Sorry but with the recent stuff from like the Superbowl that became a hot topic about the "Wage Gap" which is really an Earnings Gap came up yet again, I feel it's time to actually point out a real earnings gap that's caused by real discrimination and it's something that's personally impacted me in my life as a deaf individual. Oh yeah, I'm going there.
The most cited feminist talking point is them using the Consad Report and completely misrepresenting or outright lying what it says. You can read that very report for yourself Consad Report as a PDF for your viewing and reading pleasure. Take especial careful note of the beginning of the report.
However, despite these gains the raw wage gap continues to be used in misleading ways to
advance public policy agendas without fully explaining the reasons behind the gap. The purpose
of this report is to identify the reasons that explain the wage gap in order to more fully inform
policymakers and the public.
The following report prepared by CONSAD Research Corporation presents the results of a
detailed statistical analysis of the attributes that contribute to the wage gap and a synopsis of the
economic research that has been conducted on the issue. The major findings are:
There are observable differences in the attributes of men and women that account for most of the
wage gap. Statistical analysis that includes those variables has produced results that collectively
account for between 65.1 and 76.4 percent of a raw gender wage gap of 20.4 percent, and
thereby leave an adjusted gender wage gap that is between 4.8 and 7.1 percent.
Around that area, you can read further to see what other variables they include that takes the gender "wage gap" out back and shot like old yeller. I really don't want to share the whole thing here especially since you have a lovely little link above to click to read the full report in full context for yourself.
In the United States alone, the population is over 300 million residents with around 9 million residents (which includes myself) being deaf. The US average unemployment rate is roughly 8% or so and varies by a couple points higher or lower depending on political and regulatory climate of the free market. The list of the unemployment typically doesn't count those living on disability payments from Social Security Disability. The unemployment rate of the deaf stands around 75% and underemployment around 19%.
As you can easily see, this kind of gap as quite significant. There's a handy reason why I personally live off social security disability and welfare (and charities) and have high hopes for blockchain sites like Steemit and dTube. I hate the fact that I live off disability and welfare, I want to work because of the following reasons.
A). It will give me a sense of pride and accomplishment.
B). I will be earning an income that's not based on what governmental bodies say is a liveable (but not really) wage.
C). I will be able to earn more income based on how hard and long I work
D). My overall quality of life and happiness and well being will all around improve.
It's not that I don't want to work, it's just exceptionally difficult for a deaf individual to even get a job, let alone keep a job.
According to Deaf People and Employment in the United States: 2016 in 2014 around 48% of deaf were in the work force while 72% of the hearing were as well as 47% of deaf people not in the work force compared against 23% hearing.
America has around 28 Mil people with hearing loss and nearly 1 million deaf people use ASL as their primary language and often their only language. It's worth noting the word deaf takes into account a swath of people with varying degress of hearing loss as well as communication preferences.
WIth studies that show we deaf people face numerous challenges in not only finding work, but keeping employment as well, it's no wonder to think that our unemployment rate is as sky high as it is. But you'll likely ask "But what about Americans with Disabilities Act or ADA that was established in 1990? Surely that offers great protections right?" It's true that ADA has helped a lot of people with various disabilities get and keep work, it hasn't helped us deaf so well. Several studies found that even with training, laws as well as increased awareness to the needs of the deaf our overall employment rate continues to be lower than the employment rate of hte hearing.
There are various reasons for our higher unemployment rates however a lot of it is largely due to employer misconceptions about us, their hiring practices as well as attitudes as the whole "Deaf and Dumb" myth still rears it's ugly head quite harshly.
In regards to discriminatory hiring practices, it is worth noting that a lot of us end up holding degrees from universities and that number has nearly increased 400% since that of the 1970's however regardless of the increase of degree holding deaf people, our employment rate continues to be on a decline. Don't have to take my word for it, that's according to the Gerard Walter and Richard Dirmyer's Study in 2012 titled, The Effect of Education on the Occupational Status of Deaf and Hard of Hearing 26-64 Years Old.
There's many areas of discrimination in company hiring practices that make these statistics true even today in 2018 like language on the job ad itself, the application and hiring process ang sadly the promotion of deaf employees. I can't begin to tell you how many times I avoided disclosing that I'm deaf to a potential employer for as long as I possibly could because of my fear that I'll be seen as a burden. I never ask for an ASL or SEE interpretor though I legally have the right to according to the ADA but I've even been in situations where during an interview the interview itself would be suddenly cancelled and I then get told that the job has been filled. This one happened to me personally at Walmart because they had me in a dark area in the back that's not the best environment for lip reading, so I told them I need better lighting to communicate because I'm deaf, and that's where the interview just outright died and told they were fully staffed and had no positions available. Like OK, you don't have positions available, then why the hell did you call me in for an interview might I ask? It's frustrating as all hell and in a repeat cycle at numerous other companies, it wears down on your ability to continue seeking employment when deafness is your biggest hurdle.
We deaf people are often seen as "too disabled" to work at many companies or that we'll be too much of a burden on the business due to accomodation needs. It's even worth noting that many people, employers and employee/coworkers alike view deaf people as unproductive, weak, stupid, etc all of which are completely unfounded. For example of myself, I have a doctorate in physics! (Hence why I use SEE and not ASL, SEE is a lot more technical).
What's worse about being a deaf person that's employed is that we experience hostility at work, it becomes a living hell so we do eventually quit, it's like one of those jobs where your boss and all your co-workers treat you like complete garbage. Imagine what it was like for me going through school in a mainstream environment and take into account that I've had 17 suicide attempts before I was able to drop out of high school the moment I turned 18 to get my GED. That kind of treatment extends into adulthood in our working lives. I was often called retarded and picked on and bullied through school and very similar happens in workplace environments where even the boss his or herself will think of me as a dumb person regardless of having glowing and astonishing performance reviews. Due to this, not just as my own personal experience but collectively as deaf people that have gone through very similar through our lives both childhood and adult, we simply choose to remain unemployed after having this repeat so many times over the course of our attempt at a regular, stable working life.
There's large numbers of us that opt out of the work force, but like you as a regular hearing individual, you too seek job advancement within a company, you want that promotion and the pay raise that comes with it, so do wel. However the deaf are put in a disadvantage because we're not often given access to important information exchanged within the company we're employed me causing us to miss out on various incidental info. This keeps us from building rapport and networking to form relationships with our peers at work and networking with our managers and other higher ups which anyone with any experience with networking their way into a promotion knows is essential to getting good promotions. Call it kissing the bosses ass all you want, but if I invited my boss over to my place or to a bar for a movie night or some beers, you damn right I'm going to kiss his ass and try to network with him and be friends with him. I may be deaf but even I can clearly tell that the boss likes XYZ more than the other guy and wouldn't you know it? XYZ got the promotion. Queue the onslaught of complaints from co-workers about how the boss only promoted XYZ because they're "Friends" like yeah, no kidding, but that's exceptionally hard to do when you're deaf.
I was informed one time that the reason why I was personally skipped over for promotion was because they wrongfully worried that those underneath my position with me as a deaf person would be difficult for them. Like somehow if I'm personally promoted, my years of speech therapy will go straight out the window or something and I'll instantly become a grunting sounding, deaf accent wielding individual who has to use hand signals in order to be understood when anyone that's seen any of my videos on YouTube of d.Tube will be able to tell that I'm perfectly capable of speaking being a mainstreamed oral deaf. It's just companies fail to realize the potential of deaf employees, it's frustrating, I can't express with enough words about how much I would like to yank my hair out over this topic alone. It's caused a lot of isolation and depression in my life as well as many others. Go figure with the deaf suicide rates of attempts and successfully suicide being staggeringly high compared to the hearing. Even dwarfs the rate of suicide by gender.
What benefits do employers have for hiring us? For starters you get that sweet, sweet federal tax credit or deductions like Barrier Removal Tax Deducation, Disabled Access Credit and Work Opportunity Tax Credit as well is if they're on Disability payments the "Ticket to Work" credits as well. Hiring us strengthens the economy and creates a more divorce work force.
Personally I can't begin to tell you how many times I go somewhere, like for example Walmart who ironically wouldn't hire me because I'm deaf because while I'm being interviewed for a job position as a lip reading door greeter on the 3rd shift, the position magically gets filled by a mysterious time traveler that never ever shows up to work because it's just the security guard there that they were trying to hire me to take the place of so he can patrol the store instead of sticking by the door, but oh well, maybe the door greeter they hired was invisible and the security guard just never noticed. But I'd go in and I decide to get some payback. Keep in mind, if you've started following me and checked out the videos I release on dTube, you'll clearly hear me talking and talking well enough to be easily understood.
I'll go in and do to them what they dread, the disabled customer they can't personally help because they can't communicate with me. I zip my lips like a deafmute, wave at an employee, sign to them that I'm deaf and then start using SEE (Signed Exact English) asking questions. I'll ask where to find Yi Gi Oh cards, I'll ask where the diary section is, I'll ask about hardware and games in the electronics sections, and when I'm done screwing with the poor employee's who can't deal with the deaf, I go straight for the managers I can find like the CSM's and start signing with them.
A couple CSM's (those manager types at the front of the stores called Customer Service Managers) have tried to radio to the others in the management team trying to find someone that could potentially help a deaf customer but low and behold, they don't know of any of their employees that can use even basic ASL (American Sign Language) let alone SEE or PSE (Pigeon Signed English). Nobody at the store could communicate with me until I stop screwing with them in regards to refusing to speak.
In my personal day to day life, I rarely actually talk at all. My husband and I send IM's back and forth, same with my room mate and his boyfriend and various friends and family of mine. Instant messengers and text messages, that's my main form of communication. There's times where if you don't see me release a video in a whole week, you can rest assured that I also haven't opened my mouth to actually speak that entire well as well unless I'm alone somewhere and really need the assistance in which case I'll become oral, inform the people I'm deaf and I need them to face me for communication. Lip reading is excessively tiring, but nobody in my personal life can sign except my mother, but she's in another state so yet my deaf mother even resorts to doing what I do, texts, IM's and emails. She's also capable of speaking but has a deaf accent.
However, the most pleasant experience I've had anywhere was when I had to go to the ER due to gout pain in my local area here. I went in and didn't have a hearing person with me to help me out, so I was super nervous and scared, I'm not used to being alone in public anymore in situations where I have to try waiting for my name to be called and things like that. I informed the nurse at the nurses station up front during check in that I'm deaf and need an interpreter. She said she doesn't know if any are on staff, she'll have to ask, then asked me if I can lip read, to which I said yes. By the time I was called into triage the ASL interpreter came in and started signing and making sure I was OK, I was. I was called in triage by the nurse waving and pointing at me to get my attention and waved me back.
Turned out I didn't end up having any difficulties communicating with them and they were fine with repeating themselves. But the interpreter stayed with me the entire time I was there and the only time I had someone that spoke to me without grabbing my attention was the nurse guy that came in to give me medicine before giving me my discharge papers. I didn't know he had spoken by the ASL interpreter did and signed what he said behind my back. Very pleasant experience and honestly got to say I was super relieved.
But in instances where I was describing how I have these spots where I screw with companies employees and managers by pretending to be a deafmute instead of just being the fact that I'm an oral deaf by simply refusing to talk and solely sign, I ran into a hearing Burger King employee that was able to sign and started signing back and took my order, that was exceptionally unexpected, ate the food though and got a discount so woot there.
However most companies when I screw with the management like that intentionally, I'm doing it out of spite. Had I been able to get a job and been able to keep a job due to not being treated like a worthless burden or like I was some sort of mentally retarded individual who has to be kept in the shadows and worried about hurting himself, I'd not be doing those things from time to time, it's not an often thing, a few times a year at best. But honestly it's important to note, if a company hired me and treated me like a valued employee like they do with anyone and everyone else that's able to hear, and they ran into an asshole like me, they can simply call over the radio "Hey, can you get that deaf guy Glenn from XYZ department and send him up here?" and I'd be called up front and I'd start signing like a mofo with another deaf person and I'd be able to help them out.
So far, to date, I've only been able to get anyone with ASL in some hospitals as being an oral deaf some doctors and nurses disbelief I'm deaf because of the "You can't be deaf, you can talk!" misconception. Not all deafs are mute, not all deafs sign, some deafs are oral, some deafs can talk and sign. And then there's that one Burger King employee just out of the blue. Only two experiences where I had someone that could sign back to me, all the other times? Everyone was confused and unable to help me when I kept my mouth sealed shut.
So if you have an oral deaf that can and will sign, it's a good idea to get them on, not only for the tax credits for the company, but it also greatly improves the companies ability to relate to and assist a deaf customer because chances are, the only people in your company that's going to be able to sign back and forth with the deaf customer, is a deaf employee, because it's highly unlikely a company is going to hire someone that's hearing with a secondary language as ASL since secondary languages allow for higher expectations of pay. I was just expecting the regular base pay that all other door greeters at Walmart got plus that $0.50 bonus that came with being third shift, I didn't expect extra for being able to be oral, lip read and use ASL, PSE and SEE, for me, I just wanted a job that I could work and make a career at and work towards promotions.
I can't complain too hard about AT&T Technical Support however I can complain about how crappy of a company they are, they did hire me and they did promote me to a floor manager, one of those grunts that run around and answer "manager calls" and answer rep questions and assist them. AT&T provided me with a hookup that showed me a live craption of what was being said by the customer. Granted I was only there long enough it seems to get my training, get a minor promotion and then once they could receive that tax credit, I was out the door along with a ton of others during a "layoff" to "save on costs" while I and numerous others passed by completely filled classes full of new hires being trained. So in a way, AT&T was good, but their employment practices sucked balls.