Why Women Earn Less For The Same Job

[RubberDuck]

This post on Reddit makes for some interesting reading. Written with a US slant, but are hiring practices similar here? Could a large part of the pay gap be because we haven't had the same negotiation experience and are more likely to accept the first offer?

I think this is probably true in the UK as well :(

It was certainly true for me.

One of the key gender differentiators (should you choose to believe in such things....) is that men will always negotiate harder for themselves. Allegedly.

TBH the jury is still out on definitive bell curve differences, but combination of nurture/nature seems to show evidence of this. It is not about negotiation 'experience' but more about some kind of reinforced 'hard-wiring'. Other examples of such gender disparities are (allegedly) the tendency for road-rage (PMT notwithstanding), levels of empathy, levels of competitiveness in mixed sex groups (oddly the women get just as competitive in women-only groups), willingness to self-promote, willingness to accept criticism.

I have hired lots of people and IME men tend to over-estimate their worth and women tend not to negotiate. But lots of exceptions to this have popped out. Not that it makes much difference for me - I generally do not negotiate much on money initially and tell them join anyway and then to negotiate upwards at the annual appraisal if they want more.

You may want to post this on the feminism boards for more detailed responses.