“You have not because you ask not.”—The Bible
According to this Forbes article, it takes a woman one year, two months, and three days to make what her male counterparts make in one year. I’m going to pause in order to let that sink in.
Doesn’t seem like such a big deal? Well, research shows that the discrepancy can result in lifetime salary losses of $375,000 to $1.5 million! Again, I’ll take another pause for the cause here.
What does this have to do with coaching and the intangibles that I love so much? Everything! I wrote about teaching our athletes to embrace power way back in August of ’09. And one of the attributes of power was, you guessed it, negotiating salary. Here’s a quote from that post:
“In situations such as salary negotiations, studies show that women often believe that they deserve less than similarly qualified men and are, as a consequence, likely to demand less and to press their salary demands with less vigor.”
For those of us who love our athletes and want them to excel when they get to the real world, this is very disconcerting and it can’t be alright. Part of our jobs as a “significant adult” in their lives is to talk to them about things like this. Our ladies need to understand that negotiating salary is not only okay, but expected.
Here’s another quote from the Forbes article that puts a very positive spin on things:
“If women were to negotiate on behalf of themselves as much as men do, they would advance as quickly as men and eliminate the under-representation of women in the top ranks of the organization.”
That’s great news, right? It shows that our athletes won’t be behind the eight ball solely because they were born female…I think that’s pretty great!
So what’s a coach to do? Just what we do every day: give valuable information to our athletes that will stay with them for the rest of their lives.
What our players need to understand about salary negotiations:
- It’s okay. My sister-in-law is a corporate big shot in charge of handling raises and salary negotiations and she let me know that women rarely ask for more salary than they’re offered, while men always do. The worst thing that will happen is the person will say they can’t give more money and then you’ve got a decision to make…but nothing ventured, nothing gained.
- It’s freedom. I don’t know about you, but I could use an extra $375,000! I remember interviewing for my first job and accepting the position before the AD could get the words out of his mouth. Let me tell you something, that fella got lucky, because now I’m not such an easy sell. I tell athletes about this and we giggle, but the truth is that I’m making less (over a decade later) because of that hasty decision. That’s money I could have been socked away in savings, or put into home improvements or a college fund for my kids. Money is freedom (and power).
- It’s their right. If my immature eagerness for a coaching job caused me to make an uninformed salary decision (there literally was no negotiation), then the upside is that I’m much more of an advocate for women in this area. Our athletes need to be equipped with the belief that they deserve an honest wage for their hard work. They need to understand that having money will not only help them and their family, but will open up opportunities to help others. Imagine how many charities they could donate to with that extra $1.5 million in their bank account!
If we care about our teams (and of course we do!), then we owe it to them to teach this very important lesson.
