Negotiating the Job You Love Into the Life You Love Throughout Your Career – Katie Donovan, Equal Pay Negotiations LLC

Recent graduates believe they should not negotiate pay and benefits because they have no experience. Working moms are anxious to negotiate pay because they already have the schedule and flexibility needed to meet their family obligations and joys. Childfree women believe they do not have the family obligations needed to negotiate flexible schedules or remote working.Employers love when you are hesitant to negotiate so they can use your money elsewhere, yet 84% of managers expect you to negotiate your employment package throughout your career.As a newly minted graduate you most likely will hear, &#8220;That&#8217;s what everyone starts at.&#8221; That is not quite the truth. The truth is, &#8220;That&#8217;s what everyone is offered.&#8221; Many people accept the offer as is. A few informed candidates are able to negotiate an extra 10% or more.As a new mother, you may feel beholden to your manager and employer for allowing you to go to your infant&#8217;s doctor appointments; to arrive and leave 30 minutes earlier than pre-baby days to make it to daycare pickup so you will not to be charged a per-minute late fee, and to express breast milk in the office. Your boss is not that special.Women make up approximately 50% of today&#8217;s workforce and approximately 80% of women have a child before the onset of menopause. Employers are putting their own existence at peril if they ignore 40% of the workforce. That is why over 80% of employers offer some form of flexible schedule and flexible place work although less than half of those employers have standardized the benefit or included it in an employee handbook. This seems counter-intuitive but actually it makes sense. The flexibility that works for one employee will not address the issues of all other employees.It is flexible to meet each individual employee&#8217;s needs, so ask for a little more than what you really need to have work that you love fit into the life that you love. And don&#8217;t worry, employers make out in such situations. Employees who work remotely increase their productivity by 13% or greater. Employers save money on office space, heating and other costs when employees work remotely. Flexible schedules have similar benefits to employers.Childfree and wondering &#8220;what about me?&#8221; You aren&#8217;t alone. It seems like the term childfree is an afterthought or completely forgotten in many discussions of work-life integration or balance. I&#8217;m childfree myself and will not let that happen here. Few of us escape taking care of elderly parents. I was a few years ahead of most of my friends encountering this situation and it is time consuming. Benjamin Button&#8217;s story of babies and the elderly being very similar truly hits home when one&#8217;s parents are past caring for themselves.But one doesn&#8217;t need to be irreplaceable nor have special circumstances to negotiate the pay and benefits that are the market rate of a job. A flexible schedule that allows you to volunteer, teach a course, take a course, or just enjoy life is just as important as any other reason to negotiate. If you wait until you have proven yourself you may find yourself to be a middle-aged employee who suddenly realizes that there are fresh-faced less experienced workers who will do this work for a lot less. And once again you will be hesitant to negotiate what the job should pay.So regardless of where you are in your career, you should research the market value of the job (both pay and benefits), research the ability of your company to pay the market value (run if they can&#8217;t afford to) and finally develop arguments that include the five things that get employers&#8217; attention and budget. Then go have a conversation with your boss for a better employment package. Not only do you deserve it; your boss has been waiting for you.Katie Donovan is a salary and career negotiation consultant, equal pay advocate, and keynote speaker. Her company, Equal Pay Negotiations LLC teaches women pay, benefits and career negotiation through online courses, mobile apps, workshops, and personal consulting.Check us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggers.comFollow our Twitter updates at @MediaBizBloggerThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaBizBloggers.com management or associated bloggers. MediaBizBloggers is an open thought leadership platform and readers may share their comments and opinions in response to all commentaries.

Negotiating the Job You Love Into the Life You Love Throughout Your Career – Katie Donovan, Equal Pay Negotiations LLC

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