20% of Women In The Workplace Don't Negotiate Their Offers
Negotiating salary isn’t easy, and it can be especially difficult for women. In general, women are less likely to ask for more money when offered a job and more likely to stay at a lower-paid job.
A woman employee at Uber asked the Blind platform, “Ladies, what has been your experience negotiating? Are you at all hesitant? Do you feel too greedy or like you are viewed less favorably when you negotiate?”
According to data gathered by Blind, the largest anonymous professional network, 47% of professional women always feel uncomfortable when they negotiate. Another 20% say they don’t negotiate if the offer is fair.
See the data here.
A Blind user at Amazon shared, “I didn’t negotiate when I first joined Amazon because the offer was fair and more than I expected. However, after I joined, my then manager (female) mentioned that I should have negotiated and that males always negotiate to the point that it’s unreasonable. After that, I always negotiate hard. Recently negotiated with Google and managed to up the TC by $100K.”
A Blind user at Adobe shared, “I negotiated – my husband pushed me to – when joining Adobe and got a tiny increase out of it. Much later found out I went for a terrible deal, got it fixed by getting an external offer. I have been lowballed my entire career. I’d say but actively working to step it up now!!”
A Blind user at Microsoft shared, “I always negotiate, and almost all companies have refused to budge and then hired a much less experienced man to work for me for far more money. I have learned my lesson. I negotiate hard and I won’t join any company that won’t negotiate with me. I am so tired of the idea that women don’t negotiate. We do. That’s not the issue — at least in my experience. My female friends and I in tech are smart, motivated, and experienced, and we negotiate every time. We have just faced an uphill battle for decades. Only now are things starting to change.”
A user at eBay shared, “I never negotiated in the past, but for the first time for my last job change, I did negotiate. To be frank, I was very uncomfortable doing that and always thought that I was not being reasonable. The recruiter took some time to come back with a counteroffer and I was very nervous thinking that I did something stupid. But in the end I got a revised offer with increased RSU and joining bonus. Now I feel happy that I negotiated. It’s not naturally coming to me. I have to work on the skills.”
Reasons seem to vary, but some of this reluctance includes being uncomfortable discussing salary and hesitant to ask for more.