Equal Pay Takes Center Stage at the Oscars

For many women, the highlight of the Academy Awards last night wasn’t Lady Gaga or Neil Patrick Harris or how great Jennifer Lopez or Dakota Johnson looked.

It was Patricia Arquette’s rallying cry for equal pay as she accepted the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Boyhood.

“To every woman who gave birth, to every taxpayer and citizen of this nation, we have fought for everybody else’s equal rights,” Arquette said. “It is our time to have wage equality once and for all, and equal rights for women in the United States of America!”

While her remarks were likely aimed most directly at Hollywood, where it is a rare female star who earns as much as her male peers, the pay gap exists across industries and up and down the workplace hierarchy. Even as more women–though still too few–rise to the C-suite, land board seats and run their own companies, the wage gap remains–stubborn, frustrating and unfair.

Women made 82.5¢ for every dollar a man made last year, according to the U.S. Census. The legal profession has the largest gap–women earn 56.7% of what men do—according to the Wall Street Journal.

As wonderful as it would be for companies to begin addressing inequality among their own employees, women who want to earn more need to negotiate for themselves.

Many women are afraid they will be penalized for speaking up, and the truth is they may be. It is wise to be sensitive to the culture of your company, and the values and attitudes of your manager before you begin any conversations. But in most cases, potential pushback may not be enough to avoid getting what you deserve.

And if you are negotiating a job offer, you’ve got a golden opportunity to speak up.

Here’s some advice for women negotiating compensation–or anything else.

Know your value.

Both men and women can feel more confident entering a negotiation knowing their market value, but women need to be wary of comparing themselves only to other women, as they will likely be underpaid. Check out sites with salary information such as salary.com, payscale.com, and glassdoor.com. And ask men in your industry for their estimates as well.

Use “We” instead of “I.”  

Hannah Riley Bowles of Harvard’s Kennedy School advised in an article in HBR.org that women use a “relational account” —the “I and We” strategy–when asking for something. During negotiations, ask for what you want while also showing the other person that you see his perspective. Beyond the classic win-win, the strategy is not just about both sides getting what each wants, but winning what they both want together–as in a problem solved or higher revenues or a harmonious team. And as studies have shown that women are most effective–and less harshly judged–when they negotiate for other people, using the “we” approach can help.

Never take the first offer.

Always counter an offer you receive for a new job or promotion. Even if the offer exceeds your expectations, ask for more.

Keep asking.

Men often get more for the simple reason they ask for more and ask more often. In “Women Don’t Ask” a study by Small, Babcock, and Gelfand, men and women were offered $3 to participate in a game.  Almost nine times as many men asked for more money than women. If you don’t get what you want, be sure to discuss with your manager what goals you need to meet and the time frame to meet them in order to get the money you want. Keep track of your progress, and when the time comes, ask.

Negotiate everything.  

No matter how successful your conversation has been so far, keep going. Don’t feel you have to stop asking. Whether you get the salary you want or not, negotiate other items in your package, from bonuses to time off. If you are new to negotiating at work, or not comfortable with it, you are more likely to leave money–or benefits–on the table. Don’t.