I'm Guilty

I've always been told to negotiate my salary. When I worked at the Girl Scouts (and thus read lots of gender related studies and articles) I once read that part of why women make less when compared to their male counterparts is that they are less likely to ask for a higher salary. In fact, there's a whole book out there about that.

Today I stumbled upon a blog post that reminded me of this. One manager quoted in that post says "50-60% of women I interview simply take this offer...90% of the men I interview immediately ask for more."

When I had my first paid internship, I negotiated my hourly rate. I didn't ask for much more than the offer but I made an ask, almost just to practice negotiating.

When Girl Scouts offered me my first job, they asked how much I required for salary. I told them $X. Well apparently X was high...so high it provoked a good-natured laugh. But it didn't end negotiations. I was told "$A-$B" was more their range to which I responded "well, then I'll take $B." I mean duh, who wouldn't take the highest value in the range.

But when I moved to my current gig, I didn't negotiate. I was given a figure that I liked and I took it. Now I don't mean to sound greedy or ungrateful or anything like that (I am after all, pleased with every aspect of my employment), but in retrospect, I'm a little disappointed in myself. I know you should always negotiate. Just on principle and as a best practice, I should have negotiated.

On one count of "women don't ask" the jury finds me guilty as charged.

How about you? Guilty as charged or proudly innocent?