The data geeks over at PayScale have just released their 2016 Salary Negotiation Guide and asked me if I would let my readers know about it.

I checked it out and it has a good process for negotiating a salary: Research, Strategize and Negotiate – with a range of articles on each of these. These include advice from the PayScale team, combined with contributors including Elizabeth Weingarten from The New America Foundation, Lydia Dishman from FastCo, and Lisa Gates from SheNegotiates, just to name a few.

Some interesting points that the folks at Payscale have uncovered are:

Women holding an MBA degree seem to be struggling most with potential gender bias when it comes to salary negotiation. Of those who asked for a raise, only 48 percent of female MBA grads received the requested raise compared to 63 percent of male MBA grads. And, 21 percent of female MBA grads received no raise at all after requesting one, compared to 10 percent of male MBA grads.

Gen Y is far less likely to have asked for a raise and far more likely to be uncomfortable negotiating or worried about being perceived as pushy. Both likely stem from lack of experience. Baby Boomers, however, are more likely to say they didn’t negotiate for fear of losing their job, which could indicate a concern over age bias in the workplace.

English Language and Literature majors were most likely to say they had asked for a raise (51 percent), but amongst those who did not ask, they were most likely to say that the reason was because they were uncomfortable talking about salary (41 percent).

Women are more likely than men to state that they are uncomfortable negotiating salary – 31 percent vs. 23 percent – and that holds true even among C-level executives where 26 percent of female Chief Executives said they’re uncomfortable negotiating compared to 14 percent of male Chief Executives.

Less than half – 43 percent – of survey respondents have ever asked for a raise in their current field. For the 57 percent who have not asked, the reasons most often cited are:

• My employer gave me a raise before I needed to ask for one (38 percent)
• I’m uncomfortable negotiating salary (28 percent)
• I didn’t want to be perceived as pushy (19 percent)

But the headline to remember is:

75% of people who ask for a raise get a raise.

The data provided in the salary report is for the United States – so may not be completely accurate for readers in other countries. I just ran a report for a job title based in Australia and it was pretty accurate (and the report generates without giving the answers to all the questions they ask).

This is another data point to gather to understand what your worth and get some more information about your current role or one that you are thinking about. Always good to know where you can gather some more intelligence!

Like more career tips to go? 

[mc4wp_form id=”1429″]

By Karen Adamedes on January 21, 2016   /   Earn what you're worth   /   Leave a comment