4 Proven Strategies that Will Help You Get a Raise
The gender pay gap became front-page news last month after presidential candidate Kamala Harris announced a proposal that would require companies to prove they pay women equitably—or pay a fine.
But if you don’t want to wait to see what comes of that, here are four tips that expert Conference for Women speakers say have helped them negotiate salary increases:
Allow silence to speak for you. “You don’t have to fill the silence. You can say something, give the evidence of why you’ve asked for that number, and let them talk.
“Also, if they don’t give you the number you want, ask them why? How did you come with this number? What can I do to get to $120,000?”
—Claire Wasserman, founder of Ladies Get Paid
“Proactively book a meeting and say: ‘I want to schedule this time to have a career conversation, of which compensation is a part.’ Sometimes, emotions take over and you forget what you wanted to say. That forces the prep work and the conversation so it’s not something you brush aside.”
—Lindsey Lurie, CMO, IBM Security
“Practice. Grab your dog, grab your spouse, grab your friend, grab somebody and literally practice saying those words out loud multiple times. And then practice the silence, because I think that’s brilliant.”
—Mary Abbajay, President of Careerstone Group, LLC. & author, Managing Up
“Remember you belong there. That’s the most key mindset of the whole thing. You 400 percent belong there. Tell yourself that. Nobody belongs there more than you do.”
—Selena Rezvani, VP, Be Leaderly and author, Pushback
Do You Live in a State with a Big or Small Gender Pay Gap?
You know the familiar numbers 82-68-62: Women make 82 cents for every dollar men do, black women 68 cents, and Latina women 62 cents, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Now, there is a new study that reveals a wide variation depending on where you live—and ranks all states from having the biggest to the smallest gender pay gap.
A brief sampling, from the biggest to the smallest gap:
- Louisiana: #1
- Pennsylvania: #24
- Texas: #28
- Massachusetts: #36
- California: #50
Claire Wasserman, Lindsey Lurie, Mary Abbajay, and Selena Rezvani shared their comments at the 2018 Texas Conference for Women session “Get Paid What You’re Worth.” You can hear more here.