Women Ask For Raises, They Just Don't Always Get Them
Women Ask For Raises, They Just Don’t Always Get Them A common explanation for the wage gap is that women lack assertiveness when it comes to negotiating salaries. However, a recent study debunks this perception. Mention income inequality and the people who deny that it exists will be prepared with a list of reasons why you’re wrong. One of their favourite arguments is that women aren’t aggressive enough when it comes to negotiating their pay – they don’t want to be perceived as overly demanding. Basically, it’s the fault of women that they’re not getting paid well, not their boss’s. However, a recent study by Benjamin Artz, Amanda H. Goodall, and Andrew J. Oswald, published by Cass Business School and the Universities of Warwick and Wisconsin, suggests that women are in fact asking for raises just as much as their male co-workers – they’re just not receiving them. Examining data from the Australian Workplace Relations Survey (AWRS), which studied 4,600 randomly sampled workers across 840 Australian workplaces between 2013 and 2014, the study, titled “Do Women Ask?” researchers found “no statistical difference” in the likelihood of male and female workers asking for a raise while working with their current employer.
The survey asked individuals a set of questions about whether their pay was set by negotiation with the company, whether they had successfully obtained a wage rise since joining the employer, whether they preferred not to attempt to negotiate a pay rise because they were concerned about their relationships, why they decided that, and their levels of satisfaction. Researchers discovered that men were 25 percent more likely to receive a pay increase when they asked. The overall data revealed that 75 percent of men had asked for a pay increase, compared to 66 percent of women. After adjusting for factors like hours worked, the nature of the employer, and the qualifications of the workers, researchers found there was no difference in the percentage of men and women who requested a better salary. Andrew Oswald, Professor of Economics and Behavioural Science at the University of Warwick, commented on their findings. “The fact that women don’t ask for pay rises as often as men is a popular theory. It’s a very common thing for women to say and believe, but all the evidence is anecdotal.” He said that one possibility might be that unsuccessful men who asked for a pay rise, but did not get it, kept it to themselves, whereas women were more straightforward and would tell their friends. “We didn’t know how the numbers would come out. Having seen these findings, I think we have to accept that there is some element of pure discrimination against women.” According to the World Economic Forum, there is no country where women make as much as men for the same work. WEF research has predicted that it will take 81 years at current rates of improvement for women to reach parity.
The survey asked individuals a set of questions about whether their pay was set by negotiation with the company, whether they had successfully obtained a wage rise since joining the employer, whether they preferred not to attempt to negotiate a pay rise because they were concerned about their relationships, why they decided that, and their levels of satisfaction. Researchers discovered that men were 25 percent more likely to receive a pay increase when they asked. The overall data revealed that 75 percent of men had asked for a pay increase, compared to 66 percent of women. After adjusting for factors like hours worked, the nature of the employer, and the qualifications of the workers, researchers found there was no difference in the percentage of men and women who requested a better salary. Andrew Oswald, Professor of Economics and Behavioural Science at the University of Warwick, commented on their findings. “The fact that women don’t ask for pay rises as often as men is a popular theory. It’s a very common thing for women to say and believe, but all the evidence is anecdotal.” He said that one possibility might be that unsuccessful men who asked for a pay rise, but did not get it, kept it to themselves, whereas women were more straightforward and would tell their friends. “We didn’t know how the numbers would come out. Having seen these findings, I think we have to accept that there is some element of pure discrimination against women.” According to the World Economic Forum, there is no country where women make as much as men for the same work. WEF research has predicted that it will take 81 years at current rates of improvement for women to reach parity.
