Money, Derek Jeter, Nail Clippings & Apple Pie: Harvard's WorklifeWizard

November 20, 2006 12:22 PM

The Harvard University Worklife Wizard, created by an international team of journalists, economists, and statisticians, is Barbara Ehrenreich's wet dream. It's also a fantastic resource that has flown pretty much under everyone's radar. The Worklife Survey drives the constantly-revised, constantly-refined Salary Comparison Tool, which is always hungry for more data about employment from around the world. And when they say they want data from everyone, they mean it-- there's even a VIP Salary Checker that pits the wages of the Yankees against those of the Red Sox. (Plus if you take the survey, you can apparently earn a chance to win a trip to South Africa). Personally, I love the Workplace Horror Stories (and there's a competition there too). I can't look at a nail clipper the same way now.
posted by yellowcandy (26 comments total)

For some reason it keeps wanting to do the Salary Calc in Spanish....
posted by zeoslap at 1:31 PM on November 20, 2006

¿Por qué contestar el cuestionario?

me too.
posted by mcstayinskool at 1:51 PM on November 20, 2006

The Salary Comparison Tool just says "Session timed out", no matter what I do, when using Safari. Appears to work in Firefox though.
posted by xil at 1:51 PM on November 20, 2006

Why the Borat tag?
posted by mattbucher at 2:06 PM on November 20, 2006

The Borat tag makes complete sense, Matt. Borat's Guide to Job Interviews, i.e. what NEVER, EVER to say during job interviews. It's hilarious! BTW, the salary checker works just fine if you try it in Explorer.
posted by crunchee at 2:19 PM on November 20, 2006

Mis espanol es malo.
posted by The Power Nap at 2:25 PM on November 20, 2006

Worked fine for me in FF2.0/Ubuntu, in english to boot.
posted by Skorgu at 2:53 PM on November 20, 2006

Other than telling me I'm woefully underpaid—which I guess I was already painfully aware of—the salary checker works just fine for me too (FF2.x/OSX.4.x). Enjoyed the rest of the site though, thanks for posting.
posted by Fezboy! at 2:55 PM on November 20, 2006

Only covers USA, alas.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 3:49 PM on November 20, 2006

I bet that Barbara Ehrenreich doesn't really find this arousing.
posted by mecran01 at 4:08 PM on November 20, 2006

Broken in Safari, Firefox 2 and IE 5.22 on the Mac.

It's going to keep being "underutilized," I guess.
posted by ikkyu2 at 4:13 PM on November 20, 2006

The survey didn't really understand the concept of "self-employed." It kept asking me questions about my boss and fellow employees, despite my having said I had neither.
posted by The corpse in the library at 4:13 PM on November 20, 2006

I liked it, but then I like quizzes. And the question that asked about the sex of your immediate supervisor was great -

you had to answer Yes, No, or Don't Know.
posted by mygothlaundry at 5:17 PM on November 20, 2006

I've got a funny first name, so I never got any little license plates or keychains with my name on them. It was hard. Now, in my adulthood, I revisit the pain everytime I try and take a salary survey. It is that weird to be a taxonomist?
posted by stet at 5:25 PM on November 20, 2006

No me gusta.
posted by jewzilla at 8:30 PM on November 20, 2006

Is this work geared to study undocumented farmworkers in the town of Immokalee, Florida?
posted by Kwantsar at 8:53 PM on November 20, 2006

The complaint about a twig in some apple pie was intensely lame. If that's as bad as your workplace gets, then shut the hell up.
posted by mistermoore at 11:29 PM on November 20, 2006

They don't have a spot for 'equine stylist.' They either have animal trainer or stylist/cosmetologist. I suppose I shouldn't complain, as I'm apparently being overpaid by almost $50 an hour.

And yeah, the twig thing sucks and whoever wrote it should realize that dramatic aggrandizing of one's life does not make it exciting to others.
posted by po at 1:07 AM on November 21, 2006

Just to clarify, the team may be international, but the questionnaire assumes you work in the US (eg - required question "Which state do you live in?").
posted by paduasoy at 4:09 AM on November 21, 2006

Frankly I'd rather go to Philadelphia.
posted by IndigoJones at 5:41 AM on November 21, 2006

Aha! www.wageindicator.org for the other countries - Brazil, India, South Korea, South Africa, England, etc. - and the WorklifeWizard is the US version.
posted by crunchee at 7:55 AM on November 21, 2006

Just to clarify, there is a row of links at the bottom that will take you to salary checkers for several countries.
posted by LGCNo6 at 8:17 AM on November 21, 2006

The label "Horror Stories" is probably a bit hyperbolic, but the fact that someone ate a fricken twig is pretty disturbing.
posted by statcinerator at 9:05 AM on November 21, 2006

This survey needs to have some kind of Wiki built-in for people whose jobs don't fall into certain categories.

It's information like this that seems so necessary for the economy to function at all like it's supposed to, and yet it's unavailable and unreported to most people that need it. what do economists do with their time?
posted by eustatic at 1:59 PM on November 21, 2006

Ah, fair enough LGGNo6, that makes much more sense. Thought it was another of these annoying situations where you don't find out it's not relevant until the end. Have actually been able to answer it more or less honestly now (still couldn't find my job though), thanks.
posted by paduasoy at 2:59 PM on November 21, 2006

Hey, take a look at http://blog.healthpolitics.org/.
posted by crunchee at 7:48 AM on December 8, 2006