The Most Important Salary Decision You’ll Ever Make
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One of the most crucial career decisions you, as a burgeoning woman leader, can make at the beginning of your career is whether you will choose to discuss money—specifically, negotiating your salary. Why is this decision so crucial early on? Because of this staggering finding:
By not negotiating a first salary, an [woman] stands to lose more than $500,000 by age 60—and men are more than four times as likely as women to negotiate a first salary.
Women Don’t Ask by Sandra Babcock and Sara Laschever
And in another remarkable finding from Women Don’t Ask, we learn:
Women who consistently negotiate their salary increase [their] earn[ings] [by] at least $1 million more during their careers than women who don’t.
In a nutshell, right out of the gate in your first career job, you are making a long-term personal financial decision. That decision is whether you will lose more than $500,000 or gain over $1 million during your professional career.
In my decades-long career as a leader, I have only ever had one woman I’ve hired attempt to negotiate her salary. As a hiring manager, you’re not in a position to say to a potential new hire: “Before saying yes to this job offer, please take some time to reassess my salary offer and engage in negotiations with me.” For many, this would fly in the face of what is best for the company, institution, etc., you work for (because what business doesn’t want to save money?). Even if what is in the best interest of the business is not an issue, telling a potential new hire to come back and negotiate their salary could put the hiring manager’s job at risk. In an effort to skirt both issues I would say, “Before you accept the job, why don’t you spend a day thinking about all the components of the offer?” Unfortunately, that approach didn’t work. There are two reasons why according to Babcock and Laschever’s book. Many women are so grateful to be offered a job that they accept what they are offered and don’t negotiate their salaries. More importantly, women hate to negotiate. Men are 4x more likely to negotiate than women. When men and women were asked to describe negotation, men equated it to “winning a ball game,” and women believe it was similar to “going to the dentist.”
As a burgeoning leader, you should not rely on a still-unknown supervisor to advocate for your financial future. If you’re uncomfortable negotiating or don’t know how, seek out education to get you past the mental block. You should know now, that your financial future is in your hands and under your control. Make the decision to negotiate your salary at every opportunity you get.