134. Five ways to be a financial ally at work

Usually on this show we talk about the power of our wallets to build the world we want. This week, let’s talk about how we can extend our power just a little bit further, to our places of work.

There are lots of ways to serve as a financial ally to the planet and to our community. This week, we’ll talk about five ways that are probably easier than you might think.

1. Practice salary transparency.
2. Propose a socially responsible 401K option if your company doesn’t already have one. 
3. Take advantage of your company’s matching donations.
4. Participate in paid volunteer days or suggest them if they're not already offered.
5. Finally, hire vendors with your mission and values in mind. 

Links from today’s episode:

The Enduring Grip of the Gender Pay Gap | Pew Research

https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2023/03/01/the-enduring-grip-of-the-gender-pay-gap/

Gender pay gap in U.S. hasn’t changed much in two decades | Pew Research

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/03/01/gender-pay-gap-facts/ 

ICYMI another episode you might enjoy:

Episode#42 Pay Transparency for Allies (recorded before the 2024 rebranding of this show)

Episode #9 When your company doesn’t offer a socially responsible 401K (recorded before the 2024 rebranding of this show)

Connect With Genet “GG” Gimja:

Website https://www.progressivepockets.com

Twitter https://twitter.com/prgrssvpckts 

Work With Me:

Email progressivepockets@gmail.com for brand partnerships, business inquiries, and speaking engagements.

Easy Ways to Support the Show

1. Send this episode to someone you know! Word of mouth is how podcasts grow!

2. Buy me a coffee (or a soundproof panel!) https://buymeacoffee.com/progressivepockets 

3. Leave a 5 star rating and review for the show!

//NO AI TRAINING: Any use of this podcast episode transcript or associated show notes or blog posts to “train” generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to generate text is expressly prohibited. This includes, without limitation, technologies that are capable of generating works in the same style or genre as this content. The author reserves all rights to license uses of this work for generative AI training and development of machine learning language models//

Transcript

Welcome to Progressive Pockets! I go by GG, that’s short for Genet Gimja. This is a show where I am exploring the idea that we might have more power than we think we do to shape the world we want. So you can drop by here every week to hear practical suggestions to think about how we decide where to donate, how we bank, how we shop, and here’s another money topic that definitely has power too- that’s how we earn our money.

Some of you listening might have even dedicated your career to a public service profession, maybe you work in education or the nonprofit space, maybe you are a startup founder creating a business with a positive social impact.

But even if you haven’t taken that path, maybe you have a job at a pretty typical company, in a typical kind of role, there are still some ways that we can be an ally to the planet and to our communities. Let’s talk about it today!

Today’s episode is about 5 ways to be a financial ally at work! I can’t wait to hear your comments about this one. Drop me a line anytime at progressive pockets at gmail dot com.

Let’s start with number one. Salary transparency.

I will share with you my experience on this, I have had a lot of jobs starting as a teenager and all the way through my career, honestly other than the minimum wage jobs I started with, I’ve often had a fear in the back of my mind that I was being paid less than my peers at work. And this fear is informed by reality.

The gender wage gap has remained pretty consistent over the past twenty years. As always I’ll link to the research if you want to do your own deep dive. Since 2002, women have been paid about 80 cents on the dollar compared to what men are paid. That’s on average, but it’s different depending on your race and ethnicity. Asian women are the closest to being paid the same as men, not quite but close. Asian women are paid 93 cents on the dollar. White women are paid 83 cents on the dollar (that’s the statistic I hear quoted the most often). Black women are paid 70 cents on the dollar. Hispanic women are paid 65 cents on the dollar. White men are paid the whole dollar.

And this takes into consideration things like whether or not you’re educated, whether or not you have kids.

So being in the workplace, I’ve often wondered if I was getting paid that 70 cents on the dollar. But for a long time, I think employers promoted a culture of secrecy. That we shouldn’t tell our coworkers how much we’re getting paid because it could cause conflict. Some employers even tried to make it illegal to disclose how much you’re getting paid even with your coworkers at the same company. A lot of states have made it illegal for employers to enforce these types of non disclosure agreements, and that’s a great thing because all of that secrecy primarily benefits one party, that’s the employer.

If nobody knows how much anybody else is getting paid, that’s how they can exploit some workers more than others. So, if you’re looking for a way to be a financial ally at work, consider rethinking our culture of being secretive about how much we’re getting paid. I’m not suggesting that you publish your salary in the new york times, but I am saying that if you are looking for ways to be an ally at work, and you have peers who might be underpaid, consider it as a way of being a financial ally.

Let’s go to number 2, this one is about being an ally to the planet at your job. Financially speaking. If your job offers a 401K, it probably offers a few different options. Maybe there’s an option for the more risk averse or for people who have a shorter amount of time until retirement. You can be an ally by working with HR to add another option, a social responsible option. The lowest hanging fruit is probably a green option. There are tons of green options on the market these days, and there are employers that are already offering these to their employees. You don’t have to wait until your employer decides to offer a climate friendly 401K option, you can propose it. At a high level you basically will want to reach out to HR, you might involve a few of your colleagues who are also interested in this, and from there just keep letting HR know that there is some interest there. Back on episode 9 I talked a little more about how exactly to go about petitioning your job for a green 401K option, you can check it out if you’re interested. 

Number 3 way to be a financial ally at work is somewhat similar and that’s taking advantage of your company’s policy to match donations, if they have one. I remember working at a company where they would match donations up to a certain amount and I want to say they even had a relationship with a particular charity in town where they provided an extra incentive to donate to them. Donating to that charity was a big part of the culture at the company, I remember people walking around wearing pins from that charity to indicate that they had donated.

I would be surprised if it’s common nowadays for employers to push employees to donating to a specific charity, but what I love is the idea that you can donate to your favorite charity and then your employer will also donate to that charity. It’s like employers that offer matching programs for contributing to your 401K. If your company doesn’t already offer a matching donation program, check in with HR or your social impact director if your employer has one.

Pitch this idea of them matching employee donations. It’s hard to imagine that some employers will gladly take you up on this. It encourages generosity among employees, it also provides another opportunity for the employer to donate to various charities. This is another way to be a financial ally at work. An ally to the community.

And actually let’s talk about this one next, since it is related. Let’s make #4 taking advantage of paid volunteer days. Some employers actually offer paid volunteer days. Yes, you can use a paid working day to go out and volunteer. You don’t have to use a vacation day or squeeze it into the weekends and holidays. I think I mentioned at some point on this show that my dad’s employer used to do group volunteer days with Habitat for Humanity, and they encouraged employees to bring their families if they wanted to. It was a great experience for the employees, it certainly promoted team bonding, local charities may really be looking for opportunities to strengthen relationships with companies in the area, so they may also be looking for this kind of program. So even if your employer doesn’t already offer paid volunteer days, consider proposing the idea to the social impact person or the HR person at your job.

Ok, we’re at the number 5 way to be a financial ally at your job. Whether you are self employed or leading your own organization, or you’re an employee of a larger organization, we often have some say so over the vendors that your company hires for various aspects of the business. I’m talking about subcontractors, I’m talking about the companies that keep your company going- the vendors that supply office supplies and catering services and marketing services and web services and that might even include where your company sets up offices. Is there an opportunity to choose vendors according to your company’s values and mission statement? If your company has a goal of reducing its environmental footprint, is there a way to keep that mission in mind while hiring various vendors. Can you hire a catering company that reduces food waste. Can you hire subcontractors that are B corporations? If your company is dedicated to creating products for healthy babies, can you work with vendors who have taken a pledge against child labor, can you hire vendors with fantastic policies regarding parental leave and other support for working parents. The idea is that you can be an financial ally by trying to keep your company’s values in mind while hiring vendors.

So that’s it! Those are 5 ways to be a financial ally at your job.

Let’s recap:

1. Practice salary transparency. The gender pay gap persists. The racial and ethnic pay gap persists. You can be an ally to your colleagues and reduce the secrecy that allows this pay gap to persist.
2. Propose a green 401K option if your company doesn’t already have one. Or a prison free 401K. Or a gender lens 401K option. Or an anti-racist 401K option. You know your employer best so you know what kind of values resonate with the mission. Go for that. You might be surprised that HR will take you up on it. Socially responsible 401K options can absolutely be the kind of thing that can make an employer more marketable as they look to hire and retain staff with similar values. 
3. Take advantage of your company’s matching donations. If they offer a program where you can choose the charity and donate and they will match, absolutely take advantage of that. If they don’t already have this program, you know what I’m going to say, propose it! Not only will your employer probably be into it, the local charities might really appreciate it if they’ve been looking to create relationships with local companies.
4. If your company offers paid volunteer days, definitely enjoy those. If they don’t propose the idea. Even if you don’t set up a formal paid volunteer day program, you can also just set up team building days where you go and volunteer with your colleagues.
5. Finally, aligning vendors with your mission. It takes a lot of vendors to keep a business going, and each of those financial decisions represents another opportunity to be a financial ally to the planet or our communities. You can intentionally seek out vendors from communities that are typically marginalized, you can seek out vendors with practices that mirror your own company’s values. There are so many opportunities there. Even if you don’t think you can influence your company’s big dollar sign vendors, you might have some power even if you’re in charge of just planning an offsite or choosing where your team goes out for dinner. This is another way to be a financial ally at work.

If you have more time today, here’s another episode to check out episode 42 called Pay Transparency for Allies. In that episode I talk about how you might think about that form of allyship at your job including ways that I’ve actually opened the door to that kind of conversation with coworkers in the past.

If you’re not already subscribed, I want to encourage you to consider signing up for the newsletter. It comes out monthlyish, no spam, no filler. In it, you’ll find out about episodes that you might have missed and I can also provide just a little more detail than I can in the episodes.

I really enjoyed putting this episode together for you, if you could do me a favor and send it to someone, or another episode that you enjoyed, that would be a big help to me. It turns out that word of mouth is still how podcasts tend to grow. I can go out and tell people the show is great and it’s helpful, but honestly, listeners are the most convincing. So please share an episode with a friend today.

Let’s end with a quote…

“We have a right to protest for what is right. That’s all we can do. There are people hurting, there are people suffering, so we have an obligation, a mandate, to do something.” John Lewis

Let’s talk again soon!