Saturday, August 25, 2007

Librarian Pay Equity

Found this blog posting at Librarian Unions:

Overdue:Pay Equity for Library Workers.

It provides a strong argument for pay equity and responds to those who question the need for libraries in this digital internet age.
The fact that per capita circulation of library materials has increased over the last decade is a clear illustration of how valuable libraries are for British Columbians. Libraries help strengthen our communities and make them better places to live. Public libraries are key to a democratic, egalitarian society because they ensure all citizens have access to a wide range of information and knowledge.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hmm, let me see. I'm an engineer. Engineers are paid significantly less than doctors, lawyers or accountants. This despite the fact that engineers are in high demand, and their profession has the same legal standing as the other 3.

Maybe pay differences are just a fact of life. Maybe some occupations are more highly valued than others. Life isn't fair.

One thing is for certain - library budgets aren't going to increase, so the only way to pay some librarians as much as 'equivalent' workers in other fields will be to get rid of other librarians. Maybe 'equitable' is in the eye of the beholder...

Back to work said...

The issue is how does one quantify "equal pay for equal work."

It sounds noble but exactly how do you define it?

The truth is the market sets the value of each postion. If you are a private sector engineer you will make more than a public sector engineer.

As much as people love to trash Judy Rogers salary it is competitive within her job category and the scope of her responsiblities.

Anonymous said...

At the end of the day, people get paid based on how much they're needed. Sounds unfair, but it's life. Library workers just aren't needed as much as other workers, however unpalatable that might be to them.

As far as engineers go, based on the salaries I saw in the paper, and the benefits in the contract (particularly vacation time, extended health, overtime pay, on-call pay), public sector engineers ((at least Vancouver city engineers) earn more than private sector engineers. My salary might be higher than a city worker's, but I have to work as many hours as it takes when there's a deadline looming, and if there's something critical happening with a customer, then I have to do whatever it takes to resolve it. No extra pay for that. And if the company's products don't sell well enough, see ya later. It's frustrating in the extreme that you city workers don't want to see how good you have it compared to everyone else.