How women can be more successful in salary negotiations
For many women, salary negotiations can be a daunting process. Julie Alvin, who helped develop Refinery 29's "Salary Stories" series, joined "CBS This Morning" Tuesday to explain why the negotiations can be such a gendered issue — and what women can do to change that.
Part of the problem, Alvin said, is that there's a "taboo around the idea of speaking about money." "As we know, women are less likely to negotiate for their salaries, they're less likely to be successful when negotiating their salaries," she said.
That hesitancy, she said, is likely due to the fact that "as women, we aren't necessarily comfortable talking about our professional lives as candidly as we should be. … It can be awkward in a work situation to really talk about how much money you're making, how you negotiated, how you got where you are."
Another problem is the way such conversations are perceived. "When men ask for raises, they're more likely to be seen as assertive and, you know, go-getters," Alvin said. "Women are more likely to be seen as pushy, as overly aggressive."
But salary negotiations aren't the only problem; men and women also climb the career ladder at different rates. "Women tend to only apply for a job when they feel that they're 100% qualified for it, they meet 100% of the requirements," Alvin said, "whereas men are totally open to applying for those jobs when they only meet 60% of the requirements."
"I don't often say women should be more like men … but when it comes to this, women are less likely to have that confidence in themselves, and are more likely to say, 'Oh, I'm not quite there, I don't want to waste my time, I'm going to get rejected," she said.
Alvin suggested that women take the risk and apply for jobs even if they don't meet all of the requirements. And when it comes to negotiations, she recommends doing research on the market, coming in with a concrete list of accomplishments, and asking for a raise right after achieving a workplace goal.
She also offered a strategy to help women make a strong case for themselves: "Women are better at negotiating for other people than they are for themselves — so one idea is to prepare a case for yourself as if you were preparing for a colleague who you want to advocate for."
