How could women be at fault for making less than men? Abrea explains what women haven't been doing and shared suggestions for what women need to do in 2020 to elevate their careers (and bank accounts).
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It's important to note here is that yes, there are some very complex issues going on that are out of our control, but there are certain things that are within our control as women and as employees and as people that we can do in order to maximize our salaries and maximize our value. The first thing that you can do is benchmark with your peers. Let's be real, how many of us are really asking even our friends who may work in a different industry how much money they make? We're not, why is that? Because I would like to think, at least, that we know that our value as people isn't solely tied to that number that comes in direct deposit every month, so we should be more comfortable talking about it. So ladies, find your male counterparts at your same organization and I would also encourage you to find women who are in other industries or organizations as well as men and ask them, I like to use the tip of over or under. Say, are you making over 50,000 or below it? Or over 70? You know, pick whatever number's relevant for you, and a lot of times people feel a lot more comfortable answering that way versus giving a specific number. So benchmark against your peers because if you don't know what the market is allowing for, you know, what the market's max is, how are you really supposed to have a sense of that number that is your skill set's value at least at your job? This is especially true for women of color.
And adding onto that sort of interpersonal benchmarking that you're doing, also use great online resources like Glassdoor or salary.com and understanding okay, what is my organization paying? What are other organizations paying? And even when you're looking at potentially maybe some other comparable positions that are posted on these sites and looking at these numbers and saying, does this match up with what I'm getting? Literally make this a line item thing. If you are bilingual, if you know how to code, if you are a badass writer, each of those things has a value. Go and look and see okay, how much would it cost for them to hire an interpreter? How much would it cost for them to hire a part-time coder? How much would it cost for them to hire a freelancer? And you tally all those things up, and that's how you create your, you know, sort of spreadsheet and your line item receipt of what you're worth. Okay ladies, so now that we've made that spreadsheet, now it is time to make the ask. I believe in you all, and honestly, in the process of making the spreadsheet, your confidence will grow immensely because as you start getting each of those line items in order and looking at that number, you will be so impressed and in love with yourself because again, you discover, often for the first time, what the actual numeric value is, at least within your market. Set up that meeting with your manager, have that discussion, put that PowerPoint up there, and go through it and really let him or her know what you have to offer to the organization, what your unique contribution is. Most arguments are won through logic and through facts. So if you have a sound argument, you are not asking for anything that you don't deserve, then quite frankly either way you're still gonna be in the same place you were, so what really do you have to lose? The half part. So the previous tips that I mentioned are great if you already are within job and want to stay within an organization, but want to move up vertically or at least if you're gonna move horizontally, making that horizontal move worthwhile. I'm starting a new role, and I cannot press upon this enough and again, that stat about only 12.5% of women coming out of master's programs negotiating their salary versus 50% of their male classmates speaks for itself. Ladies, when we come out of school, ladies, when you get that new job, negotiate. Do not take that first number. I remember when I first came out of business school and I told my aunt who was my career idol. Like she's done it all. I told her that I negotiated my salary, she was astounded, and I said, why not? I knew what I had to offer that was above and beyond the job description.
So actually, if you use that previous process of creating that spreadsheet, you then again have that number in place to reinforce. So quite frankly, the first step of making that spreadsheet and benchmarking with your peers still has value even if you are transitioning into a new role. So you've got everything you need, ladies. You know your value, you know your number, you can set up that meeting, you can send that email, share that presentation, do it confidently.
