pristine, but isn’t moving the file forward or achieving a milestone or billing target? Or is the employer placing more value on the team member who has technical skills in the case management or vendor management system? The priorities of the company will often dictate which positions are rewarded more in terms of compensation. Consider your performance review ratings; the amount of time you have spent in your position, in the company, in the industry; your relative dispensability and the difficulty to train a new hire to complete your duties at a level required by your company’s clients or investors; and other factors that matter to the employer. Second, you need to understand the marketplace for your profession. I’m not saying you need to ask everyone how much they make and stir up a bunch of drama at the office.3 Quiet polls for industry colleagues or friends might be helpful for understanding your value. Inquiring on salary scales for similar positions in other firms or departments might also help provide the information that’s necessary to determine if a gap even exists in your situation. Third and finally, you need to engage in active negotiation. Negotiation in this context is not a zero-sum game. During the WILLPower Summit, interviewee Ingrid Beckles said it best when she advised everyone to “tell your story in a manner people can hear you.” What matters is 1) what the company needs 2) what you bring to the company and 3) what amount will be sustainable for both sides. If you are shooting for the moon, but you aren’t willing to step up in terms of your position, your time, or your scope of responsibility don’t be surprised if you don’t get what you ask for or if you don’t get a raise at all. Also realize that negotiations will not always yield a significantly higher salary, but they can get you other benefits – the flex time you need to be a caregiver 3 NPR Planet Money Podcast Episode: 550 “When Salaries Aren’t Secret.” July 2, 2014. http://www.npr.org/ sections/money/2014/07/02/327289264/ episode-550-when-salaries-arent-secret for a discussion about a reality tv show in the UK where salaries were revealed forever changing the workplace culture.
MIND THE GAP
BY DENISE CARLON, ESQ., KML LAW GROUP, DCARLON@KMLLAWGROUP.COM The Equal Pay Act, passed in 1963, aimed to close the gap in salaries earned by men and women who held the same job for the same employer. At the time, women were earning fifty-nine cents for every dollar earned by men. Despite the law’s passage over fifty years ago, there remains a sizeable pay gap between men and women. A woman currently earns seventy-nine cents to a man’s dollar, a twenty-one cent gap. THE GENDER PAY GAP: A 2016 HOT-BUTTON ISSUE On April 1, 2016, five members of the U.S. women’s national soccer team filed a complaint against the U.S. Soccer organization alleging violations of the Equal Pay Act. The women’s team is coming off a successful year highlighted by their 2015 World Cup Championship, sold-out events, and endorsement deals. Yet the compensation they receive is considerably less than the men’s team. The detailed complaint sets forth their pay structure in comparison to the men who play for the U.S. men’s national soccer team. The women allege that the average pay for a male player is $406,000 annually, while the average female player is paid only $72,000 annually by U.S. Soccer. With the women’s success on the soccer pitch and in the profits column, it is hard to believe that in 2016 their pay is so significantly less than their male counterparts. April 12, 2016, marked Equal Pay Day 2016. The “un-holiday,” established in 1996 by the National Committee on Pay Equality, commemorates how far into the year women must work to earn what men earned in the previous year. The purpose of marking this date annually is to bring awareness to the issue of pay equality. The day often fosters lively discussion across news and social media regarding wage-gap statistics and the possible reasons behind the disparity. Further, 2016 is a presidential election year that has featured numerous intraparty debates
and prominent female candidates. The Democratic debates feature Hillary Clinton, while in the early stages of the race, the Republicans heard from Carly Fiorina. With two prominent females running for the nation’s highest office, the gender pay gap has been a hot-button issue for supporters of both political parties. Despite the recent attention, the gender wage gap has only decreased by twenty cents – less than half a penny per year since the enactment of the Equal Pay Act. And it appears that progress is stalling. GAUGING THE GAP ACROSS DEMOGRAPHICS The question of equal pay is much more complicated than “same job, same employer means equal pay.” Studies have shown that when women enter into a male-dominated field in large numbers, average salaries decrease for all.1 Further complicating the issue is the choice many women make to “lean in” to their jobs, or step back to focus on family. Gender pay disparity is also a function of race, age, and geography. There are factors that increase the gap dramatically, while some surprisingly have little effect on the gap. • Minority females face a much larger pay differential than females as a whole. Hispanic and African American women earn 54% and 63% respectively of what white men earn. • Older females earn less compared to their male counterparts of similar age. While wages generally increase for both men and women with age, the gap is widest between men and women ages 55-64, with women earning 76% of men’s median income. • State of residence also has an effect on the wage gap. Women in New York earn 80% of what men earn, while women in Louisiana earn only 65% of their male counterparts’ annual wages.2 1 http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/20/ upshot/as-women-take-over-a-male-dominatedfield-the-pay-drops.html?_r=0 2 http://www.aauw.org/research/thesimple-truth-about-the-gender-pay-gap/