Not only made in American, made in Virginia!

It always feels good to buy products that are made in America.  Yesterday, I got a really nice surprise.  My grandparents had a beautiful tiger maple wood bedroom set.  Unfortunately, the head board was made for a full bed.  My husband and I both love antique furniture and we really wanted to use this heirloom furniture for our bedroom.  After doing some research, my husband figured out that you can buy converter kits to adapt a full head board for use with a queen mattress.  He ordered the kit and I hired a contractor to assemble the kit(too complicated for us to handle). 

Good thing I hired a contractor.  The conversion kit was not what was expected and the contractor had to do some major brainstorming to get it to work.  Sleepys delivered the new mattress and box spring in the early part of the quoted time frame (nice surprise). 

Much to our surprise, when we pulled off the mattress tags (yes, the consumer is allowed to remove the tags), my husband noticed that the tag said -- designed and built in the USA.  And, to our greater surprise Simmons manufactures the mattresses in Fredericksburg, VA.  So not only was our mattress USA made, it was made locally! 

The tag also indicated that the mattress was manufactured on 10/07/11.  I don't know anything about mattress manufacturing, but that seems like a really quick turn-a-round, which I guess is possible when there is a local manufacturer.

A little labor economics

Women provide an important part of the American work force.  While studying American labor and labor economics at Cornell University’s School of Industrial Labor Relations, I wrote one of my first major research papers on the disparity of pay between men and women. 

Today, while watching the Today Show, I enjoyed hearing New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand speak about the importance of women in the American labor force.  She referred to the famous Rosie the Riveter campaign, encouraging women to join the work force during WWII. 

Senator Gillibrand sees the need for women to take vital roles in today’s workforce, especially in politics.  She noted that she is one of few women, 17 female senators, in today’s United States Senate.  She mentioned that she and her female colleagues work well together, even when they are on different ends of the political spectrum. 

When I wrote my labor economics paper in 1983, I focused on professional women – lawyers and doctors, concluding that female professionals did not earn comparable salaries to men.  Unfortunately, 28 years later, American women in the work force, still do not command equal pay as their male co-workers.

When I went on college visits with my daughter this summer, I noticed that the college statistics show that most colleges have a majority of female students.  I wonder, what it will take to equalize the pay of American male and female workers.  

I will continue to explore this topic in future blog posts.  I hope that you will provide me with your insight and comments on this important topic.  I don't think Rachel will be studying labor economics in college, but it is unfortunate to think that she would reach similar conclusions about workplace pay disparity as I did in 1983.

Interviews for a day in the life of an American worker or small business owner

I'm preparing for my next blog segment -- a day in the life of an American worker or small business owner.  I will be interviewing people about their jobs or business.  Please let me know if you would like to participate.  I'm interested in all jobs -- full or part time, fun or boring, union or non-union, typical or not, any professions or type of work.

Please contact me via comment, facebook or email:  lostcatjulie@gmail.com!