In our series Salary Stories, women with long-term career experience open up about the most intimate details of their jobs: compensation. It’s an honest look at how real people navigate the complicated world of negotiating, raises, promotions and job loss, with the hope it will give young people more insight into how to advocate for themselves — and maybe take a few risks along the way.
Been in the workforce for at least five years and interested in contributing your salary story? Submit your information here.
Age: 30
Location: New York
Current industry and job title:
Healthcare advertising, associate director
Current salary: $125,000
Number of years employed since school or university: Nine
Starting salary: $50,000 in 2016
Biggest salary jump: From $75,000 to $95,000 in 2020.
Biggest salary drop: N/A
Biggest negotiation regret: While recruiters may present themselves as friendly, not all of them have your best interests at heart. Some may do the bare minimum, especially if they perceive you as desperate or an easy target to accept a position, in order to make their commission. So it’s better to give a poker face and don’t take no for an answer if you want to raise the offer.
Best salary advice: Men don’t think twice about negotiating their salary they just do it, so as women we need to do the same.
The salary offer exceeded my expectations as I was aiming for a minimum of $45,000, which was still above average at the time.
But the progression stopped there. I had asked for a promotion, specifically a raise and title change at my one-and-a-half year mark. I first brought this up during my mid-year review which was glowing. In that meeting, my boss echoed that I have been doing a great job and naturally earned a promotion.
Some of my peers got a promotion at the one year mark which I knew was an exception. I wanted to get ahead and start laying the groundwork for when I hit two years, because it was more common to get a promotion then. During subsequent one-on-ones with my boss he promised me that I would get a promotion soon and assured me he was working on it, but the company was not doing so well. They announced an acquisition and were doing a lot of layoffs around the same time so things were stalled.
I was at my wits end on waiting because I wasn’t confident my boss was taking the appropriate steps to get this into action. Instead of waiting any longer, I decided to seek other job opportunities and got a new job. When I sent my resignation, my boss wanted to counter and asked me how much my new offer was, and when I told her she replied “We can’t even come close to matching that”, so I was very glad to move on and waste no more of my time.
My wellbeing was impacted during this time and I was experiencing intense anxiety. My coworker became one of my close friends and introduced me to hot yoga. We would go to classes to cope, but also to complain and to lean on each other for support. We complained to our manager about the intensity and long hours but she thought we were “babies whining”. I wasn’t able to make plans in advance with friends on the weekend and would have to cancel a lot, so it was nice forming this close bond with someone at work who was experiencing the same thing.
My $65,000 salary did not justify the hours and intensity of the job, so I left and found a higher paying job at a more stable and bigger company.
As it turned out, I was working overtime every week and billing an extra two to five hours.
I decided to leave the job because the company’s leadership team was very unstable. I had gone through more than four different managers in a year and eight months. I had also been hired alongside another Assistant Strategic Planner who was white and came from no experience. I had four years of relevant experience and I am Black. When we had our yearly reviews, my white counterpart got a promotion and a raise. I didn’t. I was extremely mad about this as I had consistently been praised for my work performance and felt that this decision was racially biased.
I escalated this to the department head for a larger conversation because I felt it was unjust that I had not received a reasonable and professional answer as to why I did not deserve, or had not earned, a promotion. The meetings didn’t go well, and led to me seeking therapy for the first time.
This happened automatically, so I did not have to fight for it. I finally felt valued and seen. My manager was proud of me too, it was an amazing feeling all around.
The best benefit I have is unlimited paid time off and the office is closed in the week from Christmas to New Year. We have a very nice office, and we still have a flexible working mandate so I get to work from home or go into the office if desired. I really do enjoy my job and like feeling challenged. I also enjoy the people that I work with and the biggest thing for me is that I feel appreciated and respected. It’s helped me regain some confidence.
I’m in talks with my manager about getting another promotion, so I am expecting that in this year.
Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
Leave a Reply