The Pay Gap: How to Get What You Deserve. A two-part series on women and the art of negotiation.

Eve Tahmincioglu has published a great MSN article about women, their salaries, and why there is a pay gap between the sexes: Women don’t negotiate. So, I’m here to say: Speak up, ladies!
In April 2007, the American Association of University Women Educational Foundation reported that just one year out of college, full-time female employees are already making less than their male counterparts who work in the same field, with women earning only 80 percent of what their male colleagues take home, and 10 years later the number drops to 69 percent. Men were also more likely to be in positions of power and more involved in hiring, firing and supervising.
Shellye Archambeau, a top executive for more than two decades who ran major businesses at companies such as IBM and Blockbuster and who is now CEO of software company MetricStream, Inc. offers some insight.


“I don’t believe there’s a conspiracy out there with a group of male executives saying, ‘We’re going to pay women less in this company,’” she explains. She believes the squeaky wheels at pay raise time, which are often the men, get a few percentage points more than women who don’t ask for more. Over time, those few percentage points contribute to an eventual huge pay gap between the sexes.
“It started to surprise me that many males on my team would stop by and have a conversation with me about their financial needs and expectations. Throughout my career I only had one woman actually come and talk about her financial needs during raise time. When people came, it was the men.”
In part two of her article, Tahmincioglu offers suggestions for how women can improve their earning power by negotiating better, marketing themselves, and figuring out how to show bosses how you contribute to the bottom line.
Some great advice:
· Do your homework and find out what a position like yours can demand in your industry. See www.vault.com and www.salary.com for wage comparisons.
· Come to the negotiating table with concrete examples of what you’ve done for the company.
· If you get a “no”, have alternatives prepared such as offering a timetable for more money.
· Remember, everything is negotiable.
· Consider things other than cash, such as stock options or a more flexible work schedule.
To prepare for your negotiation:
I encourage you to complete the exercises in chapters 1, 2, and 3 of Your Career, Your Way. You’ll find worksheets that help you identify your assets and liabilities, determine your differentiators, and find out how others see you—three great steps for preparing your self for speaking to your boss about why you qualify for a pay raise.

Lisa Quast

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