KiwiSaver
Planning & budgeting
Saving & investing
KiwiSaver
Tackling debt
Protecting wealth
Retirement
Home buying
Life events
Setting goals
Money tracking
Plan your spending with a budget
Getting advice
Studying
Get better with money
What pūtea beliefs do you have?
How to save your money
How to start investing
Find a financial adviser to help you invest
Your investment profile
Compound interest
Net worth
Types of investments
Term deposits
Bonds
Investment funds
Shares
Property investment
How KiwiSaver works and why it's worth joining
How to pick the right KiwiSaver fund
Make the most of KiwiSaver and grow your balance
How KiwiSaver can help you get into your first home
Applying for a KiwiSaver hardship withdrawal
How to use buy now pay later
Before borrowing
How to get out of debt quickly
Credit reports
Know your rights
Pros and cons of debt consolidation
Credit cards
Car loans
Personal loans
Hire purchase
Student loans
Getting a fine
What happens if I start to struggle with moni?
How to protect yourself from fraud and being scammed
About insurance
Insurance types
Insuring ourselves
Wills
Enduring powers of attorney
Family trusts
Insuring our homes
Losing a partner
Redundancy
Serious diagnosis
How to cope with the aftermath of fraud
Separation
About NZ Super
This year's NZ Super rates
When you’re thinking of living in a retirement village
How to plan, save and invest for retirement
Manage your money in retirement
Find housing options in retirement
Planning & budgeting
Saving & investing
KiwiSaver
Tackling debt
Protecting wealth
Retirement
Home buying
KiwiSaver
Budgeting
KiwiSaver
Budgeting
Women
Women
Women
Budgeting
Resources
Help with the cost of living
Just wondering
In need of financial help
Booklets
Glossary
Videos
Blogs
View all
4 May 2022
Reading time: 5 minutes
Posted
by
Anika Forsman
, 237 Comments
With the rising costs of living, talk of the ‘great resignation’ and a talent shortage to boot, is now the right time to ask for that raise, or go large on negotiations if you’ve landed that new role?
For many women asking to be paid what they are worth makes for a challenging, sometimes uncomfortable conversation. And for some, asking about pay can be difficult or inappropriate due to a range of cultural and personal reasons.
When Sarah landed her dream role, she had already asked what the salary band was, and knew she needed to negotiate the best deal possible once she had the offer.
“In the past I’ve not felt comfortable asking for more money and often regretted it. I know now that negotiation is a standard part of the recruitment process,” she says.
“I am also conscious that future pay increases are usually going to be capped, so if you don’t get within a decent ballpark of what you want at contract signing time, it will take a while to get there once you are in the role.”
Dr Jo Cribb, co-founder of Mind the Gap and co-author of Take Your Space: Successful Women Share Their Secrets, says it pays to know what you’re worth before you hit the negotiating table.
“Do your research. Talk to recruiters to get a benchmark for what similar roles and skillsets are paying, or check out other jobs being advertised. Chat to your peers or people you know in the industry,” she says.
“Talking about pay is uncomfortable, but we all have the right to ask. Once you know what you’re worth, have the confidence to highlight this to your prospective employer.”
Most employers will have some wriggle room on what they offer, but it pays to consider the full package and not just the pay. It’s a good idea to weigh up what is also important to you. That might be flexibility, staff benefits like higher contributions to KiwiSaver, extended parental leave or professional development opportunities.
Check out our KiwiSaver calculator to see what the difference can be if you’re employer contributes 6% compared to 3% to your balance over time. This can really add up!
The ‘great resignation’ or ‘great reshuffle’ is making headlines, with reports of millions of people chucking in their jobs around the world for other opportunities.
It’s certainly causing many employers to stop and think about the best ways they can retain their staff – and they’re thinking more broadly than what they can pay their people.
For the most part coming in cold and asking for a pay raise is probably not the best approach. You really want to hinge it on performance or if you’ve ended up taking on more responsibilities. Have a read of your company’s renumeration policy and practices. Often the best time to do this is around annual performance reviews.
You can apply some of the same approaches you use when negotiating a new role. Do a bit of research to know what you’re worth, but use the added weight of being able to demonstrate what you’ve achieved in your current role to make your case.
A top media exec, who has done her fair share of hiring people and performance reviews, recommends coming armed with a list of your achievements and some clear points about why you deserve to be paid more.
She would like to see more women having the confidence to ask for what they’re worth.
“In my experience as a manager, men don’t think twice about asking for more money, but frustratingly women just aren’t asking like their male counterparts. I’ve seen plenty of scenarios where women are happy to accept an offer for the same role at a lower salary to a male candidate, who will almost always try and push it up.”
Across the board, Kiwis generally don’t like talking about money – particularly sharing what each of us get paid. This culture of pay secrecy is doing nothing to help the close the gender and ethnic pay gaps experienced by women, Māori and Pacific Peoples.
According to Stats NZ, the gender pay gap is 9.1% and has remained stubbornly around 9-10% for the last decade.
Jo says if we can start normalising conversations about pay and pay gaps, we will encourage greater transparency and we can bridge the pay disparities in Aotearoa.
“Not talking about pay gaps makes it worse. About 20% of the gender pay gap in Aotearoa New Zealand can be accounted for by differences between men and women in education, occupation choice, age, type of work and family responsibilities.
“The remaining 80% cannot be easily explained other than by behaviour, attitudes and assumptions about women in work, including unconscious bias and discrimination.
“We want an Aotearoa New Zealand where everyone is paid fairly for their work, where pay discrimination based on ethnicity, gender or ability no longer exists.”
5 steps to get your $521
1 Comment
Who’s teaching your daughter (or niece, or granddaughter) about money?
1 Comment
My Money Sorted: Hilary Barry
2 Comments
My Money Sorted: Ben
3 Comments
My Money Sorted: Daniel
1 Comment
8 ways to hack Christmas when you’re stretching the budget
6 Comments
Use verification code from your authenticator app. How to use authenticator apps.
Code is invalid. Please try again
Don't have an account? Sign up
Or log in with our social media platforms
A Sorted account gives you a personal dashboard where you can save your tools, track your progress and you'll also receive helpful money tips and guidance straight to your inbox.
Comments (237)
Comments
4 May 22
Never
4 May 22
Mya
I was in a business merger and took on an additional role rise of 1.50 p h I knew my role extremely well, would take on any role needed during the mergerand showed my flexibility and abilities. It paid off.
4 May 22
Jo
I have never asked for a pay rise even though I am worth much more than I am getting paid
4 May 22
I went into my last job interview and asked what the salary band was, when I heard it, I stated that I would need to be offered at the top end of the range in order to consider the position. They offered near the top and I accepted. I felt ok to leave a little wriggle room to negotiate further once they see what I can do.
4 May 22
Kristeen
Just last week I asked for a raise for the first time in my life. I was awkward and vulnerable and did it only because it's what I would tell other women to do. So I have to walk the talk. Today I was offered $1k below the range I asked for. Unsure for now how I feel about this or my next step. So what a wonderful gift to open this email and have it be about this thing exactly! Thank you!
4 May 22
Xanthe
I asked for a raise and had a bullet pointed list of achievements made throughout the year, with a focus on how much money I had saved the company by savvy decision making and how much money I had increased key accounts by. Raise won!
4 May 22
In my latest role I negotiated my salary, it took sometime to come to an agreement but I got there in the end and despite what felt like a lengthy process, it was well worth it. Plus there was agreement in principle that I can renegotiate in the near future. I have to say I don't think they expected it, thankfully I had strong support from my line managers and that was key.
4 May 22
NK
Yes, I applied for a new job (and having come from a previous practice which did not value paying employees well) the recruitment agency encouraged me to apply for $5K above what I said I wanted. I didn’t believe I was worth this amount because of the previous practice’s reluctance to give pay rises and resistance to giving females project management roles because of working flexible hours for childcare.
The new practice put an employment offer on the table that afternoon and had no qualms offering me the higher salary. So great to finally work somewhere that values their employees, supports flexible working and demonstrates that financially!
4 May 22
Just treasure maps.
4 May 22
Yes I've asked for a pay rise but it's always good to hear new info on how to boost confidence.
« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 next »
No one has commented on this page yet.
RSS feed for comments on this page | RSS feed for all comments