Women Need to ASK For a Raise If You Are a Great Employee

I am sure that you have heard the controversy when Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella spoke at a women’s conference yesterday saying that women should not ask for raises, but trust that they will get what they deserve which is good Karma. As CEO I’m sure life would be easier if everybody who worked for him would just accept the pay he wanted to give his employees and not make waves by asking for more money, both men and women, but to be speaking at a women’s conference and tell them to sit quietly by and wait was a big, no huge mistake. It made him sound as sexist as possible.

Yes, when you are the boss it is a pain when someone asks for a raise. If they are really good and you don’t give them raises regularly they should ask. If you are not such a good employee be careful asking for that raise, you might already be getting more than you are worth. But no one should trust karma to ensure you are getting what you deserve. You can’t spend karma.

The most important thing woman can do is make sure they get what they deserve in their very first job because if you start getting paid too low it is hard to make up the difference over the years. People tend to get paid based on what they historically made in the past. Big jumps don’t happen unless you make big career changes.

The hardest thing is to figure out if as a woman you are paid differently than a man with your same job at the same company with the same tenure. There is no excuse for inequality if you are really comparing apple to apples, but it is rare that you can find someone who is your twin except for gender. If you do ask for a raise and don’t get one over time you have a choice, accept it because you like where you work and you have other perks like flexibility or you need to be prepared to move jobs. Not always so easy. Moving may mean you lose seniority, or vacation time or stock options or something else you have come to enjoy.

Nothing is straightforward about the whole issue, but depending on Karma seems like the least good option. If I were an Executive looking for talent to hire I would consider looking to the women at Microsoft. The CEO unwittingly just opened a can of worms that karma will not take care of.