Friday, February 09, 2007

A SHORT COLLECTION

For Your Information
~~ The median salary in 1967 was $5974 (men) and $2295 (women). Median refers to the point where there would be as many people above the number as below. In 2005, median salaries were $34,926 (men) and $23,546 (women).
The median cost of a new home in 1967 was $22,300 and in 2005, $240,300. This kind of inflation has helped older people in retirement as homes purchased in the 1960’s (most likely paid off) with a sale in today’s market yields a nice financial windfall.
It is amazing that women still lag behind men in today’s wages, especially considering college graduate data that shows more women than men graduating. For those who may believe that women in CEO positions will change the discrepancy, think again. Men and women CEOs are under the same pressure to build corporate profit. If they can hire a person at $11-12 thousand per year less, they will. Those savings add up when you consider thousands of employees.
Another reason is women are still seen as second incomes for families and hence, lower wages. According to the US Census, over 60 percent of women (all races) with children work outside of the home. Compare this to before 1980 when less than 20 percent of women with children worked. When you have children and may be paying a monthly mortgage for a home costing over $240,000, you tend to take jobs that offer lower salaries and hope it will be enough.
~~ How is your identity stolen by criminals? Well, it seems that identity theft is still done the old-fashioned way by stealing personal info from lost or stolen wallets/purses, checkbooks and credit cards. A second prominent source is family, friends or acquaintances and sales clerks (including telephone sales) who keep credit card carbons for nefarious reasons. According to Javelin Strategy and Research, the aforementioned reasons account for over 70 percent of identity theft.
Despite the fears surrounding credit card theft off the Internet and “phishing schemes,” only 8 percent of yearly identity theft occurs in the virtual world. And as people and protection software get “smarter” it may be even harder to steal identities over the Internet.
People are encouraged to exercise caution and never give out any financial information to people who contact you. As grandma would say, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”
As for your information being stolen from a face-to-face transaction, the best you can do is to keep a careful eye on your monthly statements and report any unusual purchases as soon as possible. And don’t forget about your cell phone: keep personal information stored on the phone limited as loss of a phone can be an identity disaster for you.
~~ Employees want to make a difference in their companies. A survey of over 1000 adults revealed that the majority of respondents want their companies to use their talents to make a difference. Other options such as “creating solutions to existing problems” only had a 9 percent response rate. Companies take note: your employees don’t see themselves as problem-solvers but opportunity seekers.
While this is a small sample of people, it is amazing to see the loyalty people have to their employers. This would seem opposite to the notion that people are “just putting in time.”
People want to make a difference and contribute. Most likely the issue is managers too afraid to listen to a person with an idea because it may not work.
The biggest problem in the workplace is not failure but status quo. Remember the adage that if you stand too long in one spot you’ll probably get run over!

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