The Income Gap & Why We Should Care Two weeks ago, we looked at some numbers that suggested the gap between rich and poor in the United States is growing. Last week, we considered some possible reasons for this growing inequality.This week, we answer perhaps the most important question: So what? The numbers suggest the real income of the poor is holding steady; it is the soaring income of those at the top that is widening the gap. Why then should that one number -- the difference between the top and the bottom -- be of concern?According to several analyses, income inequality can cause... view article details

Women are far less likely than men to negotiate at work, which typically costs women more than half a million dollars in earnings over the course of their respective careers, according to Linda Babcock and Sara Lashever, authors of the book Women Don’t Ask.The authors conducted multiple studies that found women miss out by failing to negotiate salary, promotions and other advancement opportunities that men commonly and aggressively pursue. The reluctance of female employees to advocate for themselves is often the difference between climbing the career ladder at a healthy pace and not climbing ... view article details

Shakespeare, Hemingway, Stephen King—these are just a few names you might conjure up when you think of what it means to be a writer. But you don’t have to go to the library to read a writer’s work; writing is surrounding us all the time. If it weren’t for a writer, you wouldn’t be reading this article! And for every piece of writing published on the web or in print, there is an editor behind it, brandishing a red pen.Writers and editors are behind the text you see in books, magazines, and newspapers as well as in technical help manuals, advertisements, and textbooks. And it’s not just the word... view article details

No One Knows Blue Collar Jobs Better than Mike Rowe At one point or another, you've probably seen someone performing a "dirty" job and said to yourself "You couldn't pay me enough to do that." But Mike Rowe, host of TV's Dirty Jobs, gets paid to do exactly that. And, in an interview with Salary.com last week, said he thinks more people should follow suit. Rowe says America is in the midst of a skilled labor shortage, as hundreds of thousands of available blue collar jobs go unfilled because workers lack the necessary training. But even more upsetting, Rowe said, is the attitude of many Amer... view article details

Current statistics show that, overall, women make 85 cents for every dollar a man makes. But what about in sports? When it comes to compensation, the sports world offers a lot of fascinating trends – huge, multi-year contracts, endorsement deals, and constant media attention amplifying athletes’ brands. Unfortunately, we associate these things almost exclusively with men. Even just 50 years ago, women playing sports recreationally was not widely accepted in American culture. Three Statements Often Used to Explain the Sports Pay Gap We see frequent explanations of why the gender pay gap in spor... view article details

Careers on the Way Out 'My job is the WORST!'How many times have you or your friends said that? Usually it's uttered in a moment of frustration or annoyance when everything seems to be going wrong at work. But for the employees who work in the fields included on this list, it very well might be the truth.The website CareerCast.com recently published it's list of the Worst Jobs of 2013. They analyzed several hundred jobs and categorized them by four 'core criteria' with which almost every job deals -- environment, income, outlook, and stress. Using data from the US Census and the Burea... view article details

In Honor of the New Movie “Horrible Bosses,” Salary.com Polled Its Readers to Find the Worst Real-Life Bosses At some point in your career it’s happened to you. You get saddled with “that boss.” The boss who drives you crazy, mistreats you and takes credit for your hard work. A boss who is just horrible!That’s the premise of the recently released movie “Horrible Bosses,” starring Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day. Three friends with three wretched bosses (Kevin Spacey, Colin Farrell and Jennifer Aniston) get so fed up at work they devise a plan to rid themselves of their r... view article details

Check, Please How many times have you stared at your bill at the end of a meal and wondered, "how much should I tip?" There are so many invisible factors that go into determining whether that server gets 10, 15 or 20%. Perhaps the waitress wasn't friendly enough, or the waiter was way too friendly. Maybe the food was late, or maybe you're not sure whether to tip on drinks, knowing most places inflate alcohol prices by 400% to outweigh the costs of a liquor license. For the less mathematically-inclined, this after-dinner math problem can also be exceedingly stressful – armed only with a phone c... view article details

Getting Respect from Bullies to Bosses Ever feel like the late comedian Rodney Dangerfield -- that no matter what you do at work you just 'can’t get no respect?'From the bully in the cubicle next to you to a boss who seems oblivious to your accomplishments to the people reporting to you who are loathe to make any tough decisions themselves, your day at the office carries more baggage than the annual Thanksgiving dinner at the in-laws. Yet every moment of the day when we are interacting with other human beings, there is an opportunity -- if not a pressing need -- to assert our influenc... view article details

New London topped our list with salary ranges above the national average, a low cost of living, and a low unemployment rate. Are you living beyond your means? Is your paycheck not stretching far enough? Perhaps you're even having trouble finding a job. Maybe it's time to jump a plane to one of the cities at the top of Salary.com's 'Salary Value' index. We found the top (and bottom) US metros for building personal net worth (taking into account local salaries, cost of living, and unemployment relative to the national average). Median base pay was correlated across more than 2,500 different benc... view article details