Why is a salary discussion so taboo?
Today, we’re singing the praises of Glamour magazine, for taking the discussion into the light. In their three-part series (make sure to watch all three parts!) There is a lot to discuss, but a few takeaways about the wage gap and salary negotiations:
- Salary confidentiality is illegal. A company cannot ask you to not discuss your salary with coworkers, because it violates federal law known as the National Labor Relations Act. This act was passed in the 1930s, and any organization that prohibits salary discussion is in violation of it.
- You have to know your value, and let others know it, too. Women will always be underestimated and undervalued. A recent study estimated that woman provide nearly $1 billion in free labor to the economy every year. Study the salary for your position on sites like careeronestop.org, salary.com, glassdoor.com, and payscale.com to name a few.
- Intersectionality is very real. Yes, women experience a wage gap, but that gap can be further broken down by color. $.87 for Asian women, $.79 for White women, $.63 for Black women, and $.54 for Hispanic women. The wage gap directly mirrors the stereotypes that exist with regard to women of color. Meaning more favorable stereotypes exist for Asian and White women than for those who are Black and Latinx. As women, we have responsibility to lift our sisters and understand that we all face different obstacles on our journey to equality.
- Maternal bias is the most deadly of all. Stereotypes abound for mothers, and fathers do not face the same assumptions. We assume that good mothers are 100% devoted to their children, and that good employees are 100% devoted to their jobs. Never the two shall meet. I don’t have children, and faced maternal bias when I was first married and applied for a promotion when a colleague asked, “Why would you want this position? You’ll be pregnant within a year.” As though motherhood and upper management were mutually exclusive.
- Investing in yourself pays off. In spades. By hiring a negotiation coach (like KKC!), we beat the odds. Having a negotiation strategy and tactics at hand will earn you a higher salary in the beginning, and keep paying for itself year over year. Let’s say, you receive a 4% raise for the next 3 years. If that raise is based on $100,00, your salary in three years your salary will be $112,788. If you instead negotiate a base salary of $140,000, in three years you’ll make $157,481 – a difference of $5,000 in three years alone. If you do not negotiate, you leave thousands of dollars on the table. The investment adds up over the course of a lifetime. Invest in you. Always, invest in you.
And finally:
the secrecy surrounding money is what allows the wage gap to persist.
Which is why this three-part series is so important. We must talk about money, and normalize the experience in order to end it. Tell me in the comment below: what can you do to further the salary discussion? Do you have a tribe of women (or men!) with whom you talk money? Are you willing to start?
