THE Cambridge Connection - Episode 10

1-800-CAMBRIDGE. Hey, everyone. Welcome back. This is Arianne, and I’m filling in for Gordon this week. I’m here with Tina Marie, our resident Rockstar Credit Counselor, and this week, it’s ladies only in the studio.

Gender wage gap and negotiating raises

org, and it brings Tina Marie and I back to a great point that we really wanted to cover last week, the gender wage gap. Allison asked us if we had any insight on how to level the playing field when applying to jobs or asking for raises, which is a really tough conversation to have. Tina Marie, what do you think? Well, I guess it all depends on your confidence level, your education, and your qualifications. If you’re qualified and you know you are qualified, obviously apply for that job.

As far as asking for a raise, if you find that you’re taking on additional tasks yet you’re not being compensated for those tasks, ask for that raise. The worst they can say is no. However, just use your confidence, use your knowledge, use your ability, use your qualifications, use the time that you may have already spent with that company. There are women that might have been with the same company 10, 20 years that are still making less than a gentleman that might have started with the company five years prior to them. It’s very true.

The other thing to do is do your research. Use websites like Glassdoor, go online, and then research what the average pay for your position is. If you’re applying for a job, more often than not, the job’s not going to list what is being offered for pay, which is wild, but I digress. They’ll advertise the starting salary, but if you’re qualified and you’re not in a starting salary position, absolutely go for the jugular. Go.

Yes. That’s what I’m saying. Yeah. And do your research. Say, this is what someone with my level of experience deserves to have in this position.

And you can just approach it very matter-of-factly. This is what I would like to request. This is what I think I’m worth. I hope you see the same way. And to be frank, there are a lot of job openings out there.

So I mean, if it’s time to polish up the resume, don’t be afraid to do that either. I’ve actually spoke to a few younger women, freshly graduated from college, where with their masters in, say, criminal justice or what have you, and aren’t even making what the average person would make coming out of college. They’re making much less. So don’t be afraid to, again, gain the experience. Get out there.

Get your resume updated. Get your foot in the door. Get yourself together. It’s all about education and confidence, I think. I agree completely.

And I know this might be a little taboo to recommend, but I think people should always talk about money. I don’t think it should be a secret how much we’re making compared to our coworkers or our peers. Yes. We’re not in the 60s anymore. I know.

But it’s so hard to say. The 1900s. These are the 2000s. It’s true. And it’s so hard to say.

But I think if an employer doesn’t encourage you to have that conversation, or if an employer actively tells you not to talk about your wages, that could be seen as a red flag. Because what does that mean is going on on the back end? I personally have seen a situation where a woman had been working for a company for three years, excelling in her position. The company had hired a new person for a similar opening, and then somehow a casual conversation of pay got brought up, and he was making a few thousand dollars more than her a year, even though they were similarly qualified. And she already had three years with that company.

So she already had the experience with the company, the dedication, and put three years of her life. And the degree from the same college. The same college. I want to say unbelievable, but not so unbelievable. Right.

And so she used that information as leverage to get herself a raise, and she eventually moved on to greener pastures. But she brought that conversation up. If she didn’t have that conversation, she wouldn’t have known that there was a playing field that needed to be leveled. Exactly. Good for her.

Good for her. I would encourage any woman out there in the same situation, again, speak up. I know a lot of people might feel intimidated. They don’t want to sound unappreciative, but it’s your life as well. And if you’re putting your time into this, you may as well be compensated just as easy as the next person.

Right. And again, going back to confidence, you’ve got to believe that you deserve more, that you’re worth more, especially if you’re doing more and you’ve done more. Exactly. Your knowledge. Yes.

Pay gap statistics and projections

So if you’re just joining us, this is Arianne filling in for Gordon, and you’re listening to The Cambridge Connection on WHMP. I’m here with Tina Marie, our Rockstar Credit Counselor, and we are having a conversation about ladies and personal finance. So Tina Marie, I’ve got this article here from the New York Times titled, In 25 Years the Pay Gap Has Shrunk by Just 8 Cents. It’s a pretty straightforward title. This year, it’s estimated that women will earn around 82 cents for every dollar that a man earns.

And a decade ago, in 2011, it was 77 cents. So not a lot of growth there. Gosh. Unbelievable. Yep.

There’s a lot going on in the article. So one of the things that it starts to say is there’s a disparity in what women and men are paid. Women would need to work around 448 days to earn what men... and typically earn in just 365 days. And I’m assuming just as qualified, if not sometimes even more qualified than that position.

Absolutely. And so the research kind of just touches on average jobs and average income. So we know that this isn’t always the case. Of course. But the research shows that the gender wage gap is expected to close in only 38 years.

38 years. I think I’ll be retired by, oh, I will be retired by then. Congratulations. I will know. Thank you.

Yeah, 38 years. So my granddaughter might have a chance. Yeah, fingers crossed. Or my great-grands is what you’re saying. Right, fingers crossed.

Unbelievable. Absolutely. Unless we do something about it now, speak up. Yeah, again, have this conversation, keep it open. So do you see a lot of these statistics that we’re talking about now impact or influence women that come to you during their counseling sessions?

Budgeting and financial awareness for women

As I was mentioning earlier, there are just recently a woman, young lady, who graduated college and, again, could not find that five-figure job that she was told she would get and never learned budgeting. Just totally in the dark about things. Working for a minimum wage, which I can’t remember what it was in her state, but it certainly wasn’t enough to pay her student loans as well as her cost of living. So yeah, we go through it and I will tell her, okay, your car insurance is X amount of dollars. Her deductible was $1,000.

I had advised her, decrease it to 500. That monthly payment’s gonna go down. I will encourage you, however, to develop a savings just in case you do have to come up with that. But at least the monthly expense will be a little bit lower. Look at your statements, look at your cell phone.

There’s constant hidden fees that you don’t even know are there. And this goes for everyone, not just women. But a lot of times the women, since we’re not a primary breadwinner, we’re not looking at the bills as much as the man would. And again, separation occurs, now what happens? Now we’re stuck looking at this, trying to make odds and ends out of something that we’ve never seen before.

So education, competence. And everybody who’s listening, man or woman or anything in between, all of the bills you have, take a second look at them and do it frequently. Every year, for example, I like to go over my car insurance and just look at my options. You know, a couple of years ago I changed my car insurance and I did save a bunch of money because I didn’t realize how many add-ons that I qualified for. I wasn’t driving a lot because of the pandemic, so I saved some money there.

There you go. I had been driving for X more years and I qualified for a new bracket of savings there too. But of course you have to ask for it. You do have to ask. They’re not going to just give it to you.

Absolutely. So I guess the takeaway, the big takeaway for us is keep the conversation open, be vigilant. You know, the playing field isn’t gonna level itself. We have to keep having these conversations and looking for these resources. And since the gender wage gap isn’t gonna go away for another four decades, we’re kind of on our own.

Yes, we have to be involved. We have to be aware of our finances. And that’s very important, very important. All right, well, we’ll be right back with Tina Marie and her Cambridge Credit Success Moment. I’m Arianne, your host of The Cambridge Connection right here on WHMP.

Commercial break banter

Hey everyone, it’s Arianne, the co-pilot from The Cambridge Connection. Hold on, wait a minute. Where’s Gordon? This is his commercial. Oh, well, I guess we’re here to talk to our listeners about Cambridge Credit Counseling, the company in partnership with your new show, The Cambridge Connection.

So what should we tell them? Hold on, Arianne. It’s Tina Marie. I think we should remind everyone that asking for financial wellness advice on student loans, buying a home, or even paying off credit card debt isn’t anything to be embarrassed about. It takes a lot of courage to ask for help.

You got it, Tina Marie. And Cambridge Credit Counseling offers so much more than just helping to manage credit card debt. That’s why Gordon is hosting The Cambridge Connection radio show every week. It’s all about empowering people to pick up the phone and ask for help. Hey, Arianne, is it my turn now?

Oops, sorry, Gordy. We’re out of time, but if listeners need some financial wellness advice, there’s always time to call 1-800-CAMBRIDGE. That’s 1-800-CAMBRIDGE. Welcome back, everyone, to The Cambridge Connection. I’m filling in for Gordon this week, and I’m here with Tina Marie and her Cambridge Credit Success Moment.

Cambridge Credit success story

Tina Marie is an NFCC-certified credit counselor with over 20 years under her very fashionable belt. You know she’s doing what she loves. Hey there, Tina Marie, what do you have for us this week? Oh, I’ve got some sunshine for you. Okay.

This week I want to talk about a consumer I recently counseled, Cheryl from Massachusetts. Cheryl actually works at the Sheriff’s Department. She’s a single mother. Go figure. Goes with the topic of the show.

Single mother and also a homeowner. And recently her property taxes increased. Income has not, so she’s on a fixed income. Now what? All right, so Cheryl has $7,446 in credit cards and as well as personal loans.

Wow. Not to mention $35,575 in student loans. Oh. So, you know, we’ve got debt on top of debt here. The overall credit card payments that she was paying on her own was $344 per month.

16%. So what we did, again, as we mentioned earlier, budgeting, we focused on where she could cut back. We went through everything. Looking at areas that I was able to help her cut back. Little things that she wasn’t even thinking about.

Buying in bulk, coupon clipping. As we mentioned earlier, car insurance, shopping around. Just fees that are being assessed on statements that they don’t even know they’re paying. We were able to reduce her monthly payment from $344 down to 225, which was $119 savings. Might not seem much, but guess what?

It covered the escrow, the increase in her escrow. So it was a little bit easier on her wallet to do that. 4%. That’s great. It’s fabulous.

And because of that, she’s out of the unsecured debt within 45 months and can afford the increase in her escrow to pay the taxes. So it works, it really works. And it was so rewarding. And she felt so much better after talking with me. And again, we’re gonna follow up the next couple months.

Just make sure she’s sticking to the budget, sticking to the recommendations and getting her out of debt. Yeah, and hopefully she’ll be able to start tucking some into savings. That’s absolutely necessary. We definitely encourage savings, absolutely. And we incorporate savings as we’re going through the budget as well.

I’m glad you pointed that out because that is something very important to have. Yeah, and going back to our conversation of the wage gap, one of the reasons why women typically don’t have as much of a strong retirement fund as men is because they’re not saving their money. And maybe it’s because they’re not earning as much. So it’s great that you guys are encouraging her to start those savings. Definitely, you know, you figure.

So if you’re contributing to your 401k and say you’re putting in 4% and the man next to you is doing the same, only 82 cents of your... dollar is getting matched. Right. So we’ve got to build. Right.

Interview with Dress for Success director

Right. Welcome home. This is Arianne, your fill-in hostess with the mostest of The Cambridge Connection. I am very excited to have with us this week, Margaret Tantillo, the Executive Director of Dress for Success Western Massachusetts, with us today to talk about helping women gain economic independence. Hey there, Margaret, thanks for joining us.

Absolutely. Thank you for having me. The mission of Dress for Success Western Massachusetts is to promote the economic independence of all women by providing professional attire, a network of support, and the career development tools to help women thrive in work and in life. Margaret, for those that don’t know, what programs does Dress for Success provide? Thank you for asking.

One of the things that is most noteworthy about Dress for Success is that we provide clothing for women who can’t afford them to go on interviews. And once they’re employed, we actually provide additional clothing. What is less known and sometimes more impactful are the four other programs that we run. We have a workforce development program. It’s about 56 hours called Foot in the Door.

We’ve had great success when women complete this program, helping them find employment. After they complete that, we have the Margaret Fitzgerald one-on-one mentor program, where we pair women with professional women who help them, just providing career advice, mentorship, helping them guide their way through just starting a job, etc. We also have the professional women’s group, which meets once a month. That program is geared towards entry-level women who have full-time jobs. So we have once a month a guest speaker come in and talk about different topics, such as branding, such as doing vision boarding, leadership, etc.

So combined, all of those programs have an incredible impact. How can someone contact you if they want to say they wanted to be a mentor or meet a mentor? How do people contact you for these programs? The best way is to reach out to us directly. org.

All the information, including a volunteer application, can be found. We actually have and survive and are able to impact women because we have over 100 active volunteers. Wow. Yeah, we’re a very small staff and it’s really the volunteers that have the most direct impact on our women. So anybody who wants to become a part of our network of support for women who are unemployed, underemployed, about over 80% live below the poverty line, please come to us.

We have a lot of different volunteer opportunities and always willing to welcome other women into helping us out. Okay, interesting. You’re saying volunteers. So is there a cost to anyone that’s looking for your services? Great question.

There is not. We’re pretty much all grant-funded and so, no, the women who come to us don’t have the means. So when you think of somebody going on an interview and not having the funding to buy a suit or a jacket, that gift is priceless to them. Sure, and that’s the power of the non-profit too, is trying to make as many connections as you can and getting support from people in the community and everything. So that’s great that you have such a wide network for that.

So one of the interesting things I think is women as professionals, we take a long time building our network of support and so when women come to us, because Dress for Success has its own relationships with companies, with other non-profits, they then access our network of support. So that’s one of the things that’s also valuable when our women come to us. It must also provide a level of competence that these women wouldn’t normally have had they not had the ability to dress for success. So what kind of women are you looking for in mentors to work with your programs? I would say women who are to be mentors or to be mentees.

To be mentors. Yes, so the women that we’re looking for to be mentors are women that are open-minded, have overcome their own challenges so that they understand what our women are going through that come to us, and willingness to be a partner. Sometimes people come to mentorship as if I’m going to, you know, distill my knowledge on you, but oftentimes our mentor-mentee partnerships are great friendships and they benefit from each other and getting to know each other and learn a lot from each other. That’s fantastic. One of the other things you offer is digital literacy coaching.

Can you tell us more about that please? So our digital literacy program, we actually started the beginning of COVID. Oh wow. And we did this, so yeah, think about it, we run all these programs with one staff and two part-time staff and we started a program in the beginning of COVID. Constant building.

So when Shelter-in-Place started, we picked up our phone and we phoned the women that were in all these programs. The Foot in the Door, the Margaret Fitzgerald, the Professional Women’s Group, and then we also have a lot more women come to us for our suiting, so we called maybe the women that had been suited in the last two months. And overwhelming in these conversations and checking up on them, we found that them not having access to the internet was the number one barrier. So if you can imagine when you first were Shelter-in-Place, not being able to Zoom your family, not being able to Zoom into work. Right away, we set them up with, if they needed laptops or equipment, at that point, connectivity was a real problem.

So if they needed, and we’re not finding this as much anymore, if they needed hotspots for data. And then we also have volunteers who provided one-on-one coaching because everybody starts from a different place in digital literacy. So I have volunteers phoning up our women saying, okay, here’s how you turn it on, here’s what you do, let’s get you on Zoom. And subsequently, because of that, we serve a lot of women that aren’t directly in our programs, but all these other programs we were able to take online very quickly. LESLIE KENDRICK So it seems like the common denominator here is economic hardship.

So would that be the main reason that these women are having problems kind of reaching out online and connecting that way? Absolutely. Yeah, the women we serve, over 80% live below the poverty line. LESLIE KENDRICK Wow. And the laptops and all the equipment is all donated by individuals.

Do you go around and request it? Are there fundraisers that you? Yes, all of the above. So I bet, what is it? Beg, borrow, and steal.

So yeah, when we first started, I think I was handing out our own program laptops, but I was like, we just got to do it. And then since then, yeah, some individuals either donated new laptops, donated funding to buy laptops. And now we did get grants from, we have a grant from the Beverage Foundation. And it’s important because to give the laptops, because a lot of people are like, well, you’re giving them? And it’s like, but that’s the tool.

You can come through our workforce development program for 50 hours of training, you finally get situated on a piece of equipment that you’re knowledgeable about. But to gain employment, you still need to apply online, you need to interview online, etc. LESLIE KENDRICK So you need the resources and the tools. And in case you’re just joining us, this is Arianne filling in for Gordon, and you’re listening to The Cambridge Connection here on WHMP. I’m here with Margaret Tantillo, the Executive Director of Dress for Success, Western Massachusetts, and my co-pilot, Tina Marie.

And so we’re talking about money managing and how important it is for women and how important it is for the people that you serve and what you do. So Cambridge Credit Counseling offers debt management plans and budgeting coaching and all of these tools. So how could a service like that help the people that you serve as well? MARGARET TANTILLO Our mission is to help women gain economic independence. So on one hand, it’s the employment, the revenue income.

On the other hand, it’s managing their finances. A lot of the women that we work with have not had conversations about money. I mean, women in general have a tricky time talking about money. Nobody’s taught them how to manage money. And oftentimes, they get caught up in taking out either small loans or rent-to-own furniture.

They buy a car where the interest rate is much higher than a it should be. They don’t have good credit and it’s just they could benefit so much by learning how to manage their money. I mean, it’s an old statement, you know, a penny saved is a penny earned. But when you’re working for $16 an hour and you’re able to cut a percent off of your mortgage, that’s far more than a penny. So it’s so valuable for them to also learn that aspect of it.

That’s huge. So, Tina Marie, I’m sure you see a lot of this with your experience with your clients. Absolutely. And that’s exactly what we provide is the financial education. What you just said, the one or two points of interest rate could save hundreds a month.

And again, a lot of times with single women who may have previously been married or in a domestic situation, it might be the spouse that always handled the finances. And if that breaks up, unfortunately, these women are left kind of starting all over. And it’s great to know that there are places to go to get the proper financial education like Cambridge Credit Counseling. And it’s also important that they have the guidance that you provide as well as the clothing and just the things that you forget. Right now, if you want to apply for a job, where do you go?

com. And a lot of people, they’re not aware of that. It’s not like we can pick up the newspaper anymore and look for the Help Wanted ads. All right. So, Margaret, we had kind of talked before about fundraising and how important it is for you to kind of find those resources for your programs.

Tell us more about how, when, and why fundraising? So Dresser Success does not have any earned revenue. So we rely solely on the generosity of individuals, companies, grant makers to support the work that we do. Without them, we wouldn’t be able to serve our women. We do have an annual fundraising event, which I would really encourage anybody to come to, because it is the best way that we showcase our mission.

We highlight our women’s successes. And that’s our annual Common Threads event. This year, it’s going to be on March 24th. And we’re hoping to do a hybrid event just based on the current circumstances. But logging on and seeing it digitally is really impressive because you get to hear directly from our women.

And where would you log on? org. Fantastic. Thank you so much. We’ll be looking forward to that.

So before you leave, what’s one piece of advice that you’d like to leave our listeners with? Anybody who’s having financial difficulty, I encourage people to reach out and have conversations because you learn a lot. And there’s a lot to learn about finances. Certainly, Cambridge Credit Counseling is a great resource. And Dresser Success is also, we don’t provide the same level of budgeting and resources in that way.

But we do provide a lot of support and help people access resources. Thank you so much for joining us, Margaret. We really, really enjoyed our talk with you. Thank you for having me. And I’m looking to volunteer.

We’d love to have you. Great. Hi, this is Margaret, the Executive Director of Dresser Success, Western Massachusetts. Dresser Success is a suit and so much more. We provide low-income women with suits to go on interviews and for their jobs, but we provide so much more than that.

We’re a network of support and we provide programs that help women excel in the workforce and thrive in work and in life. We depend on the generosity of financial contributions. We also depend on volunteers. org, or give us a call, 413-732-8179. Thank you.

Closing credits and show wrap up

A big thank you to Tina Marie, our resident Rockstar counselor, for helping me carry the show this week. And again, a huge thank you to Margaret Tantullo, the Executive Director of Dresser Success, Western Massachusetts, for coming to chat with us. m. m. com, on SoundCloud, or anywhere you listen to your favorite podcasts.

org and be a part of the conversation. Have a great week, everyone. Stay positive, test negative. Hey, everyone. Gordon Oliver here, and I’m the host of the brand new Saturday morning show, The Cambridge Connection.

, we’ll spend 28 minutes together that will change your relationship with money for the better. I’ve been a financial counselor for 20 years, and I’m here to get you excited about being in financial control. Join me next Saturday, right here on The Cambridge Connection. The holidays are fast approaching, and with it can come a lot of unwanted stress. , right here on WHMP.