When Patricia Arquette talked about how actresses aren’t getting the same checks their male counterparts were getting in the Oscars, it wasn’t the first time a women talked about a pay increase. In fact, a new study shows that women have long been asking for a hike up in their pay at work but just don’t get it the same way men do.
Cass Business School in London, the University of Warwick in the U.K., and the University of Wisconsin studied around 840 offices in Australia, which employs a system for tracking requests for salary adjustment, and debunked the notion that women aren’t aggressive when it comes to asking for a bigger check. The study entitled “Do Women Ask” concludes that “…women ask but don’t get. Such a finding is potentially consistent with the existence of discrimination in the labor market.”
The study also says that women are most likely to say they’re in a job where the pay can be easily increased. Note: most are the same jobs and companies that employ men who don’t have a problem getting the raise they ask for.
Despite this, the study also says that the pay gaps between men and women are decreasing. Younger women are more active when asking for increases as opposed to older female employees. If this cycle continues, there’s still hope that women will be able to bring home the same bacon a man does.
Still, we find it a little frustrating that women are often portrayed as meek individuals who can’t even ask for the right compensation. Apart of the underlying stereotype, it was convieniently used to blame women for not being able to do as much as men are able to. Even at the same jobs and companies, the playing field is not levelled for men and women. We start off from a disadvatageous point already and get blamed for not excelling as much as men? Please, it’s already the 21st century. What do you think? How can we further the discussion in our own local setting? Let us know in the comment section below.
[Fortune]
Photo courtesy of Pixabay
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