What You Must Do To Conquer The Pay Gap

What You Must Do To Conquer The Pay eu-agrarpolitik What would happen if everyone at work showed up at your office tomorrow with their salary on display, wearinga nametag that revealed Hi My salary isWould you look around and think, Yeah, that seems fair. ...?Or would you be mora likely to think, WTF? Thatguyis making more than me?With so much in the news about pay inequality, you must wonder.David Burkus makes the case for pay transparency in his TED Talk Why you should know how much your coworkers get paid.His research supports the idea that the current practice of secrecy leads to information asymmetry, where one party knows more than the other and uses that to their advantage. Your boss knows what you make and is able to give you a standard cost of living increase. And you gratefully accept it.But did you know that the guy sitting next to you, the guy who started working in the same job and on the same day as you...well, he already asked for more pay when he was hired. And he ask ed to be put on the committee that you were waiting for your boss to invite you to join. And hes already set up a mid-year wertmiger zuwachs review to get his first raise.He asked. And your boss has no reason to share that information with you. Its not to his/her advantage to share.Here are two things you can do about it.The problem were trying to solve is that pay secrecy makes it easy to let a wage gap widen. Theres a 23percent difference, or a 77 cents on the dollar discrepancy between men and women. Burkus says that in the federal government, a workplace that publishes pay ranges, the gap shrinks to 11percent.1) Ask for more. One thing that contributes to the discrepancy is that that men ask and women dont.Men are three times more likely to ask for what they want.Men are praised for asking and women are penalized. Women are 30 percent more likely to be called bossy or aggressive when we ask.Dont take this statistic to mean that you shouldnt ask just because you risk being called bossy or aggressive. You know the risk is there, be okay with it. Ask politely, with data from the market, salary calculators, and your wertmiger zuwachs about what youre worth.2) Dont reveal your salary history. In some states and cities, its actually illegal for employers to ask prospective candidates about their previous salary. If youre ever promted to answer this interview question, you can respond politely by saying something like,Help me understand how my past salary is connected to this job. If you think Im a good fit, that I have the qualifications to do the job well, Id like you to make me an offer based on that.Then be quiet. Dont give any other reasons. Repeat that line again, if you need to.How this worksLets say youre making $50k and you found out that your peer in the same job is making $65k. You start searching for a new job because you, too, should be making $65k. What happens if the hiring manager, headhunter or recruiter asks you the dreaded, What was your previo us salary? question and you admit that you were making $50k? Although wed love to think that the hiring manager would still offer you that $65k salary, he/she wont. Youll get an offer for $55k with a patronizing, Thats a nice increase for you from your last jobThe future of pay transparencyIf companies are forced into pay transparency, it may be a tough adjustment in the beginning, but they can prepare by adjusting salaries well in advance. Imagine that someone accidentally sent an email to the entire company with every single persons salary listed. If everyone freaks out, your company has work to do.If youre a manager with people on your team who are being paid less than others, follow Burkuss advice and have an honest conversation about why that person is getting paid less and what he/she needs to do to equal up.--Melissa Hereford will teach you how to Negotiate With Confidence. Get your free course Take the Fear Out of Negotiating athttp//MelissaHereford.com