This is why women and men cant negotiate salary the same way

This is why women and men cant negotiate salary the same wayThis is why women and men cant negotiate salary the same wayWhat did you make at your previous job? This salary negotiationquestion is a minefield for every candidate, but its a question that disproportionally hurts women, a new study has found.In PayScales survey of 15,000 full-time workers, about half of the participants said theyd been asked this question. While men who refused to disclose what they earned were rewarded with 1.2% higher salaries, women who did the same suffered. Women who didnt disclose their salaries saw a 1.8% decrease in their final offers compared to men.Damned if you do, damned if you dontResearch has proven time and again that disclosing your salary particularly hurts women and minorities. Millennial womenalready start their careers at a disadvantage, earning about 90 cents on averagefor every millennial mans dollar. Critics of the salary questionhave argued that basing future earnings on past salar ies will only exacerbate this cycle, and ensure that this disparity will follow womenthroughout their careers.Because it perpetuates pay inequity, the state of Massachusetts and the cities of New York City and Philadelphiahave even instituted laws that forbid employers from asking about employerscurrent or past salaries.But until this movement catches on to the rest of the nation, the burden will fall unfairly to the individual, who is getting conflicting advice on all sides.The PayScale study proves that the previous advice of not disclosing hurts women just as much as disclosing. In general, womenwho use the same negotiation tactics as men are negatively perceived as pushy or assertive. PayScale suggested that this negative perception follows women into salary negotiations. PayScales Lydia Frank told Bloomberg that PayScale believes recruiters think women who dont disclose salary numbers are being non-collaborative or are proving that they make low figures.Women can dodge answerin gthe question directly by offering a salary range or countering that their previous job is not comparable to the job theyre applying for. But the ultimate solution that will help women is a fair unbiased hiring process. And for that to happen, employers need to stop asking.