Category Archives: Career Opportunities

March 11, 2013

Who Makes Less Than $10.10 per Hour? Women.

Just a quick one because I wanted to share this compelling infographic designed by the National Women’s Law Center. Per the email they sent around:

[Last week] Senator Harkin and Representative Miller introduced the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013. This bill would gradually raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 per hour, then provide for automatic adjustments linked to changes in the cost of living. The bill would also gradually raise the minimum wage for tipped workers, which has been frozen at just $2.13 per hour for more than 20 years. And let’s not forget President Obama’s words of support for increasing the minimum wage in his most recent State of the Union address.

Tagged as emotional labor, food stamps, minimum wage, minimum wage increase, National Women's Law Center, tipped wage increase, welfare, women's work

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September 14, 2012

Girl Model: Scouted

Regular readers, forgive me: I know I’ve already told you about why you need to see the documentary Girl Model (like when I said that here and also here). But New York-area readers, attention: The film is currently playing at the IFC Center through next Thursday, so you should totally go. It’s provocative, heart-breaking and beautifully made, and if you don’t believe me, go read this lovely post by Kate on Eat The Damn Cake.

Tagged as Ashley Sabin, beauty industry, beauty school, David Redmon, Eat the Damn Cake, End of Men, Girl Model, Hanna Rosin, IFC Center, Kate Fridkis, mary kay, modeling, pink collar jobs, Russian models

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August 24, 2012

[Inside the Pink Pyramid] CBSNews.com MoneyWatch Interview

I did a really interesting interview this week with Amy Levin-Epstein, who writes for CBS MoneyWatch. We talked about why Mary Kay is so appealing to so many women, especially right now in the midst of our recession, which may actually be a mom-cession (so much for all that he-cession talk?).

Here’s part of what I told MoneyWatch.

The company’s founder, Mary Kay Ash, knew exactly why women were frustrated in the 1960s: the lack of gender equality, which meant they were dependent on their husband’s income and unable to make much headway in the workplace. But she also knew that a significant majority of women weren’t responding to the hardcore feminist revolution that say, Betty Friedan was advocating in “The Feminist Mystique.”

Tagged as Amy Levin-Epstein, Betty Friedan, CBS, CBS MoneyWatch, CBS News, CBSNews.com, direct sales, feminism, Feminist Mystique, flexibility, having it all, hecession, mary kay, MLM, mom-cession, MoneyWatch, recession, unemployment, work life balance, you can have it all

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August 15, 2012

[Virginia on the Radio] KUER’s RadioWest with Doug Fabrizio

Another radio podcast for y’all, in case you missed me yesterday on NPR affiliate KUER’s RadioWest with Doug Fabrizio. The RadioWest folks invited me and Mother Jones reporter Stephanie Mencimer to talk about our reporting on the direct sales industry. As you might have heard by now, I wrote this thing about Mary Kay for Harper’s; Stephanie wrote several excellent pieces earlier this year tracing how multilevel marketing companies are funding Mitt Romney’s campaign.

Tagged as Christianity, direct sales, direct selling industry, Doug Fabrizio, Harpers, Herbalife, KUER, mary kay, Mitt Romney, MLM, Mormons, Mother Jones, multilevel marketing, Nu Skin, Pink Pyramid, RadioWest, religion, Stephanie Mencimer

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August 1, 2012

[Inside the Pink Pyramid] Women Join Direct Sales For All Kinds of Reasons

Everyone in the direct sales industry will tell you this. Last week, Mary Kay’s Vice President of Compliance, Laura Beitler told me on NPR’s On Point. Then Joseph Mariano, head of the Direct Selling Association said it. And then Mary Kay’s Vice President for Corporate Social Responsibility, Crayton Webb said it again, on KERA’s Think.

Tagged as direct sales, Direct Selling Association, Harpers, inside the pink pyramid, mary kay, MLM, multi-level marketing, Pink Pyramid, pyramid scheme

8 Comments

July 30, 2012

[Inside the Pink Pyramid] Why Mary Kay is Only The Beginning

Today’s look at why Mary Kay is just the tip of a pyramid-shaped iceberg — is brought to you by the Investigative Fund, who asked me to dig deeper into the direct sales industry as a whole. I’ve been getting so many great emails from folks who have read the Harper’s story or heard one of the NPR interviews last week and one thing everyone asks is: “So what about [Avon, Amway, insert-your-direct-sales-of-choice-here]? Are they as bad as Mary Kay?”

Tagged as Amway, Avon, direct sales industry, Investigative Fund, mary kay, Mitt Romney, MLM, multi-level marketing, Virginia Sole-Smith

2 Comments

July 27, 2012

[Virginia on the Radio] NPR’s Marketplace with Tess Vigeland

And one last radio update for you before the weekend! This interview with Tess Vigeland aired on NPR’s Marketplace yesterday evening. It’s just five minutes — much shorter than my other segments and tightly edited (we taped in the afternoon) but if you want a great, fast digest of my Harper’s story and everything we uncovered about Mary Kay, you’ll get it here (transcript and podcast both available).

Tagged as American Public Media, direct sales, Marketplace, mary kay, MLM, NPR, Pink Pyramid, pyramid scheme, Tess Vigeland

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July 27, 2012

[Virginia on the Radio] KERA’s Think with Krys Boyd on The Beauty Business

I spent a fun hour on NPR’s KERA this afternoon, as a guest of THINK with Krys Boyd. The show airs live in Texas, where 30,000 Mary Kay consultants are currently gathered for the annual Seminar in Dallas.

Plus, Mary Kay’s Director of Corporate Social Responsibility, Crayton Webb, comes on for the second half of the show and things get… spicy.

You can listen to the podcast here (click “The Beauty Business” link), and also head over to the show page to add your comments.

Filed under Beauty Labor, Career Opportunities, Customer Cult, Happenings, Makeup, Mary Kay, Press

Tagged as Beauty Business, beauty industry, Crayton Webb, CSR, Harper's Magazine, Harpers, KERA, Krys Boyd, mary kay, NPR, Pink Pyramid, pyramid scheme, Think with Krys Boyd

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July 25, 2012

[Inside the Pink Pyramid] But Of Course, Our Products End Up With the Retail Consumer

When I spoke with Laura Beitler, Mary Kay’s Vice President of Compliance, on NPR’s On Point on Monday, she was quick to emphasize that “absolutely, the majority of our products end up with the end consumer.” But when we pressed her, she also had to admit: “We can’t and don’t track retail sales.”

How can both those things be true?

To avoid falling into the Federal Trade Commission’s official definition of a pyramid scheme, it’s very important for Mary Kay — and all multi-level marketing companies — to insist that their primary goal is getting their products out to retail consumers. But to avoid being exposed as a business where the vast majority of the sales force is losing money, all of these companies have to claim that they have no idea what those end retail consumers are spending.

Tagged as Avon, direct sales, Direct Selling Association, Douglas Brooks, Laura Beitler, mary kay, MLM, multi-level marketing, NPR, On Point, Pink Pyramid, pyramid scheme, women's magazines

3 Comments

July 24, 2012

[Inside the Pink Pyramid] But You Aren’t Required To Buy the Inventory…

Industry Claim #1: Nobody is required to buy inventory.

This is true. Antonella even told me so when we did my official Mary Kay orientation: You’re not required to purchase a single thing from Mary Kay beyond your $100 starter kit.

“But,” she said. “There are some advantages.”

Just because you aren’t required to buy inventory in Mary Kay, doesn’t mean you won’t get the hard sell about why you’d be crazy not to buy inventory. My experience and the experiences of the women in my story suggest that you’ll be pressured heavily to buy inventory “if you’re serious about your business.”

In fact, Mary Kay is set up so it seems like the only way you’ll ever make money is through large inventory purchases. If you’re not spending enough on products, the company finds other ways to cost you money, like charging you shipping and only shipping to your house — meaning you spend time and money traveling around to deliver your orders yourself. As Lynne explained on yesterday’s edition of NPR’s On Point, to stay active in Mary Kay, you have to place $200 in wholesale orders every ~~month.~~ [EDIT: Per Lynne's comment below, it's once a quarter, not once a month. — VSS]

Tagged as direct sales, Harpers, inventory requirements, mary kay, Mary Kay ladies, minimum wage, multi-level marketing, Pink Pyramid, poverty, pyramid scheme

3 Comments

Category Archives: Career Opportunities

Who Makes Less Than $10.10 per Hour? Women.

Girl Model: Scouted

[Inside the Pink Pyramid] CBSNews.com MoneyWatch Interview

[Virginia on the Radio] KUER’s RadioWest with Doug Fabrizio

[Inside the Pink Pyramid] Women Join Direct Sales For All Kinds of Reasons

[Inside the Pink Pyramid] Why Mary Kay is Only The Beginning

[Virginia on the Radio] NPR’s Marketplace with Tess Vigeland

[Virginia on the Radio] KERA’s Think with Krys Boyd on The Beauty Business

[Inside the Pink Pyramid] But Of Course, Our Products End Up With the Retail Consumer

[Inside the Pink Pyramid] But You Aren’t Required To Buy the Inventory…

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