I?ve just read Camilla Cavendish?s column asking: Would you see your boss for a payrise? in The Times and loved her description of her friend who had to get her husband to prep her for before she asked her boss for a payrise.
It didn?t surprise me that her friend was bricking it? and I?m sure her boss could see right through her nervousness when he asked her to prove or convince him that she deserved a payrise.
I haven?t been in this position myself, but I was recently made redundant after a few years working in an area of journalism. Redundancy forced me to look at my skills and decide what I needed to earn in order to sustain myself and my family. It also made me think about what I thought I was worth being paid to do a job. And I must say, the power was refreshing.
The more interviews I have been to ? be it with recruitment agencies or actual jobs ? I have felt empowered to request the salary that I want. Even, when some people have fidgeted in their seats, saying they?re not sure if the salary can be increased to reach my expectation, I have not batted an eyelid, and in short, I feel that those who wanted me to join their team, and actually valued me have just had to accept my salary ? and this approach has worked in my favour.
Why do we women seem to shy away from asking for what we?re worth? Whether it?s in a bad or obviously failing relationship, negotiating salaries at job interviews ? or asking for more money after months or years of having extra ?projects? dumped in our in-trays?
It?s no wonder that there is a huge pay gap between our male counterparts. I know that men, bless them, think quite differently from us. And, yes, maybe as Camilla says in her column, they are more confident about asking for what they want, there is no reason why we can?t. And the fact that we don?t ask for what we?re worth means that our colleagues could be earning much more than we do. This is crazy!
In The Times, there was an article about women mangers earning an average of ?43,571 last year, while their male counterparts took home ?49,647. Just think of all the Jimmy Choos and Primark bargains you could ramp in your wardrobe with that extra cash? But it startled me that women managers are actually five years younger than their male counterparts. So are we losing this confidence really early on then?
According to results from a Grazia survey, 80% of women feel they are underpaid, but only 35% of us ask for a pay rise. What is wrong with us?
