Although there are institutional and cultural realities that play a huge role in the gender wage gap – many women themselves (unfortunately) are part of the problem.
Before the ladies get all up in arms about this factual statement, read the research below that I came across while gathering information for my newest Amazon Best Selling Book: “Money Can Buy You Happiness: Secrets Women Need to Know to Get Paid What They Are Worth!”
According to a recent study by Salary.com, 55 percent of women felt nervous about negotiating their salaries, compared to 39 percent of men. Following are some of the findings women themselves have put forth accounting for this difference.
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Women often wait to be offered a raise.
The cliché “Opportunities are rarely often, they are seized” could not be truer when it comes to business in general and asking for a raise specifically.
Timing is often everything in life, and waiting for things to happen usually leaves you waiting for Godot, especially for women in business. As Linda Babcock wrote in The Wall Street Journal: “Women wait to be offered a salary increase … they wait to be offered a promotion. They wait to be assigned the task or team or job that they want. And those things typically don’t happen very often."
Why do women wait for their well-deserved raise?
