Workplace Buzz: Today’s Headlines

Dismal Statistics
The percent of women executives heading up top publicly traded suburban companies in the Chicago area have declined 2.2 percentage points to 14.7 percent this year, according to the 2007 Chicago Network Census released Wednesday. “It is really depressing,” said Hedy Ratner, the co-president of the Women’s Business Development Center in Chicago. “Here we have a woman running for president, and we are looking at these dismal statistics about women in leadership.” Medill Reports

Why the Paltry Paycheck?
Nowadays, women are just as likely to hold positions of power as men. However, they still make substantially less than their male counterparts, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. In a society where we pride ourselves on equality and dismissal of race, gender or sexual preference as qualifications, how does an injustice like unequal pay exist? There are even laws set in place that are supposed to prevent pay discrimination. Yet women still make less money than men. According to the National Organization for Women, women make 77 cents on the dollar compared to men. Daily 49er

Environmentally Conscious at the Office
A growing number of employers are going green, putting greater emphasis on reducing their impact on the environment. The issue is important to many employees. Thirty-three percent of employees would be more inclined to work for a company that is environmentally conscious, according to a survey this year by Adecco, a Melville, N.Y.-based provider of workforce solutions. More than half of the respondents thought their company should be doing more. USA Today