Equal pay for equal work!

I would like to point out that it is 2.00 am in the morning and I am sitting at my computer working. Since I started at this job, a week and a half ago, I have worked every day (that's two Sundays, for those out there counting), have only left my desk before 8pm twice and regularly am working past midnight.

I know, all you investment bankers and lawyers out there are going "So What" but, please let us remember, I am making about as much as your average toilet seat cleaner at RFK Stadium (well, maybe a bit more, but not by much).

This is something I don't get, why people in my industry, or, more specifically, me, get paid so little. I have a masters degree. I have worked for a certain number of years. I have a skill set of sorts, or at least am very good at pretending like I do. I work very very long hours and produce copious amounts of e-mail and documents with long titles and inexplicable phrases.

Not to mention I work places that suck. They're dusty and hot and don't have power or Lady Grey tea.

I should be making more than some insurance adjuster in Newark, right?

I think it is because there is still some idea that aid workers, humanitarians, whatever, are sainted people doing this for a higher purpose. That we don't need money because we have the inestimable satisfaction of giving succor to others and being exposed to the best and worst of human nature in a way that lifts our souls more than mere, dirty money, ever could.

This is not true.

It is 2 am. I'm knackered. I don't particularly care about the people I'm supposed to be helping at the moment and I just want enough money to buy my house in Cape Town and put up a durn bookshelf.

My soul is firmly settled and I'm going to start agitating for appropriate compensation!