Challenging the $ Gap

The Upshot recently released an article illuminating the gender pay gap and current factors fueling pay discrimination. 

Commonly reiterated reasons for the pay gap include: discrimination in the workplace, differences in gender roles, consequences of the gender division of labor, result of taking time off for children, family, etc. These factors place the blame mainly on women for acting, thinking, prioritizing differently than men—and consequently, earning less.

The looming challenge becomes, how can we change this? The Upshot suggests that a first step in shrinking the pay gap starts with the interview: educating women to strategically handle the salary question.

In most places, with the exception of Massachusetts, California, New York City, Philadelphia, and Chicago that recently banned questions regarding salary history, interviewers can openly ask or request that applicants share job salary history. This allows employers to base future salary on past earnings—which perpetuates the cycle of women earning less than their male counterparts, especially as they climb ranks in the corporate ladder.

Recognizing this, experts recommend that women come prepared to deflect salary history inquiries, equipped with questions and strategies to turn the question back on the employer.

For instance, women should ask quite early in an interview:

• What is the position’s salary range?
• What was the last person to do this job paid?

If asked to share salary history, a female could respond with:

•  “I want to learn more about the job first, in order to have a better sense of my salary expectations, and what I would accept for this role…”

Clearly, this is not a ‘fix-all’ to the current pay discrimination landscape. However, it may provide actionable steps for women to handle each personal encounter as society continues to challenge equal pay.

Ideally, more states will follow the lead and begin to ban questions regarding salary history in interviewing job applicants. A plethora of research suggests salary history overly influences the interview process, leading to a reduction in quality of interview and hiring. For example, social scientists find a strong anchoring bias to occur when employers learn an applicant’s previous salary, which consequently, greatly influences their offer without consideration to how much value the candidate can bring. Many times, this can backfire as the anchoring bias can also cause employers to over-offer based on previous earnings, to a candidate less deserving and less qualified.

The Upshot also covered a recent working paper on an experiment in an online job marketplace, which found that employers who could not see past pay history, compared to those employers who could, viewed more candidate applications, invited more applicants for interviews, and asked candidates more questions in their interviews. Interestingly, the candidates they hired had, on average, lower past wages and made better deals when they negotiated, once again illuminating the importance of hiring ‘the candidate’ not the ‘salary.’

What can we learn from this research?

Staying prepared and informed in interviews is imperative, for both men and women. If salary history has such a drastic impact on salary offer as research suggests, we are all at risk if not prepared. Arming yourself with appropriate questions and strategic ways to gain information about the role and job history is one actionable way to stay ahead of the pay gap.