You are hired but did you get the salary you deserved? Our experts say African Americans typically don’t ask for what they want. Also are men better able to handle a salary negotiation than women? When should you quit because your boss won’t pay you what you’re worth? We’re talking about…..

AUDIO:

Dr. Vanessa Weaver…………Career Advisor, Diversity Inclusion Expert &  CEO of Alignment Strategies

Shanele Thompson………Director of Human Resource with the Economic Policy Institute

BACKGROUND FROM THE ECONOMIC POLICY INSTITUTE

Background on the gender pay gap:

• On average: women are paid 7 percent of men’s wages (83 cents on the male dollar)
• Gender pay gap exists in every wage percentile
  • In the 10^th percentile: women make 92 cents on the male dollar
  • In the 95^th percentile: women make 74 cents on the male dollar
• Motherhood penalty
  • After giving birth, women are perceived to be less dedicated to their jobs, while men are perceived to be more dedicated to their jobs
• Unions
  • Unionized work: women make 89 cents on the male dollar
  • Nonunionized work: women make 82 cents on the male dollar
• Employer-provided benefits
  • Women are less likely to have employer-provided healthcare and fewer retirement resources than men

Background on the racial pay gap:

• Black unemployment rate (8%) is almost twice as high as the white unemployment rate (4.3%)
• Racial pay gap exists across education, experience, and industries
• Widening vs. overall wage gap
  • College educated entrants – worst for widening pay gap
  • Black men with more work experience – overall pay gap
• New-entrant (0 to 10 years of experience) wage gap: 7% disadvantage (2015)
  • Since 1979: 5 percentage point increase
• Black-white wage gap among less educated workers
  • Less of a regional issue, but a greater national issue
• Underlying inequalities
  • Lower rates of unionization among Black workers
    • Accounts for one-fourth to one-fifth of the 6 percent (among new-entrants) and 3.0 percent (among experienced men) growth of the widening wage gap
  • Educational inequalities
  • Mass incarceration and the prison-industrial complex

Background on the combined gender and race pay gap:

• Women of color face a double pay penalty: the gender and racial pay penalty
• Black women: make 2% less than white men (2015)
• Latinas: paid 53 cents on the white non-Hispanic male dollar
  • Exists across education level and industries
    • A Latina with a graduate-level degree makes less than a college-educated white non-Hispanic male
  • Asian women: paid the least relative to their male counterpart
    • Asian and white men tend to make higher wages than Black and Latino men

Wage negotiation differentials (race and gender)

• Racial bias (Volpone, S. Kaiser, C.):
  1. Based on the participant’s perception: Black Americans are less likely to negotiate wages than white Americans
  2. Based on the participant’s perception: participants expected less aggressive wage negotiations from Black job seekers
  3. Based on participant evaluator and job seeker interactions:
     • Black job seekers reported comparable negotiation (number of offers and counteroffers made) to their white counterparts
     • Evaluators reported Black job seekers negotiated more than white job seekers
     • Conclusion (for test 3): Evaluators perception that Black job seekers will negotiate less led to an overexaggerated perception of wage negotiations
       • This led to lower starting salaries for Black job seekers (within this survey)
     • Gender bias (Fractl research)
       • 8% of survey respondents have asked for a raise
         • Asian men and women are least likely to ask for a raise, followed by Black women
       • 1% of survey respondents are more likely to discuss a raise with someone of the same race or ethnicity
         • Latinx and Black workers are more likely to be more comfortable
       • More than one-third of female survey respondents:
         • Reported feeling like their race or gender played a role in pay raise denial

Perception of job qualifications when applying for jobs

• According to Hewlett-Packard internal report:
  • Men will apply for a job if they only meet 60% of the job qualifications, while women will apply for a job only if they meet 100% of job qualifications
    • Harvard Business Review survey showed:
      • 41% of women stated: “I didn’t think they would hire me since I didn’t meet the qualifications, and I didn’t want to waste my time”
        • Respondents believed they needed the qualifications to get the job in the first place, not how well they could do the job
          • Gap in perception of the hiring process on the part of the job seeker