News and trends

Equal Pay Day – How does your salary stack up?

April 28th, 2009
By Anthony Balderrama in News and trends
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It’s Equal Pay Day today. You might not know what it means, but it’s just what it sounds like: a day to raise awareness about the pay gap between male and female workers.

Here’s a snippet of the topic from AAUW:

Using data from the U.S. Census Bureau, AAUW finds that women earn 78 percent as much as men earn, and the numbers are even worse for women of color. Compared with white male workers, African American women earn about 67 cents on the dollar (African American men make 78 cents); Hispanic women make about 58 cents (Hispanic men make almost 66 cents).

That’s, well, disappointing, to say the least. This map of the U.S. shows what the disparity in pay is for each state.

Granted, a lot of factors contribute to this disparity, some that an individual can solve, others that require sweeping changes in the business world. Still, it brings up an important point that compensation is often flexible and can be negotiated. Surveys have shown that women are less likely than men to press their bosses on an issue.

When accepting a job/ negotiationg a salary:

Negotiate it. If you think it’s too low, don’t be afraid to see if the employer will budge. As long as your tactful and not angry, the worst that will happen is that you get the initial offer.
Ask to revisit the salary talk in 6 months. There might not be room in the budget for more money now, but maybe in six months things will change and you can have another conversation about it.
Research. You don’t have much information to back up your argument (other than “I want more money!”) if you don’t know what other professionals are earning. Location, experience, and employer plays a role, so do some number crunching. Check sites like CBSalary.com to help.

About Anthony Balderrama

Anthony Balderrama writes about hiring trends, workplace issues and job search tactics for CareerBuilder.com and its blog The Work Buzz. He was born and raised in Dallas (115° degrees isn’t hot!) before moving to Chicago (-23° isn’t cold!). He studied creative writing, therefore everything he writes is usually cut in half once he realizes he spent 400 words just on the intro. He knows that looking for a job and dealing with co-workers are not always fun activities, and reading about them is even less thrilling. That’s why he’ll take any opportunity he can to mention his favorite TV show or band in an article. Basically Anthony’s doing whatever he can to avoid hate mail.