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Twice Juno Schaser asked for a raise. Twice she was turned down, she says. If her group of female friends is any indication, it's a common experience.

" 'At least they'll respect you for trying,' " a friend told Schaser, a 23-year-old museum publicist.

"I think I'd feel more respected if I was paid at the same level as my male co-workers," Schaser says.


The evolving discussion about women and negotiating has been filled with buzzwords, stats, meet-ups and must-reads. These are useful ways to 

, but what about the in-the-trenches daily experiences of women asking for higher salaries?
We put out a call on Facebook asking for your stories. More than 300 people responded 

 (thank you!). Those who replied were between the ages of 20 and 70, though most were women in their 20s and 30s working in a range of industries, from the medical field to academia to IT to the nonprofit world.


A few common themes emerged: A good number of the respondents cited encouragement — moral support and specific tips — from male mentors, husbands and boyfriends as motivation to ask for more. Also, many of the women who wrote in hadn't negotiated the terms of their first job offers because they didn't know that they could.

A lot of the respondents were motivated by the very knowledge that women tend not to ask for more. Kelly MacNeil, a 32-year-old who works in public relations, had this experience:

Many assumed that a lot of companies expect negotiating to be part of the offer process: They lowball a figure, you highball a number, you meet in the middle. Katie Burggraf, a 25-year-old health researcher, also understood how to phrase her ask:

Knowledge can make all the difference, including knowing what your co-workers make. Armed with this information, Louise Nelson, a 51-year-old working in higher education, went to her director:

Ashley Perry learned too late how government raises are limited:

Bethany Goins, 31, asked for a better salary, as well as a signing bonus and health coverage for the gap in time between her OB-GYN residency and when she would start an academic job — all while something else was also on her mind:

Business and Economic News

Jessica Glazer

Author

The evolving discussion about women and negotiating raises has been filled with buzzwords, stats, meet-ups and must-reads. These are useful ways to have a discussion, but what about the in-the-trenches daily experiences of women asking for higher salaries?

Advice for women on raises: Just ask

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