For those looking to make sure their salary is the best possible, a salary negotiation workshop is coming up.

The Margaret Sloss Center for Women and Gender Equity and The Program for Women in Science and Engineering is hosting an American Association of University Women (AAUW) Start Smart Salary Negotiation Workshop. The AAUW Start Smart is a free three hour workshop specifically designed to teach people how to negotiate salaries for a new job.

The workshop is from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday in Carver Hall, room 204.

“During this workshop, you will gain confidence in your negotiation style through facilitated discussion and role-play and learn how to identify and articulate your personal value; how to develop an arsenal of persuasive responses and other strategies to use when negotiating; how to conduct objective market research to benchmark a target salary and benefits; and about the wage gap, including its long-term consequences,” according to the Margaret Sloss Center for Women and Gender Equity website.

AAUW Salary Negotiation Programs are designed to empower women with the skills and confidence to negotiate for fair pay. Participants learn how to research competitive salaries, articulate their skills, qualifications and experience and ask for the pay they deserve, according to the AAUW website.

The gender pay gap is the difference between what an average woman working full time is paid compared to the average man. AAUW’s Salary Negotiation Programs teach women at all stages of their careers how to negotiate their pay.

“While the pay gap results from many factors — including discrimination — gender differences in salary negotiation play a role,” according to the AAUW website. “Learning to confidently negotiate your salary will help ensure you earn the pay and benefits you deserve.”

In 2019, women earned 79 cents for every dollar earned by men, according to PayScale.com.

This figure is representative of the uncontrolled, or “raw” gender pay gap, which looks at the median salary for all men and women regardless of job type or worker seniority.

“In other words, the median salary for men is roughly 21 percent higher than the median salary for women,” according to PayScale.com. “This figure represents a one percent improvement from 2018 and a 5 percent improvement from 2015, when the median salary for men was roughly 26 percent higher than the median salary for women.”

PayScale.com also stated that even with all compensable factors such as experience, industry and job level are accounted for, the wage gap is still not zero.

“In fact, when men and women with the same employment characteristics do similar jobs, women earn $0.98 for every dollar earned by an equivalent man,” according to PayScale.com. “In other words, a woman who is doing the same job as a man, with the exact same qualifications as a man is still paid two percent less. Unfortunately, this controlled wage gap has only shrunk by a minuscule amount of $0.008 since 2015.”

AAUW is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that works to champion equity for women and girls. Since 1881, the nonprofit has been a catalyst for change, from boosting young women’s access to education to shaping public policy and producing groundbreaking research on gender equity.