You are Cordially Invited to Negotiate

Women Will Negotiate Salaries

One of the themes in my blog is that women tend to negotiatiate their salary less often than men. Recently in the National Bureau of Economic Research, Andreas Leibbrandt and John A. List published their findings regarding this issue. Interestingly (at least to me) the results indicate that women would actively negotiate their salaries if they were invited to do so at a slightly higher rate then men. This can be accomplished when a job advertisement includes a reference to the salary being negotiable. Specifically the listing included “…but the applicant can negotiate a higher wage.”

I love the experiment but I am not a fan of the language used in the experiment. I love that Leibbrandt and List do a good job showcasing that women can and will negotiate their income. It highlights that negotiating is happening some of the time and can happen more often with some relatively small alterations to job postings. To me the language seems a bit too inviting. Companies plan for and expect compensation negotiations when hiring yet they do not create a proverbial billboard to advertise the fact. They may expect it but they truly love when their first offer is accepted. They like using the savings for other resources or the bottom line.

Invitation in Invisible Ink

The take away for women is to know that “…but the applicant can negotiate a higher wage” is always there for every single job opening but in invisible ink. Two main concerns I hear from women about negotiating are the fear of the job offer being revoked and starting a working relationship on a bad foot. The invitation to negotiate seems to diminish such fears. Realizing that the invitation like the salary itself are often not conveyed in the actual job listing is a good first step to overcoming the fear.

What other fears do you have about negotiating your salary?

Comment (2)

Classy Career Girl| December 3, 2012

The biggest mistake you can make is to not negotiate your salary especially in this environment because you are so grateful to have a job offer that you don’t even bother asking. I have interviewed a lot of successful negotiators about this topic because I think it is so important because we don’t always ask for what we deserve, I know I didn’t at my first job and I have regretted it ever since.The real key to any negotiation, in any situation is really to prepare yourself, do the research, know the situation, know what you want to get out of whatever it is your going after and know what the value is.

news feed| February 7, 2013

Good post here. One thing I would really like to say is always that most professional career fields consider the Bachelor’s Degree as the entry level requirement for an online college degree. When Associate Certifications are a great way to start out, completing your current Bachelors opens many doors to various careers, there are numerous on-line Bachelor Course Programs available by institutions like The University of Phoenix, Intercontinental University Online and Kaplan. Another concern is that many brick and mortar institutions offer you Online variants of their college diplomas but generally for a substantially higher price than the firms that specialize in online qualification programs