Can 10 Million Women Negotiate the Pay Gap Away?
A nationwide initiative is offering free salary negotiation classes to help women get the money they deserve.
Attendees take notes at the Ask for More Work: Smart Salary Negotiation for Women session in New York on Sept. 24.
Photographer: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography OfficeOn a Tuesday night in September, 50 women filed into a windowless lecture hall in the basement of the Bronx Public Library. For two hours, they participated in a professional development workshop that promised to sharpen negotiation skills that would help them get pay bumps and job offers. They were there because they didn’t think they were getting the money they deserved.
Some people took the class because they wanted to prepare themselves for future conversations about pay. Others already knew they were underpaid. Emily Godoy, who works in both the food services and the nonprofit industries, learned her coworkers were getting $15 an hour more than her to do the same job. Faatimah Croston was working at a school when she learned she was making $20,000 less than a colleague. When her managers refused to give her a raise, she quit.