Welcome back to Cheddar News, everyone. It's Women's
History Month and today marks equal pay day. Recognizing
the extra time the average woman must work to earn
the same yearly wage as men. So joining us
again is author Laura guest odd ng Thank you so
much for coming back with us here. Now,
we want to talk more about this because what are
some of the reasons that you've seen people accept pay
below what they believe they deserve? I think there
are three main reasons. I first think the first
is a lack of salary transparency. They don't understand
what other people are being paid or they'd probably ask
for more money. The second is that they assume
that once they get on the job, they'll prove
their worth and they'll get paid more when really the
time when job seekers have the most power is when
they're negotiating for the job in the very first place
. And then third, maybe they value other things
. So we know that money is an impor factor
in your work satisfaction, but it is often not
the only one. And so we have to think
about getting paid in lots of different ways that include
money but aren't just money. I know a lot
of people struggle with trying to figure out how much
they should get paid. So how do you actually
calculate how much you should be getting? Well,
I think that we can look at what other people
are making, we can do market research, we
can see what other like jobs and like organizations are
paid. But I also think it's important to think
about price versus value. So prices, what they
pay you to show up for work every single day
. But the value that you provide is actually everything
that you've brought to date. So your education,
your experience, what you do inside of work,
what you do outside of work, maybe you've created
some skills in your place of worship or your children's
school through volunteering, all of those things go into
the value that you provide. So when you go
in to negotiate for a pay increase, really think
about not just the price, right? What is
the salary, what is the paycheck? But also
what is the value of the solution that you're bringing
to bear and talk about what you should be paying
in those terms as well. So once you have
that value figured out, you have the amount you
want. What's the right way to approach your manager
or boss to discuss your pay? It's really important
to remember that our problem is that we need to
get paid more money. Their problem is not the
same as our problem. And so to think about
approaching them at the right time when it makes sense
to them, maybe, you know, not do
this just at the end of every year when they're
stressed and they're trying to figure out just how to
get through all those end of your conversations. But
setting up a conversation and saying, when we finish
this project, I'd love to have a conversation about
what this means for my future organization, right?
When that value is super clear to your boss,
having that conversation about what they want to be paying
you to make sure that they keep you and you
can keep delivering that value. That's a good point
there. Now, your latest book and TED Talk
, by the way, congrats are all about how
success doesn't bring happiness. Now, I know a
lot of people may disagree with that. So,
are we focusing too much on how the paycheck and
is, you know, I guess being given to
us and how that's gonna fulfill us and not enough
on the aspects of other things and, and the
job itself? Yeah. Well, I know from
20 years in executive search that money is only one
of those factors. There's like eight or so factors
. It's the mission of the organization, it's the
leadership. That's how much am I gonna learn?
How broad is the impact going to be? How
prestigious will this job look on my resume. There
are so many factors in addition to money. But
in my new book, I talk about this idea
that every time we achieve success, the reason that
we don't feel happy is that it shows us this
other version of who we might become, who we
can be. And we think I was able to
do this. What else can I do? I
didn't know these doors were even available to me.
So now that I know they're available, what else
is out there? And part of that is money
. So one of the ways that we determine whether
or not we're keeping up with where we want to
be, how we're measuring against our own version of
success is money. So money is a super important
factor. But just to remember that every time you
get to that next level, there's gonna be a
new devil and we're gonna want to keep making sure
that we're, that we're keeping up. That's a
good point as well. So how do you make
sure you're saying those good career goals that are gonna
help you get to that next level without stressing so
much about the paycheck? Yeah, I was given
a definition of success when I was in fourth grade
that I was really argumentative and I'd make a good
lawyer. You won't be surprised to find out.
The first thing I did was tell that teacher who
said that to me that she was wrong because,
you know, I was argumentative. But each one
of us at some point in our lives was given
a definition of success, maybe by a teacher,
maybe by a parent, maybe by a boss,
maybe by a counselor who said this is the path
that you should be taking. And so, and
while we're thinking about setting our own future goals,
we should ask ourselves, does that definition of success
still work for me or did it work for somebody
else? And is that dollar they gave me that
dollar sign, the number that I want to go
for or do I want to make less? Do
I want to make more? How am I going
to value all the rest of the things in my
life that give me a definition of success? It's
actually meaningful to me. Well, you definitely have
achieved that success to a lot of other people.
So thank you so much Laura Gaster auditing. And
by the way, her new book, Wonder Hill
is out on April four. Make sure you check
that out.