Salary negotiations

I have negotiated my salary at previous jobs. I have advised many other women to negotiate their salaries. But I have never discussed my salary with anyone at my current job.

Like most large firms, my firm has lock-step compensation for the first few years. The amounts aren't actually published anywhere, though. So every year, around this time, we get a letter saying, "Your salary for next year will be $X." I have no idea whether $X is the same for everyone in my class. I just assume it is. And I assume the only thing you would negotiate would be a bonus, but my hours have been low each year so I don't think about that.

It was news to me when another associate in my class mentioned we were off lock-step for next year. She also mentioned something I had brought up and said, "You should use that to negotiate your salary."

Today I was talking to two other female associates about this, and we all agreed that we had no idea how to negotiate our salaries, who to talk to, when to talk to them, or if this was even something that anyone else did. "Anyway," said one of them, "my hours aren't very good, so I don't think I deserve more." And the other associate said the SAME THING.

"Wait," I said, "All three of us think our hours aren't good enough, so we shouldn't negotiate our salaries? Do you think our male colleagues would say the same thing?" One of the other associates shrugged. "Look, I choose to work less. If they want to work more, they should get paid more." Which I agree with, and it just so happens that all three of us have small children and, at some point during the year, had worked a reduced schedule. But... do the men (the vast majority of whom have stay-at-home wives), on average, bill so much more? Or do they just not care? This whole conversation seemed so incredibly gender stereotypical, and I couldn't believe that ALL of us were saying we didn't deserve higher salaries. It's hard for me to imagine a man saying he doesn't deserve more money because he doesn't think he works hard enough!

I think I need to investigate this.