama administration.

She campaigned in 2007 on expanding H-1B visas and outsourcing.

https://m.

[whereisjustice]

8. Just follow Chelsea Clinton's example - $600,000/yr as special correspondent at NBC News...

Fuck math and science - just get to 1% status and all you need to know is how to add up all that cash.

BTW - Silicon Valley IS being dominated by males.

From India.

Meanwhile, the bullshit lecture circuit is being dominated by an over-paid woman who wouldn't know damn thing about raising a family on real world wages.

[stevenleser]

12. Right, because your rant is more important than the equality issue she is raising. Nt

[whereisjustice]

16. The equality that we should all be able to make $600,000 a year for doing shit work? That's the

only talking point you need to address. Or is she more equal than the rest of us?

[stevenleser]

17. News flash. There is a speaker circuit out there. Some folks get a lot of money.

It's based on demand for that speaker. This existed before Hillary came onto the political scene. It will exist after she exits.

No one is forced to hire any given speaker. I'm listed out there too. They got have gotten me to talk about the same topic for quite a bit less. They wanted Hillary.

This is a pathetic line of attack against her.

[whereisjustice]

18. Translation: there's a seller of favors (Hillary) and a buyer of favors (the 1%) that's fine for

cigarettes and beer. Not so fine for American Government.

[stevenleser]

19. Your translation skills are nonexistent and your attack on Hillary pathetic. Nt

[whereisjustice]

20. lol - is that all you got? shit, I hope your speaking contract includes refund for poor performance

[stevenleser]

21. That's all your whiny attack on Hillary is worth. Nt

[BeanMusical]

41. No, that's pretty much all you got.

I read parts of your blog and your FB page and wasn't particularly impressed.

[840high]

27. ....x10

[joshcryer]

10. Only on DU could wage equality be twisted into garbage.

[stevenleser]

14. Clinton derangement syndrome is starting early.

I thought the Obama hate was bad here. At least folks waited until he was elected (but sadly before he was sworn in). With Hillary, she hasn't even announced she is running yet. It's going to be a long next 10 years on DU.

Oh well, at least my candidate will be in the White House.

[whereisjustice]

23. Blurted out like a true 1% er between gulps of Hillary's Reserve Dom Pérignon. Don't choke yourself.

[stevenleser]

24. I'm not a 1%er, but I agree with Occupys position on the subject

"We are not against the 1%, we are against policies that benefit the 1% at the expense of the 99%"

They are right, and your foaming hatred of 1%'ers , which is so rabid you accuse people whose finances you know nothing about of being 1%ers, is wrong-headed.

[whereisjustice]

25. lolololol!!! Spreading wealth envy bullshit! Are you Larry Summers lost soul mate?

Wealth inequity is SO MASSIVE your shilling and apologies for the 1% have become a joke and turned the Democratic Party into a tone deaf theater of the absurd.

[stevenleser]

34. I didn't bring it up, you did, when you attacked me for wealth I dont have. Nt

[joshcryer]

35. "Don't choke yourself." Stay classy.

[stevenleser]

37. Staying classy for that person clearly went out the window a long time ago. Nt

[davidpdx]

47. Electing another 1% isn't going to get us anywhere

It's not that I hate her, I strongly disagree with some of her policy stances. Labeling everyone as a Clinton hater is counterproductive and that's pretty much what is happening on DU.

[antigop]

11. She "lamented the number of women in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math "

Because the women are smart enough to realize there is no job security SO THEY DON'T GO INTO TECHNOLOGY AND ENGINEERING!

This ain't rocket science.

[madville]

15. Romney's only getting $50,000 a speech

He should demand some wage equality

[whereisjustice]

22. Hillary believes a male H1B from India should make the same low wage as a female H1B from India

and she'll fight for it every day when she's president.

[JonLP24]

30. "equal pay for equal work" is universally agreed on policy by all the Democrats

Allison Grimes, with all her distancing, used "equal pay for equal work" part of her campaign.

The actual solution to the H1B problem is more politically controversial but wouldn't make a dent in the "wage equality" problem Hillary Clinton mentions. H1B is a symptom of the problem since labor isn't globalized in a globalized economy, labor doesn't enjoy similar freedoms private business have in that they go where the cheap labor is but cheap labor can't go where the higher wages are. H1B visas, with their inability to take their talents from Microsoft to Apple for higher pay & other restrictions lowers wages for the entire tech worker industry which is further harmed by the common practice of using H1B labor to train so they can later operate parts of their business offshore. Microsoft opened up a Microsoft Vancouver as a not so subtle threat as to what they will do if Congress doesn't approve more H1B Visas.

[whereisjustice]

31. H1B is part of a broader problem of jobs to unskilled foreign labor who work for low wages

There are over 800,000 H1Bs in USA right now and it WOULD make a difference.

As far as threats to move, Congress has the authority to TAX those profits gained by exploiting lower wage workers off-shore.

And as far as Canada, the wages are not significantly lower when you factor in their superior health care system and benefits.

Hillary is using "wage equality" as a wedge and displacement device to avoid confronting the REAL problem- declining wages and quality of life in the US.

She makes it sound as if this is a problem only for women.

Bullshit. We've got a much, much bigger problem sucking the life out of the 99%.

She's pandering. And it is revolting.

[JonLP24]

33. The real problem was accelerated by free trade

in addition to 1920's "trickle down" policies.

If H1Bs were made full citizens than they'd have the same labor rights so they'd go into the same labor market & freedom to move to move to where the better wages & benefits are bringing them back up but H1B is used as a wedge issue used to appeal to workers upset about "losing jobs to foreigners". Unskilled isn't an accurate description for H1B given that they come from the H1B student Visa but an H1B worker who founded a company in the US wasn't allowed to work for it when he transfered back so as you can see the H1B visa harms both the H1B visa worker & the US citizens with full labor rights.

I wasn't clear in my Microsoft Vancouver mention. It was opened during H1B cap increase debates & Bill Gates is one of those leading the whole 'US businesses that can't compete for talent in a global economy will make changes to address that problem with off-shoring the extortion threat being used to leverage Congress into H1B cap increases.

His is misleading because he could argue to give them Green Cards (similar if not the same US citizen labor rights) but then he'd still have to compete with US tech firms for those Green Card tech workers. There is a lot of marketing & what isn't being said as to what is truly causing the sucking the life out of the 99% both here & across the globe.

Equal pay for equal work is an issue I do favor. I will note someone was a guest on ABC national news broadcast (daytime) giving good reasons, the woman anchor said the "we could talk about this for hours" in a very interesting way before moving on from the interview. I started to wonder if her male co-host had a larger salary but I have a different view regarding the television industry that given ratings drive advertising, while "equal work" may be certainly performed. A certain person may drive more viewers. It is why a golf tournament in a foreign country will offer Tiger Woods a bigger check to show up than the winner will take up because it is more profitable to do so. Same with film, while certainly many are talented. Certain actors (Bradley Cooper appears to be the hot male lead right now) drive up box office numbers so there is more of an A-list rather than talent focus in hiring cast. Robert Duvall wasn't in Godfather 3 because he was offered a significantly lower salary than Al Pacino, who said he could understand somewhat lower but IIRC it was more than 3 times lower but things changed since Godfather 1.

[whereisjustice]

36. appeal to workers upset about "losing jobs to foreigners"

I can tell you as 30 years deep inside high-tech, this is not a wedge issue. H1Bs continue to displace US workers - not just in high tech any longer, but in banking, health care, legal, and just about every other service industry.

The 800,000 number I quoted is an estimate. The real number is likely over 1,000,000.

They are unskilled compared to the US workers they have displaced. Management has priced in the lack of skills with lower wages.

Many of these workers will return to India to compete against US companies.

These same workers are compliant to a fault, eagerly shipping bad products and afraid to speak up to management about reckless behaviors.

Now H1Bs are being hired to manage teams in India. Many are moving into senior positions, hiring relatives.

Everyone favors equal pay. So Hillary likes apple pie. Is that how low the Democratic Party has fallen? Suddenly the concept of equal pay is a new radical idea that will lift the middle class decline?

Hillary is pandering to avoid confronting the rotten festering core at the heart of BOTH political parties - selling the middle class to Asia for pennies on the dollar.

[JonLP24]

39. I mean politicians or political groups use the H1B controversy in part to appeal

to some parts who are victims of de-industralization of American issues. I have spoken to people more angry with Chinese citizens working for US companies than they are with their own politicians. Not their fault & they were chosen because of a combination of lower labor rights, massively large labor pool, & regulations (don't have to worry so much about a hazardous environmental "spill" depending on the government). I don't mean that as a generalization which includes my immediate family affected by those policies.

I mentioned the off-shoring but you have to understand something about overall business & certain industry. They have several options when it comes to labor & choosing how to perform their operations. Often best talent & better pay for that talent is discarded in favor of having an overall lower skilled lower pay operation. Which is why discrimination has existed & continues to exist in the US but sports is a skill driven--high profile example of why discrimination is bad policy (you lose them to the competition) Still, depending on the type of industry, high profits can be maintained for a reduction in poorer performing labor business model.

"Afraid to speak up to management" is a big part of the H1B problem. They may be lower skilled on average compared to the American citizen labor pool in whatever industry, certainly tech has the best training, education, facilities in the world & many talented American tech workers out of work in the. "Unskilled" I think of agricultural farmers & other laborer positions. Not really, workers in the medical industry & I have a horror story to tell involving American hospital workers. H1B Visas are usually given to the top part of the India's income bracket while US private defense contractors abuse & human traffic the bottom part of India's income bracket while their employers KBR, Dyncorp, etc "violate every single US labor law" for roughly $7,000 a year which doesn't account for the fees paid to "bait & switch recruiters" & had their passports taken which is a much more significant issue H1B worker visas face here in the US as far as to what freedoms they have to leave the company.

What you used to describe the 1% is something I feel everyone in the entire world is being affected by it

[Thespian2]

26. HRC

is programmed to rant about things she doesn't care about. When did she ever have a job dedicated to helping real people? A corporate shill has a difficult time following the teachings of Christ. She a dedicated ass-kisser to her corporate masters.

A vote for HRC could give us a continuation of George W Bush's reign of terror.

[840high]

28. She was inspired after

watching Academy Awards. lol

[Thespian2]

32. YEP!

[LanternWaste]

50. I like to pretend I know what and why other people say what they do also.

I like to pretend I know what and why other people say what they do also-- it prevents me from ever being wrong... in my own mind if no where else, at least.

[JonLP24]

29. Hillary Clinton "the only one can win" is saying something

Bernie Sanders firmly believes in at the time to start saying to start saying those things. Populist rhetoric win elections.

[angrychair]

38. working in the tech industry

I see and feel the impact that H1B visas have had on our industry. I find it absurd that there is so few qualified US-based tech workers that such measures are needed. The problem with speeches like this is that it comes across canned. HRC's speech was no different. PBO's comments are no different. There is no heart, no real "fire in the belly" to address the issue. No one asking the hard questions and doing the hard work to FIX IT and not just talk about it. Don't get me wrong, there isn't a single gOP slack-jawed moron that can even spell STEM, much less say what it stands for or explain the impact of of H1B visas on hiring and recruitment practices in Silicon Valley or Seattle or DFW.
Tired of pretty speeches and one-liners and "gosh, we'll try again next Congress":

The ERA has been talked about since 1972...a majority of my life...so when? When is the right time to manidate the equal and fair treatment of women?

Roe v. Wade has been settled law since 1973....a majority of my life...so when? When will decisions be left to the women and not the politician?

Why is it that when women are deigned basic rights like walking out their front door alone or driving or when they have vile and evil practices like FGM forced on them as babies, its a "cultural difference" and not what it really is, wrong?
Stop waiting for politicians and movie stars to fix or "spark interest" in equal rights and treatment for women. There are millions of women and men that all agree that this issue matters. Let's prove it.

[whereisjustice]

40. Hillary is pandering to avoid more attention on inconvenient conflicts of interest

We all want equal pay for equal work.

Meanwhile another 100,000 jobs head off to Asia.

Jobs that used to belong to American men AND women.

[antigop]

52. as one DUer has said: "We'll all be equal in the breadlines." Sorry, I can't take credit for the

quote and I can't find who posted it.

[closeupready]

48. Not buying it. She had six years on Walmart's BoD to help women on Walmart's payroll

achieve pay equality ... and what did she do? Anyone? ??

If she did nothing but talk then, she'll do the same now.

[Bonobo]

49. She's right!

And while we are at it, let's recognize that the problem is not just one of women in the workplace.

It's time that black and hispanic men get paid as much for the same work as white women.

[Snow Leopard]

51. The myth of the gender pay gap

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-gender-pay-gap-is-a-complete-myth/


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/christina-hoff-sommers/wage-gap_b_2073804.html

[Corey_Baker08]

53. It Is Long Past Time For Wage Equality...