Are you making what you deserve? 
Ask Harvard’s WorklifeWizard!

By Terry Babcock-Lumish, Sierra Vista Rotary Club

How many of us know exactly what we are worth on the open market?  Every day we sure behave as if we do. 

Whether we are placing a value on our employees’ work, or estimating the cost of our own time, we constantly make these determinations.  While deciding whether to landscape our own yards or to contract out, whether we have the bargaining power to enter into a negotiation for a raise or how to leverage our strengths when considering that new job, we must do so armed with the newest and best intelligence available.  Through Harvard’s WorklifeWizard program, each of us, regardless of profession, can very quickly begin exercising a little more Worklife Wiz-dom.

In the 16th century, Sir Francis Bacon asserted, "ipsa scientia potestas est" – knowledge is power.  And indeed, the WorklifeWizard represents an unprecedented modern-day effort from Harvard's Labor and Worklife Program to support Americans in our everyday work lives.  By shedding light on salary data, Harvard is empowering professionals, regardless of collar color - blue, white, or pink.  Worklife challenges and questions have nothing to do with political stripes or socioeconomic strata, and affect all Americans, whether we are on Wall Street or Main Street, in Ohio or Arizona. 

What is the WorklifeWizard?

Partnering with BusinessWeek, United Professionals, PhDs.org, Working America, the Communications Workers of America, and SmartEconomist.com, Harvard Law School launched the WorklifeWizard website on Labor Day 2006.  A web-based information resource and research tool focusing on worklife in the US, its aim is to become the premiere resource for worklife issues in the US and to establish a cutting-edge survey research tool for business, labor, the military, scholars, students, and others interested in the world of work.  Since September, the site has quickly become a popular resource for those interested in worklife issues.

According to Richard Freeman, Herbert Ascherman Professor of Economics at Harvard University, and the head of the WorklifeWizard, "The WorklifeWizard seeks to be the best place for American employees to say how they're doing, what they think about workplace issues, and to get the latest economic information on working in America.”

The WorklifeWizard includes an Information Center with career advice, book recommendations, a worklife blog directory, major news feeds, and work-related competitions (such as our “workplace horror story” competition), and a salary checker so that individuals might compare wages and working conditions to those of others with similar educational attainment, geography, firm size, contract type, years of experience, and more. 

In addition to the Information Center, we have our popular “Ask the WorklifeWizard” feature.  Upon completing a 10-minute online survey, individuals may ask their most-pressing work-related questions, after which a Harvard expert will then respond within seven business days.  All communication with the WorklifeWizard is, of course, confidential.  Survey respondents are also entered in a drawing to win prizes such as a safari trip to South Africa or an Amazon.com gift certificate.

Particularly salient issues in recent weeks have included discrimination (particularly age), privacy and the Internet in the workplace, immigration, telecommuting, work-life balance, and healthcare and retirement benefits, job satisfaction, and salary negotiations.  For American workers (or retirees) who might think they are alone in their concerns, they most certainly are not – and there are ample resources available to help empower us all. 

Only in the US?

Hardly, the WorklifeWizard is the US component of the international WageIndicator Foundation.  WageIndicator is an organization based in the Netherlands and is supported by the European Union and the International Labour Organisation (ILO). Journalists and researchers worldwide are studying wages, working conditions, worker satisfaction, education, gender, and race issues in the workplace.  Current websites include Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, China, Denmark, Spain, Finland, Germany, Hungary, India, Italy, Korea, Mexico, the Netherlands, Poland, and the UK.  We are currently looking to expand to China, India, and other countries with economies of considerable interest and relevance for the US economy. 

While we do not have nearly the international reach as Rotary, we are indeed an international effort.  Nonetheless, the WorklifeWizard is our US effort focused on understanding and improving the American workplace and worklife experience.

Now what?

Whether it’s to help you as you’re thinking about a mid-career move or a salary negotiation...or to provide some levity in your day as you’re comparing Cardinals versus Tigers (or Yankees versus Red Sox) player salaries…or to submit a horror story (“You’ll never believe what happened to me while commuting this morning!”)…check out the WorklifeWizard (and share it with your friends, family, and colleagues).

 

About the Author: Rotarian Dr. Terry Babcock-Lumish holds research affiliations at the University of Oxford, Harvard Law School, and the University of Arizona. She is also President of Islay Consulting LLC. Terry has worked in local, state, and Federal government, and the public, private, and independent sectors.  In 2006, she was named one of Tucson Business Edge magazine’s “40 Under 40” emerging leaders.