Maria Klawe had a feeling her salary was too low when she was hired as president of Harvey Mudd College, an elite undergraduate science and engineering school in Claremont, California. She was right: her base salary was $338,000 in 2007, lower than those of both her male and female peers. The female president of Claremont McKenna College 鈥� a sister school to Harvey Mudd 鈥� collected a full $71,000 more.
鈥淚 felt like they were really underpaying me, but I didn鈥檛 say anything about it,鈥� Klawe recalls. 鈥淚 really don鈥檛 understand why. I鈥檓 very ambitious, very goal-driven and in every other situation I鈥檓 not afraid of speaking up. But when I鈥檓 asking for something good for myself and not for the institution, I have a hard time doing it.鈥�
Klawe renegotiated in the end, landing a $22,000 raise the next year, and had nearly caught up with her colleague by 2010. Still, failing to grab a high starting salary can dog a woman throughout her career 鈥� whether she鈥檚 on the bottom rung or top of the heap. It鈥檚 a prime reason the gender salary gap persists, according to a report published in 2007 by the American Association of University Women.
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And persist it does (see Mind the gap). In the natural sciences, the salary difference between men and women with a master鈥檚 degree or higher was $2,610 a month in 2009 (the latest data available), according to a recent U.S. Census Bureau report. And a 2008 study published in The Review of Higher Education found that there was, on average, a nine per cent difference in starting salaries for junior faculty hired at research universities between 1988 and 2004.
鈥淭he only way I finally caught up was through job changes,鈥� says Victoria Sork, who earned $232,211 in 2010 as dean of life sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles. 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 get advice on how to negotiate, and I didn鈥檛 feel comfortable doing my homework.鈥�
But hang-ups over haggling aren鈥檛 the only reason women lag behind. Gender discrimination still plays a role.
鈥淚 am certain that it took me longer to get tenure and that I never made as much as men in equivalent positions,鈥� says Una Ryan, looking back on her time as professor of medicine at the University of Miami in Florida. After 20 years in academia, Ryan jumped ship for a career in biotech, and her salary as CEO of Avant Therapeutics hit $440,000 in 2007. That鈥檚 better than the $302,800 earned by the man who eventually succeeded her at Avant 鈥� but he got a huge bump to $460,000 the next year. 鈥淚鈥檝e never felt that I could get exact equivalents, so I鈥檝e always gone by a different standard,鈥� adds Ryan, who is now at the helm of the non-profit organization Diagnostics for All, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. 鈥淚 just want to feel that I can live a life that is good.鈥�
In fact, women often do better when they argue for fair pay instead of more money. At the University of California, San Diego, the medical school鈥檚 faculty convinced leaders to fund a gender equity study examining salary and working conditions. 鈥淚t was striking,鈥� says Kim Barrett, dean of graduate studies. 鈥淎fter controlling for the number of years since the doctorate and the number of years since joining faculty, women were paid on average 25 per cent less than their male counterparts.鈥� As a result of the findings, the university reviewed and adjusted faculty salaries.
Negative effects
But without a critical mass for support, such as a faculty-wide survey, women often fear that asking for a pay rise will cast them in a negative light. 鈥淣egotiation training for women needs a lot more subtlety and nuance than straight negotiation. It鈥檚 not a simple matter,鈥� says Page Morahan, founding director of the Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine program at Drexel University in Philadelphia.
Male and female job candidates get very different reactions when they negotiate salary, finds Linda Babcock, an economics professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In her 2007 study, volunteers ranked candidates on their employability. While both men and women were penalized for asking for more money, Babcock found the negative effect for women was more than twice as pronounced as for men.
鈥淭he same behavior that in a man is ambitious, competent and forward-thinking may be called aggressive in a woman,鈥� says Linda Birnbaum, director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.
But other studies show women can overcome this catch-22 and land a better deal. The growing numbers of girls pursuing science and engineering as a career also bodes well for the pay gap eventually disappearing; according to Babcock鈥檚 research, women are more likely to negotiate when another woman is in charge.
For Katrine Bosley, who at 43 is already the CEO of Avila Therapeutics in Bedford, Massachusetts, climbing the biotech ladder never meant considering her gender. 鈥淭here are so many women in biotech, it鈥檚 completely normal. It is just one of many kinds of diversity.鈥� Bosley recently led negotiations for the sale of Avila to Celgene Corporation. 鈥淎ll the times I was the only woman in the room, I saw it as a strength.鈥�
How to fight for fair pay
鈥淜now your value, use your network and don鈥檛 be afraid to say no,鈥� says Kim Sawyer, executive vice president at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Public employee salaries are online, and sites such as glassdoor.com and salary.com provide private university and industry rates. Most companies conduct internal salary surveys, so don鈥檛 be shy about asking human resources for the data.
Push for the highest starting pay possible. 鈥淚t鈥檚 very hard to recover from a low salary, particularly in a government system where merit increases are controlled in rigid amounts,鈥� says Kathryn McCarthy, a deputy director at Idaho National Laboratory in Idaho Falls.
Practice until the words roll off your tongue. Write out what you want to say, rehearse it, then hold a mock conversation while someone peppers you with questions. 鈥淚f you鈥檙e not prepared for the challenge, you鈥檒l melt,鈥� says Sawyer. 鈥淚f you don鈥檛 have somebody to practice with, record yourself, then play it back and listen.鈥�
Don鈥檛 give up the fight once you get tenure. Keep asking for raises and promotions. 鈥淢en seem more likely to ask for a raise sooner than women, and are more likely to keep pushing to increase the amount. That鈥檚 one of the ways women end up lagging behind,鈥� says Victoria Sork, dean of life sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Be willing to change jobs, or at least explore other opportunities. 鈥淲hen you stay in one place, not only does your salary fall behind the marketplace, it also falls behind people who are newly recruited,鈥� says Kim Barrett, dean of graduate studies at University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine. 鈥淢en are not shy about doing this at all.