New law requiring state employers to disclose pay scales goes into effect

Teachers discuss newly mandated pay transparency

The salary transparency movement is gaining ground: In 2021, Colorado became the first state to require businesses to list salary ranges on job ads, and in 2022, New York City passed its own pay range law. Now, California has joined the shortlist of states that require employers to disclose salary information.

Senate Bill 1162, which went into effect on Jan. 1, 2023, requires businesses and organizations with over 15 employees to add salary ranges to job postings. It also mandates that employers provide current employees with the pay scale for their currently-held positions. Signed into law by California Governor Gavin Newsom on Sept. 27, 2022, the bill aims to reduce gender and racial pay gaps by disclosing information around wages.

“California has the strongest equal pay laws in the nation but we’re not letting up on our work to ensure all women in our state are paid their due and treated equally in all spheres of life,” said Governor Newsom during a press conference at the signing of the bill.

As a woman in a predominantly male field, upper school math teacher Veena Krishnan believes the law supports the dismantling of discriminatory pay based on gender and race.

“In general, most institutions always lowball what women get paid with respect to their degrees and experience,” Krishnan said. “Having a transparency scale allows us to figure out where we are on that spectrum and ensure it isn’t modified based on the color of my skin, my gender, or my identity.”

Echoing Krishnan, upper school economics teacher Patrick Berger believes transparency around pay is crucial in the improvement of company environments and individual growth.

“As workers are better informed about the range of possible employment options, they gain a significant improvement in their ability to both negotiate for higher wages and leave positions for opportunities with higher rates of compensation,” Berger said. “These new increases in transparency are also, of course, extraordinarily powerful in giving workers the ability to identify and explore income inequality across many different demographics.”

While salary ranges have been posted for current job openings, an “official” pay scale is still being developed at Nueva. A consulting group has been hired to aid the school in developing the scales.

With contracts historically released in February of each year, teachers hope this financial clarity comes in the near future. While faculty are able to request information about their pay and salary scales from Human Resources, some feel deterred by this extra hurdle.

“I shouldn't have to go and ask for them,” Krishnan said. “It should just be available to people because I think there's a huge inertia of ‘if I question that, am I being thought of as not being grateful for what I'm getting?’”

Yet, although this bill encourages organizations to make strides towards financial transparency, true understanding about salaries can be obscured by pay that can range over ten thousand dollars. For example, the salary range for an upper school biology teacher falls anywhere between $70,000 to $135,000, depending on experience.

“It's a huge spectrum so not just having a bar but also breaking it down further by degree and experience would be best,” Krishnan said.

I-Lab Director Angi Chau also believes the most ideal salary report should be a nuanced chart factoring general teaching experience, number of degrees, and tenure at Nueva, providing teachers with concrete ways to increase their current salary.

“It would be nice to recognize that our teachers are all at different stages in life,” Chau said. “Some people have kids and some are in their early 20s. People have different financial needs and it would be great if we could contextualize the scales and help teachers understand what steps they need to take to reach their financial goals.” this transparency within her part of the recruitment process.

“I make sure to sit down with them and say what the expectation at Nueva is,” Chau said. “Even if someone has worked at a different school, every school has different expectations for teachers.”

During the recent State of Nueva address on Jan. 12, Head of School Lee Fertig called teachers the “superheroes in the trenches” who “enable the magic to happen on a regular basis.” He noted that the school has “significantly invested” Nueva’s faculty and staff.

“By the start of next school year, we will have increased base salaries by hopefully more than 20 percent in a three-year period,” Fertig shared, an announcement that was met with enthusiastic applause from the parents who attended the in-person event.

The salary increase, as well as a “competitive package” of other employment benefits, are welcomed by faculty and staff living in one of the areas with the highest costs of living in the world.

“I am grateful because [these] small steps are important to retain folks,” Krishnan said.

Four days into the new year, the Biden-Harris administration brought the Student Debt Relief Plan to the Supreme Court. However, this plan has been seeing backlash from economists and the Republican Party alike.

The Student Debt Relief Plan promises loan forgiveness of up to $20,000 for working and middle-class students. Eligibility and quantity is defined by household income and Pell Grants, government-provided grants for students with exceptional financial need.

With rising inflation, economists foresee a new imbalance in the already unstable distribution of American families' budgets with disparities in employment and job availability. Financial corporation Moody’s Analytics foresees a 0.08 percent rise in inflation correlating with relief of $10,000.

Representatives of the Republican Party also claim the policy is inequitable. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell explicitly stated that since many Americans choose not to attend college, this policy would be functionally useless.

"President Biden's student loan socialism is a slap in the face to every family who sacrificed to save for college, every graduate who paid their debt, and every American who chose a certain career path or volunteered to serve in our Armed Forces in order to avoid taking on debt,” McConnell wrote in a statement. “This policy is astonishingly unfair."

Upper school English teacher Alexa Hart benefited from a relief plan as part of teaching at a public school in Vermont, where she also underwent her undergraduate and graduate education.

“I think, where there can be sort of job specific relief, it incentivizes people to be in the workforce, and incentivizes careers that are not often well compensated,” Hart said.

“Being a public school teacher in Vermont was very low pay, but that relief made the pay worth it.”

In addition, Senator Ted Cruz believes this policy intends to “take from working class people” with the increase in taxes on citizens.

However, Hart believes that the way which education is funded needs to be improved.

“Tuition for undergraduate private education has probably doubled since I graduated, and that's not sustainable,” Hart said. “I think there sort of needs to be a reckoning or conversation about what that price point gets you because it's just prohibitively expensive.”

The impact of this plan is still to be determined, and the SCOTUS is preparing for two cases in February which will argue against this proposal.

Here are three simple ways to safeguard your account: 1

Digital epidemic sweeps Instagram

Hackers exploit trust, provoke paranoia, break hearts

It only took a few seconds for hackers to seize complete control of Naomie C. ’24’s Instagram account and convert it into a marketing vessel for a Bitcoin mining firm.

Unfortunately, Naomie wasn’t alone. Social media account takeovers have increased by 1,000% in 2022, according to a report by the Identity Theft Resource Center, indicating a new generation of identity theft and digital danger.

The message appeared benign at first. In early January, a classmate’s account reached out to Naomie asking for help with starting a business, then instructed Naomie to forward them a link sent to her phone number. Preoccupied at the time, Naomie obliged without a second thought.

The link, however, was anything but benign. It was Instagram’s verification mechanism that allowed the hackers to access her account, enable two-factor authentication, and lock Naomie out. As soon as she realized, “my heart dropped,” Naomie said.

She immediately attempted to change her password and frantically contacted Instagram’s customer service dozens of times, but to no avail. As someone who considers herself “competent with technology and cybersecurity,” Naomie was surprised she had fallen victim to “such a simple scheme.”

“The regret I felt then outweighed any other emotion,” Naomie said. “I also felt immense anger at both the hacker and myself.”

At the time of writing, Naomie has still been unable to recover her account.

Margot S. ’25 also lost her account in January to a hacker after clicking a link sent from a friend’s account.

“I thought I was safe from it,” Margot recalled, “but I fell right into the trap.”

The hijackers used Margot’s and Naomie’s accounts to promote a cryptocurrency business and gain access to more potential victims. In Margot’s case, the hacker impersonated her and responded to friends’ messages using explicit and offensive language.

Naomie’s hacker sent death threats and ransom demands to her phone number, which was attached to her profile along with other personal information. Naomie described the experience as “traumatic” and expressed worry for how other, more vulnerable populations could be impacted.

“This is especially detrimental to younger and less educated people,” Naomie said. “I cannot imagine how traumatic it would be for a twelve-yearold to go through the same experience.”

Naomie emphasized the double-edged sword of anonymity on the internet and advised her peers to stay vigilant.

“You never really know who’s behind the accounts you’re messaging,” she warned.

Margot, on the other hand, had a more optimistic outlook.

The “idyllic” city of Half Moon Bay faces unrest

STORY Ellie K. PHOTOS The Washington Post, ABC7 News

Its famous autumn season came to a close, and festive pumpkins no longer scattered the streets of Half Moon Bay. What were their replacements? Rolls of caution tape, helicopters, and a somber Gov. Gavin Newsom.

On Jan. 23, Chunli Zhao, 66, shot seven farm workers and injured another at a mushroom farm and agricultural nursery. That afternoon, he was located in his vehicle parked at the sheriff’s substation.

When called to the scene, Newsom had been visiting victims of the Monterey shooting two days earlier.

“Tragedy upon tragedy,” he wrote on Twitter.

Driving home from school, Rosie D. ’23 was shocked to learn about tragedy of that magnitude in her “tight knit town,” where walks on the beach guarantee smiles from strangers.

When she heard the news, she remembered thinking, “Are you sure? Our Half Moon Bay?”

“It’s an artistic, cultural community,” Rosie said. “I wouldn't expect that kind of [violence] to happen there.”

Upper school English teacher Pearl Bauer, a resident for seven years, echoed Ding’s sentiment.

“[Half Moon Bay] has always felt very idyllic and safe, like a paradise, which is why what’s happening lately has been more uncomfortable,” she shared.

The shooting—killing several Chinese farm workers—occurred directly after the Lunar New Year, a valued tradition in many Asian communities. While the attack remains attributed to “workplace violence” and not a hate crime, Bauer has noticed many racist remarks online in response to the news, feeling as if the incident is “reemphasizing” the post pandemic antiAsian sentiments.

“I just feel unsafe in a way that I hadn’t felt unsafe in Half Moon Bay,” she said. “It’s literally hitting home because it was so close to home.”

To Bauer, the incident serves as a microcosm for the current state of America.

“We think of America as a very safe, first world country,” she said. “Yet, we actually have these shadows in our backyard.”

The proximity of the event additionally prompted reflection on gun violence in America for Rosie. In fact, Rosie’s photos from a caution-taped Half Moon Bay joined her cousin’s photos from the Monterey crime scene in the family group chat two days later.

Prior to the two recent shootings—both tied to the Asian American community— Rosie did not think about gun violence regularly.

“It just felt like it was really far away,” she said. These two incidents served as a reminder of how real and impactful the disasters are.

Katie Saylor, a resident of three years, shared Ding’s reflection, having been a regular customer of the now infamous mushroom farm.

“It’s bizarre to think that this is all very close to home for us,” she said.

The shooting was not the only cause for unrest in the community. Mid-January’s intense rainstorms left a massive sinkhole on Highway 92, which led to traffic congestion and the highway shutting down. Bauer’s typical commute time of 25 minutes extended to two and a half hours, and when Saylor took an Uber back home on Jan. 25, the driver did an illegal U-turn simply to

Turn on two-factor authentication 2

This adds an extra layer of security by requiring a verification code from a trusted device to log in. It can also prevent hackers from locking you out of your account.

Be

Wary Of Messages

Avoid clicking unfamiliar links or transmitting personal information, even in correspondence with a friend's account.

When in doubt, confirm with them on another messaging app or, even better, in person.

3

Monitor data leaks leave her on the side of the road, afraid to enter the Half Moon Bay area.

Social media platforms will often notify affected users in the event of a data breach, which can expose your email, passwords, and other sensitive information to hackers. Make sure to change your password immediately if this occurs.

“Half Moon Bay feels idyllic, in part because there’s only one road in and out,” Bauer said. “But when something like this happens, you actually realize that there is an access issue.”

Highway 92 serves as Half Moon Bay’s primary connection to the rest of the county. When the road closed, Saylor worried about their “seclusion.”

“My husband and I just looked at each other and felt like, ‘oh, this is an isolation that maybe we didn’t bargain for when we moved to Half Moon Bay,’” she said.

Yet, by Jan. 27, the roads were free of road work traffic. Saylor considered dropping off cookies for the workers.

“They’ve done such an incredible job,” she said. “I don't know how to repay them for connecting us back to the world, it feels like.”

Despite the half masted flags and “strange” atmosphere, as Saylor described, residents continue to look after each other.

“There’s a lot of love amongst Half Moon Bay residents for the place, the people, and the ocean. There’s a lot of people who want to protect this kind of special community, so I don’t see that going away,” Saylor said. “If anything, [the incidents] just reaffirmed that people want to live in a place that comes together when tragedy happens.”