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Women and unequal pay: University speakers tackle the wage gap and say, 'Ask for more'
► LARA KORTE
@lara_korte
Rhannon Racy, assistant director of the University Career Center, asked the audience in the Spooner Commons a question Tuesday night.
"So, who's negotiated their salary before?"
The "Closing the Gap" event was hosted by the Career Center and sponsored by the Emily Taylor Center for Women & Gender Equity, the Commons, Business Career Services Center and the School of Engineering. University women heard from career experts, including a panel of three professionally-successful women, on what it means to negotiate a salary and why they shouldn't be afraid to ask for more money.
Of the crowd of about 50 a large majority of whom were women only about three people raised their hands.
The event was held April 12, otherwise known as "Equal Pay Day," which acknowledges the gap between the average woman's wage and the average man's wage.
Racy said she believes
"A few of you? Some?
Well, you're not alone," Racy said.
A recent report from the American Association of University Women showed that, as of 2014, women make an average of $0.78 for every dollar a white man makes. That statistic varies by ethnicity as well, with Hispanic/Latino women clocking in $0.54 per dollar, Native American women at $0.59 and African American women at $0.63.
the disparity between wages stems from inequality.
"There's gender bias in the world that we live in, and that's reflected in the salary gap," Racy said.
One of the contributors to the pay gap, Racy said, is reluctance of women to negotiate higher salaries for themselves. When working with students in the Career Center, she said she sees hesitance sometimes when it comes to negotiation.
"I'd say a lot of the times, there is kind of that fear of it, and I think that part of that comes from being afraid that the offer would be rescinded if they negotiated, and that's not necessarily the case," Racy said.
Ashley Kruger, a career
How Kansas women are paid compared to other states
Women tend to undersell themselves;men tend to oversell."
advisor in the School of Business, presented about why women should not be afraid to negotiate and gave tips on how to prepare and execute a negotiation successfully.
Wendy Shoemaker senior associate director of the University Career Center
Although someone might not be able to control an employer's resources, they can control how they interview for a position and how they negotiate salary and benefits. Kruger said. One of the biggest points Kruger and others emphasized throughout the night was research. Good negotiation depends
on knowing one's skills and the value of the job they're applying for.
For every dollar a man makes women in the midwest are paid
Statistics represent the earning ratio of female workers' salary to that of their male peers Source: American Association of University Women
"Do your research, talk to people in the job, as well as in the industry," Kruger said.
In addition to understanding the field, a potential employee should go into a negotiation with an idea of what they should be offered based on their skill set, the position and cost of living in the area.
Shoemaker said it's important that women negotiate in a way that confidently
"Use the internet; the internet is your friend. There are so many potential resources out there that you can use to look up your salary, look up your industry, and look to see what others in your area with your skill level and experience are making." Kruger said.
Wendy Shoemaker, senior associate director of the University Career Center, was one of the women who sat on the panel and answered questions.
Several audience members raised concerns about balancing confidence with realistic expectations. Shoemaker said women don't often give themselves credit when it comes to negotiating.
"Women tend to undersell themselves; men tend to oversell." Shoemaker said. "There's been a lot of research that's been done that when women do self-evaluations of how they're doing on the job, they rank them lower than the people who work for them; men rank them higher than the people who work for them in many situations."
and accurately portrays their skills and qualifications.
"It's a delicate balance between overselling yourself and making sure that you've taken all of your experiences and shown how they relate to the position, that puts you in a much better bargaining position." Shoemaker said.
After the presentation, the audience broke up into small groups. Lindsey Etter, a sophomore from Plano, Texas, was the only one at her table of six that had experience negotiating.
"I just went in there,
hoping for the best and I
Graphic by Roxy Townsend
was very assertive, and my boss actually appreciated it, and to this day, she calls me back every summer to go back and work for her, and pretty much every summer I get a little bit of a raise as well," Etter said. "So I think it worked out in my benefit, it could have gone horribly, and I was willing to accept that, so it worked out."
Etter said she thinks the wage gap stems back to the idea of assertiveness and women's hesitancy to do so.
"I think it's just almost like a norm, that's just like a stereotype, that men get
paid more, that they're more assertive, they're more confident, they know what they want and they go after it, and women are a little more submissive and they're scared to have confrontation," Etter said. "So I think that's where it lies and I think we're striving to end it and we're getting there slowly but surely, but it still needs to be worked on."
- Edited by Samantha Harms
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