The study surveyed 1,200 working professionals and found that the parts that women are willing to negotiate on also varies. The survey shows that they are more likely to debate working hours (56.4%) than men (40.9%), whilst men are more likely to negotiate salary (83.1%) than women (73.1%).
Other key findings included:
- Only 42.6% of women feel comfortable asking for a pay rise, compared to 64.1% of men
- Women are less concerned about job titles, with almost a third (29.5%) of men saying that their job title is the most important part of a job offer, compared to a quarter (22.9%) of women
- 86.6% of women said location was a main factor they look for in a job description, compared to 83.4% of men
Lee Biggins, founder and CEO of CV-Library comments on the findings:
“In this day and age, it’s concerning to see that women are still holding back from negotiations in the workplace. Whether it’s salary, working hours or their job title, it’s important to be direct with your employer about your needs.
“Communicating with your employer doesn’t have to be a scary prospect. They’re paying you to do a job well and will want to know that you’re fully equipped to do so. Set aside some time and schedule in an appointment to put your stakes in the ground. After all, if you don’t ask, you don’t get!”
While these findings can be put down to behavioural differences between the two genders, our study reveals some more serious consequences. In fact, over half of women (55.1%) admit that they’ve never negotiated on their salary, compared to one in four men (40%).
It would seem that this has impacted the size of pay increases that women have received in the past year. Over half (51.3%) of women were most likely to get a pay rise of up to 2%, compared to 29.8% of men. Worryingly, men were consistently more likely to get a 3-5% increase or more.
Biggins concludes:
"There could be many reasons for men receiving bigger pay rises than women, but it certainly seems that men are happier to advocate on their own behalf. Surely, this has contributed toward their higher earnings. If you suspect that you’re being paid less than a colleague for the same job, then you’re well within your rights to confront the issue head-on. Taking ownership is the best way to start closing that gender pay gap.”
About CV-Library
CV-Library is one of the UK’s largest online job sites and attracts over 4.3 million unique job seekers every month. Founded by Lee Biggins in 2000, CV-Library is the UK’s leading independent online job board with a database of over 13 million CVs.
