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‘This Is My Number’

‘This Is My Number’

(Bloomberg) -- Compensation is how the workplace is supposed to measure worker value. But for women, that system is broken, so many seek out other ways to feel valued. That often means finding work with meaning and purpose.

Michele Roberts, executive director of the National Basketball Players Association, found her own method for determining her value at a company. “What I ultimately decided to do was decide what I thought I was worth, and to pick a number that would make me feel as if I was being valued appropriately,” Roberts, a former public defender and trial attorney, said on this week’s episode of “The Pay Check.” “And I simply would say that when compensation time came around: This is my number.

In the third episode of the podcast’s conversation series, Roberts, the first woman to head a major professional sports union in North America, talks to Emily Bazelon, a journalist and lawyer by training, about making it in the male-dominated world of law. They discuss how they learned of gender-based pay differences in the law field, what it’s like to be the only woman in the room, and the importance of finding deeper reasons to do the work you do, regardless of how much money you make.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Francesca Levy at flevy6@bloomberg.net

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