Can the Gender Pay Gap Be Partly Explained by a Reluctance of Women to Ask for Higher Pay?

Some observers have speculated that one explanation for the gender pay gap is that women are less likely than men to negotiate with their employers for higher pay. But a new report from the Pew Research Center finds that women are almost as likely as men to ask for a higher salary than was originally offered by a new employer.

The survey found that 32 percent of men reported that they asked for a higher salary when they were hired for their last job. For women, 28 percent of new hires asked for higher pay.

Among workers who did ask for higher pay, 28 percent say they were given the pay they asked for, 38 percent say they were given more than was originally offered but less than they had asked for, and 35 percent say they were only given what was first offered. Women are more likely than men (38 percent vs. 31 percent) to say that after asking for higher pay, they were only given what had initially been offered.

Men are more likely than women to say they were satisfied with the pay they were initially offered (42 percent vs. 36 percent), while women are more likely than men to say they didn’t feel comfortable asking for higher pay (42 percent vs. 33 percent).