Paycheck Diversity Triggers Trumpers Fears of DEI

Jul 5, 2026 03:04 PM EDT, Sun

Paula and I started at NCR’s E&M division in West Columbia in early 1977 — she in January, me in February. I didn’t know it then, but I had just met my future wife.

She was laid off in November 1990 after thirteen years. I followed in November 1991 after fourteen. That double layoff taught us a simple rule for economic survival: paycheck diversity. It sounds like an HR term, but it’s just common sense — the employment version of diversifying a retirement portfolio. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.

Years later, I was working at a regional financial company. One morning I shared an elevator with Wayne and his wife, Ryan — one of three or four married couples employed there. Wayne asked what Paula did. “Computer support,” I said. He asked why she didn’t apply. I answered, “Paycheck diversity.” Wayne mouthed the words, processed them, and said, “Gotcha.” Ryan didn’t say anything, but she heard the whole exchange.

DEI wasn’t a political flashpoint back then. It became one when Trump entered politics. Today, anything containing the word “diversity” can trigger suspicion, even when it has nothing to do with demographic policy.

South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson illustrates the point. He wants to enforce Trump’s anti‑DEI stance — selectively. Starbucks and Costco get letters. BMW and Boeing do not. The state’s economy depends on them, and both operate under DEI requirements imposed by the EU and global aviation markets.

It’s an odd moment: politicians railing against DEI as ideology, while the companies that keep the state employed treat it as a compliance reality. Meanwhile, Paula and I learned our own version decades ago — not ideological, not political, just practical.

Paycheck diversity wasn’t DEI. It was survival.

@RalphHightower

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