Washington - When it comes to the gender pay gap, researchers
say a root cause is simple. Women don't ask. That's
why on a recent weekday more than 50 women came to an after hours session at an
office building near the Navy Yard to learn how to do it.
The workshop, led by the American Association of University
Women, is designed to replace the anxiety that accompanies conversations about
pay with proven strategies for negotiating effectively. The District, through a
partnership with the association, plans to train 15 000 women in five years
through the free workshops.
"We have a smaller gap than most places in the country,
but we still have a lot of work to do," said Mayor Muriel Bowser, D, who
stopped by and encouraged the women to spread what they learned to their female
friends and co-workers.
Giving women more opportunities and earning power at work is
good for the District, because it can make it a more attractive place to live
long term, she said.
"Many like you come to DC for opportunities,"
Bowser said. "It's our challenge to keep you here."
The DC workshop was one of about two dozen that took place
across the country on Equal Pay Day, which marks the day on which women on
average match the salary men earned the previous year. The "Work
Smart" seminars are part of an ongoing national effort to close the pay gap.
A growing number of cities are also passing laws that
encourage salary parity.
The DC Council is considering a bill that would ban
employers from requiring job candidates to provide salary information as a
basis for future pay, inspired by a similar law passed in Massachusetts last
summer. Instead, employers would be required to publish salary ranges based on
the skills and qualifications associated with the role.
Read also: Why women earn less
Women working full time receive 80 percent of what men earn,
according to national census data from 2015. In the District, the figure is 86
percent, or $62 191 annually, compared with $72 230 for men. The workshops, along
with sister workshops offered on college campuses called Start Smart were
originally launched by the non-profit WAGE project. Then, the curriculum was
purchased by the AAUW and has begun to expand through partnerships with cities
across the country.
Boston, was the first to sign on Mayor Martin Walsh, D,
committed to funding training for 85 000 women, half of the city's female
workforce over five years. Since then, seven more cities, including the
District, have followed suit. City leaders, angling to compete in a global
economy are looking at equal pay as an important component of hiring and
retaining the best talent, said Victoria Budson, executive director of the
Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard University.
This kind of training is a part of the solution, she said. The
two-hour workshop session begins with a detailed picture of the wage gap. A
disparity is evident the first year after college and grows over the course of
a career, with far reaching implications. Women take longer to pay off student
loans, they retire with less money in the bank, and they are more likely to
live below the poverty line. The gap is larger for African-American women, who
earn 63 percent of what white men are paid, and Hispanic women, who earn 54
percent.
Women are salary depressed
Career choice affects pay, with many women pursuing less
lucrative professions, as do decisions to leave the workforce to care for
children. But a recent study of the workforce found, after controlling for
these and other variables, that there is still an unexplained gap of 8 percent
or more that researchers attribute to discrimination or gender bias.
The
workshop guides the women through a range of activities, including writing a
value statement or elevator pitch about their skills, and offers advice for
finding the market value of their target job, by checking websites such as
Salary.com and Glassdoor.com.
The facilitators advised the group to decide the lowest salary
they are willing to accept based on their budget, and to ask for a range that
goes up from there.
And they highlighted potential pitfalls. When a potential
employer asks for past salary information or a target salary, deflect as long
as possible, they said.
"Do a tap-dancing act like you have never tap danced
before," said Claudia Richards, branch relations senior manager at the
association who co-led the workshop.
Women often carry depressed salaries into their next jobs,
and they tend to lowball when asked to name their number first, she said. The
facilitators at the DC workshop offered suggestions for things that are
negotiable that can sweeten a contract, such as a transportation allowance,
professional development, or the week off between Christmas and New Year's. And
they provided sample language to use throughout the negotiation.
The words and tone are important. Research shows that it can
backfire when women ask for more money if they are seen as overly direct and
assertive. It helps if they use positive language and point to objective
sources of salary information, Budson said.
The attendees, role-played and left with homework to
practice in front of the mirror or with a live person staring back at them.
Rashida Moore, 36, said the workshop felt
"empowering." She is finishing a graduate program in arts leadership
this spring and has a practicum at the National Museum of African American
History. She started looking for jobs a month ago.
With a new degree, she is looking to make a major jump in
her career, in responsibility and pay. "I fear how it is going to be
received," she said, particularly since human resources departments keep
requesting her salary history.
"The negotiation should be a dialogue. It hasn't felt
like a dialogue," she said. "This helps me rethink some assumptions
so I'm not already defeated before it starts."