Working women are seeing the current labor market, where employers are desperate to hire, as an opportunity to negotiate for more money. It could signal a shift in helping close the wage gap.
Some 85% of working women believe they deserve a pay increase, according to a new Glassdoor survey of more than 800 workers, and 63% believe the Great Resignation gives them leverage to negotiate.
Roughly 47 million Americans quit a job last year, with many citing the opportunity for better pay and benefits, as well as more stable and accommodating work, as major reasons why. In the summer of 2021, women who were quitting for better-paying jobs saw above-average wage growth, though small bumps did little to make up for the gender wage gap or the fact that women are disproportionately employed in low-wage work.
Any opportunity to adjust pay is an opportunity to examine the gender wage gap, which 41% of women surveyed by Glassdoor say is "a serious problem" at their companies.
Employees are discussing pay among themselves
Economists have long said that greater pay transparency could help close racial and gender wage gaps.
Women>Workers are demanding greater pay transparency from their employer
Persistent wage gaps have more to do with an employer's pay practices than how someone prepares their salary pitch. Federal and state laws aiming to promote pay equity have been around for decades, but company pay structures continue to create wage gaps for women and people of color that have barely budged in years.
Employees are becoming more vocal about pay equity in today's labor market, Sullivan says, but there are still big disparities between the transparency employees want and what they're getting. According to Glassdoor, 63% of U.S. employees prefer to work at a company that discloses pay information, but just 19% of employees say their company discloses pay ranges internally among all employees.
Companies may soon have to be more forthcoming about their pay practices anyway. A number of states and cities are passing legislation that requires employers to list salary ranges on job ads or disclose pay ranges to employees who ask for it.
As employers compete for talent, they're finding that simply saying they pay competitively doesn't mean anything unless they actually show the numbers to back it up.
"Especially in such a worker-focused job market, it's a huge advantage for companies who embrace pay transparency and encourage people to talk about pay," Sullivan says. "There's a hunger among jobseekers and employees in finding companies that value, embrace and encourage salary transparency."
