Tips for Women to Negotiate a Raise

Tera Siegel Bernard at the New York Times highlights the advice of Hannah Riley Bowles, associate professor at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, and her colleagues for women — in any type of career — seeking pay raises. "When a woman negotiates persuasively for higher compensation, she clears the path for other women to follow," Riley Bowles tells the Times. Bernard reports that "research on gender and negotiation suggests that part of the unexplained gap may be tied, at least in part, to the negotiating process itself." Namely, women may have lower pay expectations to begin with, while men are "more likely to negotiate higher starting salaries," she notes. First and foremost, women should be proactive and prepared when negotiating for pay raises — they should be aware of industry salary standards and consider the best time to approach their boss (after an annual review, for example). Women must also be judicious in bringing up outside offers during their negotiations, Riley Bowles says. "Women may need to be more strategic than men about how they raise an outside offer so that it doesn't put them in a negative light," she tells the Times. Finally, women should anticipate the objections their boss might have, and mentally draft their responses. Negotiations are "largely reactive once you start the process," Evelyn Murphy, WAGE project president, tellsBernard.