It is a feminist issue, for some reason, that secretaries shouldn't fetch coffee for the boss. The boss should fetch his own damn coffee.

That's one of the reasons why feminists have never gained much traction. They don't understand how the world works.

The Facts Of Life And Coffee

Suppose I have a company, and I hire a manager at $100K a year to run it. That's $50 an hour. If it takes 6 minutes for him to get a cut of coffee, I'm paying $5 for his labor, and maybe 50 cents for the coffee, the cream, the sugar, the coffee cup, the filter, the water, the electricity, etc.

I hire a secretary because my manager is overworked. The secretary makes $20K a year. Oh, maybe she gets called an administrative assistant. That doesn't matter to me, although titles are certainly cheaper than wages when it comes to compensating employees.

In any case, it costs me $1 for her to take 6 minutes to get a 50c cup of coffee for her boss. Do I really care what her formal job description is? Her boss really only has one item on his job description: make the company as profitable as possible. The secretary really only has one item on her job description: make her boss as effective as possible in making the company as profitable as possible.

The Truth About Job Descriptions

So why do their job descriptions list a bunch of other things? They exist so the idiots in Human Relations have some idea what skills are useful in doing the job. Should there be "making coffee" or "fetching coffee" on the secretary's list? No. If a secretary can type 35 words a minute - and most can type 60 to 80 words a minute - she's perfectly capable of being taught how to make good coffee, in about ten minutes. Being able to make coffee shouldn't be a factor in hiring for the job.

Then you find the feminists that argue that a secretary is worth as much as a truck driver and ought to be paid the same. The idea sounds good, until you realize that the price of things is determined by supply and demand, rather than by worth.

Assuming that there are no legal restrictions, such as a license, jobs that involve danger and/or physical discomfort pay more than jobs that don't. That means if you shower before work, instead of after work, you get paid less. If you sit in a nice air-conditioned office, you get paid less than if you get dirty and sweaty in the summer and freeze your tuchus off in winter. You get paid for what you put up with, not for what you do.

Perceptions Matter, Too

There's also a perception factor involved. When I was in high school, I worked as assistant to the manager at the dime store. One of my friends was a carryout boy at the grocery store, and another worked keeping the pinsetters running at the bowling alley.

The perception was that the friend at the bowling alley was having fun. That's what people do at bowling alleys. In practice, he fought with greasy machinery in an extremely noisy, poorly lit room. The perception was that the carryout boy was constantly going out in the snow and ice in the winter, or hot sun in the summer, carrying heavy loads. In practice, he spent most of his time flirting with the checkout girl while bagging groceries.

Although the carryout boy had the least demanding job, with the nicest working conditions, he got paid twice what I earned, because his job looked the worst. Although the bowling alley job was the worst, it paid half as much as I got, because it looked the best. C'est la vie.

There are other bits of nonsense that the feminist movement is promoting to their detriment. Ask for what's fair, if it's fair, and people have a tendency to give you what you ask for. Inflate your claims, and you're likely to get tossed out on your ass. As you should be.

Other Bloggers On Related Topics:
bowling alley - coffee - dime store - economics - equal pay - fairness - feminist - grocery store - job descriptions - secretary - truck driver