'don't Ask, Don't Get': The Gender Gap in Salary Negotiations

Despite all the examples of woman leaders from politics to the business world, the gender gap in a salary negotiations is still a big issue in the current society.

Based on researches, woman are less likely to negotiate for their first offer than man, even for high-educated woman. A women graduate student tends to get $10,000 less salary than their man peers. Negotiation is an important way to get higher salary, but at the same time, woman have to face other risks by choosing this way. The data shows that only 30% of woman bother to do a salary negotiation while 46% of man would like to do a salary negotiation. The research also shows that a woman’s relationship within a company would be damaged by woman’s choice to negotiate for higher salary or compensation.

When getting into a salary negotiation, woman have different feelings. Woman describe it as “going to the dentist”, however, man describe it as “winning a ballgame”. Also, sometimes woman don't realize that many companies set aside money with the expectation for applicants to ask for more. From a historical perspective, woman have been teachers, nurses and babysitters forever, but in terms of executive positions which values salary negotiation a lot, woman are still newer to the positions. Not to mention the society still has some sort of sexual discrimination towards woman in the workplace. This is another reason why salary negotiation is particularly challenging for woman.

Even the weakness of women negotiators seems hard to be eliminated, there are still some tactics for them to use. One of the first line is DON'T FALL FOR THE B.S. Actually the employer will try to convince the other party not to negotiate. For example, they will try to argue that the information the other party has is worry. Or they will say that the salary and compensation for entry-level