Equal Pay Day: How The Pay Gap Affects Women
As you may already know, March 15th was equal pay day. The date itself symbolizes how far into the year women must work to earn what men earned in the previous year due to pay inequity. Many people still subscribe to the belief that the pay gap isn’t real and use countless irrational logic to justify it. Today, we’re going to dive deep into how the pay gap affects women and their ability to build generational wealth.
Pay Gap Statistics
Based on 2020 statistics, on average women make 82 cents to the white man’s dollar. But when we break down these statistics by race, we find that the pay gap disproportionally affects women of color. Any way you cut it, women get the short end of the stick when it comes to salary.
How the Pay Gap Affects Women of Color
On average, Latinas and Black women are losing out on $1,163,920 and $964,400 respectively over the course of their careers. This $1 Million is life-changing and could be used to build generational wealth for ourselves and our families. Yet most of us are missing out on it.
And before you think, “oh that’s not me”, listen to this correlation – The pay gap increases among educated women of color! Even though women of color are earning degrees at higher rates than ever before in history, they are also experiencing the largest pay gap. In other words, having a higher education doesn’t guarantee equal pay.
Based off research done by Institute of Policy Research, it is projected that Black women and Latinas are being underpaid by an annual median of $24,110 and $28,911 respectively!
Furthermore, did you know that only 40% of women negotiate their salaries? More than half of women never negotiate their salaries. Considering that statistic along with how much women of color are missing out on lost earnings over the course of their careers, the impact of the pay gap is devastating.
What Women Can Do to Address the Pay Gap
Although there has been some movement in pay equity laws across different states, change is not happening fast enough to close the pay gap. We cannot just wait for legislation to address the pay gap, if we did, we’d be waiting a lot longer for equal pay. This is where advocating for yourselves in salary negotiations is instrumental in securing a higher salary and closing the pay gap.
Here are some things that women can do to close the pay gap:
- Ask white male coworkers that you trust for their salary number.
- Begin destigmatizing the salary conversation among your friends.
- Negotiate your salary between every job transition
- Negotiate your salary at each annual review. Don’t just depend on that 3% raise increase at work.
Pay transparency is a huge key in unlocking information that can help you leverage a higher salary.
How to Negotiate Salary
I am a huge advocate for negotiating salaries and THIS is why. Many people are afraid to negotiate because they feel they’re being ungrateful for asking for more or feel like they’re being greedy, which is not true. My goal is to help people feel empowered and confident when they walk into any room to negotiate.
I’m hosting a FREE Slay Your Salary Negotiations Master Class where I will cover the mindsets that hold us back, tips on how to prepare for negotiations and the strategy that can help you secure your negotiations. Watch the Free Master Class here.
Salary Negotiations Coaching
If you’re looking for a coach to help you slay your salary negotiations, I’m your girl! Unlike most coaches in the space (ahem, predominately white men), I take a holistic approach on helping women and BIPOC people negotiate their salaries, starting with addressing money trauma, self-worth complexities and mindset. Then I dive in and walk my clients through the strategies and help them construct a solid plan full of counter offers and negotiating scripts. Feel free to schedule a clarity call with me.
How the Pay Gap Affects Women Summary
Considering that women of color are losing out on an average of $1,064,160 over a lifetime due to the pay gap, and the impact it has on building generational wealth, not negotiating is expensive. Think about that when you wonder if negotiating your salary is worth it.
