It’s become a popular explanation for the gender-wage gap: Women are less likely than men to self-advocate for a pay raise. It has an appealing logic. If we can get women to negotiate more like men, then the gap will shrink. This is in part why there has been a surge in negotiation trainings for women. For example, in 2015, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh launched a five-year partnership with the American Association of University Women (AAUW) to offer free salary negotiation workshops to women in the city of Boston. These trainings are now offered across the nation.
Research: When Men Have Lower Status at Work, They’re Less Likely to Negotiate
Women don’t negotiate their salaries nearly as often as men do. While some believe this is because of lack of skills, research has shown that it’s at least in part because of the backlash women get when they do ask for more pay. New research demonstrates that it’s not just women who hesitate to negotiate. In fact, women and men sometimes hesitate to negotiate when they anticipate that their claim to higher pay could result in negative social consequences. Researchers completed two studies in the Arab Gulf that showed that men in “low-status” positions are also hesitant to negotiate because of the perception doing so creates — that they aren’t team players. These findings indicate that negotiating for higher pay is a privilege, which has broad-reaching consequences: When we grant more social permission to higher status people to raise their compensation through negotiation, inequality only worsens.