Don’t be afraid to initiate the pay rise conversation – earn what you’re worth!
Don’t fall behind your male colleagues
This week the U.K Office of National Statistics (ONS) released a Gender Pay Gap tool. You can check your profession and see how much women are likely to be earning compared to their male counterparts. For example in the UK if you are a female Civil Engineer, you may earn slightly more than your male colleagues, however if you are a female senior professional in an educational establishment, your male colleagues could be earning up to 20% more than you. So it could be time for the pay rise conversation.
Read: Equal Education = Equal Pay? The Gender Wage Gap
Encouragingly some organisations have proactively sought to close the gap, such as Essex University who provided one-off pay rises to female staff to close the gender pay gap.
Also, subject to parliamentary approval, big employers will be required to publish data on their gender pay gaps from April 2017, this transparency will surely mean that the gap reduces. After all, what gets measured, gets done.
It can be hard to know if your employer is paying you equally
Read: Smart negotiation tips for every career stage
But what do you do if you are not working for a large enlightened employer and suspect your male colleagues are earning more? Well, if you have clear and documented evidence you can seek legal advice. However it’s usually not so easy, as many organisations don’t permit staff to share their salary information and you may worry that there will be negative repercussions as a result of bringing the topic up. If that’s the case, I recommend that you take the angle of requesting a pay-rise; here are my 7 tips to initiate the pay rise conversation:
- Use the Gender Pay Gap Tool to share the going rate for your job
- Gather as much information as possible, testimonials, feedback from colleagues, suppliers and customers.
- Demonstrate that you’ve made a real difference through: cost savings, improved performance or financial growth.
- Doing your job well is expected, show that you have exceeded expectations and are already working at the next level.
- Get yourself an influential champion, sponsor, mentor or coach, someone who has the boss’s ear and someone who can help you work out the right way to go about things in your work environment.
- Schedule a meeting to discuss your pay-rise, don’t just slip it in to an existing meeting, help your boss prepare so that it isn’t a surprise.
- Lastly, don’t make threats; if you push your boss, he or she is likely to push back. You want to leave the door open for further discussion.
Ultimately know your value and help others to value your contribution and pay you what you are worth.
Originally posted on LinkedIn on Dec 11 2016
