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What's in the salary slip?

Do women lack salary negotiating skills?

GET YOUR DUE Women ought to negotiate better where their salaries are concerned

Women, Work and Wages: Equal Pay for Jobs of Equal Value states, "In the United States today, wage differentials are a reality." Women working full time - not part-time, not on maternity leave, not as consultants - earn only 77 cents to a full-time workingman's dollar.

In Britain, 30 years after the Equal Pay Act, (reported BBC), on average, for every £1.00 a man earns, a woman gets only 82p across both the public and private sectors. In the banking and insurance sector, for example, male pay averages approximately £18 per hour, whereas women receive just under £10.50.

The Australian government has released the Equal Pay Handbook designed to help employers implement the equal remuneration law. In India, not-at-all-same pay structures affect women at every economic level, from construction/farm workers to shop assistants and domestic help, to lawyers, cashiers and CEOs. For decades women's groups have tried verbally to close the wage gap.

Reading straight and between lines, you'd get the unmistakable impression that women are unfairly overlooked and underpaid. Among the reasons floated across the oceans are the "mommy penalty" — the assumption that once they have children, female employees begin to prioritise time and thought for day-care drop-offs over next-quarter deliverables. Women may get paid less because of poor education. Women aren't as ambitious as men. Women take time off to care for children or elderly parents (and lose seniority). Women accept lower pay in return for more flexible working arrangements.

Women negotiate

A major one could be: Women don't negotiate salaries as well as men. Is this true?

Regrettably yes, felt Latha Rajan, Director, Ma Foi. "The reason is that they are not conditioned to demand — many a times there is a feeling they need a certain flexibility and hence they don't negotiate. Though they can deliver equally well, there is a fear that if they negotiate too much the organization will also demand a lot."

Linda Babcock, the Carnegie Mellon University economics professor surveyed M.B.A. students who graduated in 2002 and 2003 and found that those who negotiated received 7- 8 per cent more than what they were initially offered. And of those two graduating classes, 52 per cent of the men negotiated, compared to only 12 per cent of women. "Women like being valued. For them the atmosphere at work and relationship with the company count for more," said Sudha Ravishankar who joined the workforce post-forty. Women don't always work to earn a packet. The reasons are unprofessional — we come out to evolve, to be ourselves. It is not that we can't negotiate; we don't make that an issue. Pay is incidental. Of course, this conflict of who you are at home and at work happens only among the older generation.

"I'm the right person for this question," laughed Vidhyaa M, a senior Manager , agreeing that women could do with tuitions for discussing pay packages. She cited several reasons for this slip-up in self-promotion. Women undersell themselves because talking money is considered bad. Relative to men, a woman's self-concept is low. They nurse an underlying guilt about marriage and work. Unlike men, women do not keep track of B-School batchmates' earnings. The general theory is that women put in fewer hours. Women who do ask for more are seen as pushy, even by today's younger generation. "I never negotiated my salary," she said. "Someone happened to glance at my pay slip, said `You deserve more' and gave me a pay hike. It may not happen to all women."

Avis, CEO, Image Equity was appalled the gender debate should extend to something as mundane as bargaining over salaries.

"I have seen women use strong negotiating skills from both sides of the table. Go to the IT sector to check out their self-marketing skills. They have evolutionary, inbuilt social graces that they use to great advantage." As managers too, they are excellent in negotiating employee remuneration.

So what's a girl supposed to do?