Hey there!
Welcome to Work in Progress, a how-to series that's meant to help you with everything from
prepping for a job interview, to boosting your confidence or negotiating a raise.
Here's today's question.
It's probably a well-known stat by now, but did you know that for every dollar a man makes,
a woman, on average, only makes 80 cents?
And for women of color, it's only getting worse.
Black women make, on average, 63 cents and Latina women on average make 54 cents in that
same comparison.
That's why salary transparency and knowing your worth is crucial.
But there's a lot to determine before coming up with that desired salary number.
We'll take you through step-by-step on how you can come up with that number.
Step 1: Research One of the first steps to determining your
salary is research.
And there are some great online tools out there from Glassdoor, Salary.com, and even
PayScale.
And at Career Contessa, we have our own salary tool.
It's called The Salary Project, and it's an anonymous salary database that will give you
free access to over 10,000 real salaries, so that you can compare what other people
in similar industries, and job functions are making, to really understand, "Am I being
paid the right market rate, or should I be looking into this a little bit more?"
With the Salary Project, you can see real salaries from women working in your state,
city, dream industry, current role, and more.
Plus, you have complete independence when navigating the database—which gives you
an unparalleled freedom to data in comparison to the other tools.
You can find the link to The Salary Project in the description.
These reports and salary comparisons provide great insight.
But the next thing you want to do with your research is not just rely on online tools,
but also go and talk to real people.
Ask someone who maybe works at the same company, or in a similar role within a company that's
similar or in the same industry as yours, and ask them if they'd be willing to share
their salary range, so you can really see if you are within that desired rate.
Step 2: Self-Evaluate Based on your research, you probably have
a solid idea of what is the typical range for someone in your job, and at your company,
and industry.
But now I want to go a step further, and really evaluate how your skills and experience and
education really play into this.
Consider your level of education, additional certificates, trainings, or courses you've
completed, years and level of experience, unique knowledge, skills, and abilities that
will benefit the organization, responsibilites and accomplishments in other roles.
For example, perhaps you discover that the typical range for someone at your level and
in your industry is $40,000 - $50,000.
But those who are paid closer to $50,000 have additional education like a graduate degree,
a specific certification, or more years of experience than those who are paid closer
to $40,000.
Where do you best fit on the sliding scale?
Step 3: Account for the Cost of Living The last thing you want to consider when you're
thinking about your desired salary range is your location—where you live—because that
cost of living can play a really big role as well.
For example, those who live in large metro areas like New York City, San Francisco, or
Los Angeles will likely demand a higher pay scale than those in smaller, less expensive
regions.
To help you calculate the difference, use a cost of living calculator.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics also provides wage data by state and metro area if you're
looking for more in-depth information on the subject.
It also doesn't hurt to sit down and calculate your expenses, and understand what you need
to live comfortably.
For example, in a city like Los Angeles, if your job is located really far away from where
you live, you might have a really long commute.
Those expenses might cut into actually how much you need for your salary to live comfortably.
We hope that these three easy steps help you come to an educated decision on what you should
ask for your desired salary.
As we mentioned earlier, the salary project gives you free access to thousands of salaries
to see how yours compares.
Check that out in the link in the description.