As I discussed last week, I’ve been looking into the statements we hear about how women make $0.77 for every $1.00 a man in earns. To be clear, none of the studies show that this discrepancy is for the same job. These are overall numbers. Within the same job title I saw numbers like $0.81, $0.88, $0.92 and $0.96. Some professions have wide gaps and others are much narrower.
In my experience I would tell you women make 10 – 15% less than men just because men start negotiations from a highly over-inflated opinion of themselves. Some are laughably high. I’ve told many men “I’m sorry but I will not pay you more than me.” Once we get down closer to reality, in order to wrap up negotiations, we might settle on a 10% higher salary and another 2 – 3% more in benefits. My numbers may be a little lower than other women will tell you, but I am a strong negotiator and I don’t have wage disparities amongst my male and female team members.
When it comes to job performance compared to wage, women over-deliver and men under-deliver. I am still waiting for the men I interviewed who promised to do all kinds of things to actually show up at work.
Women are much more realistic about themselves but can easily get another 10 – 12% more than what they settle for. If you are a mother, play the mother card – because men play the father card. Men aren’t afraid to say they have four hungry mouths to feed or that they have kids in college and need a few thousand more a year. I actually did this once and it worked!
To be at par with their male peers, women should counter a job offer with 15 – 20% more than they are offered. And if you do like I wrote about last week, and tie your performance to money, you can negotiate at least 15% without feeling like you are presenting a highly over-inflated opinion of yourself that you won’t deliver.
To close the wage gap we also need to change our attitude as to which types of jobs/careers we choose. We – as in us women – have to ask ourselves: Why aren’t we pursuing the higher pay job/career?
Last year, I met with a large construction company that said they offer women in both traditional and non-traditional roles advancement, but they get turned down. The women simply aren’t pushing their careers. Many married women, both younger and older saw themselves as the secondary bread-winner and happy to remain so. As much as the company wanted to advance women there wasn’t much they could do if the women didn’t want to advance.
Since then I’ve been paying attention to the media images of successful women and I see a lot of women in fashion, beauty and home products – traditional industries. I can’t help but think that there is still a strong subliminal message about what careers and roles are appropriate for women.
Are women still ruling out jobs that men are well paid for believing they are manly jobs and inappropriate or undesirable for women? Many manly or traditionally male jobs aren’t as physical or strenuous as they used to be and don’t require longer hours. They just pay more because they were always done by men.
At the top of my list of jobs women should be in that is very male dominated is construction superintendent. This is often the highest paying job on a project. We have all been led to believe this is a manly job. Wrong! This is a perfect job for women especially on larger and more complex projects because of the high levels of multi-tasking, coordination, collaboration, teamwork and problem-solving required. But because we have a stereotyped image of a superintendent as a large, loud man’s man, we can’t picture a woman doing the same job even though she is more naturally suited for the job requirements.
Likewise, project management in any industry is perfect for women for the same reasons. And I am sure there are many other traditionally male or manly jobs in other industries that we should question: Why aren’t more women doing those jobs?
Only women can answer that question.
To me, if I am going to spend 40, 50, 60 or more hours at work, I want the biggest bang buck for my time. I look around at my male colleagues – what is he doing, how much is he getting paid, can I do what he is doing and do it better? I’ve never considered not doing a job because, oh, only men are in that job.
Finally we have to consider how working conditions factor into the wage gap. I read that men have 92% of all workplace accidents and fatalities. This tells us men are taking on riskier work that pays more. Men are also more willing to take jobs that require working outdoors, shifts, working away from home and travel. I’ve taken advantage of some opportunities to work in less than ideal locations for the extra money. I made these jobs into adventures and got some unique experiences while also adding to my nest egg. Those jobs also became a catalyst for my next advancement.
Women have a lot to think about to close the wage gap. We need to consider how much of it is within our own personal power to change by:
- Considering our job/career choice
- Knowing our value by knowing what tangible things we make happen
- Connecting what we make happen to the company bottom line
- Using better negotiating skills to get paid our value
- Recognizing ourselves as a valuable asset who can provide many missing skills in the male-dominated workplace
- Working our careers and taking advantage of opportunities
While it is easy to blame the wage gap on discrimination or workplaces favoring men, a lot of the causes can be corrected by women themselves. And that is what we need to do. After all, that is what empowering ourselves is all about.
Empowered Women Work to Close the Gender Wage Gap
Please Comment and please Share
To receive my articles Contact Me
