Member-only story
Pay Me What I’m Worth, Or Leave This Black Woman Alone
A reflection and disclosure of one Black woman’s life chasing the bag
In recognition of Black Women’s Equal Pay Day 2021, I’m disclosing my salary from the past 11 years. My first full time salaried role was in 2010. As a Black cisgender woman, who has mentees and many women of color who contact me because of my transparency on LinkedIn, I’m tired of gatekeepers—white, Black, other binaries, and non-binaries—withholding the uncomfortable truths about this particular aspect of being Black, identifying and existing as a woman, and trying to have a career in white American society.
In fall 2010, I was a Sales Planner at an ad network, Collective. I’d recently left my contract role with The New York Times as an Ad Sales Rep due to my initiation into what would become consistent over my career—toxic, racist, sexist, and inequitable work environments. My salary was $44k with a $2k annual performance bonus. As a recent college graduate, I didn’t negotiate as I didn’t know I could nor that I should. Shortly before I began my role, I was physically assaulted one night on the subway heading home from a friend’s party and treated horrendously by responding NYC police. The experience made it hard for me to leave my apartment, take the subway, and, since then I’ve never felt safe around police.
