Study finds ‘class gap’ in workplace negotiations
Employees from lower social-class backgrounds are less likely to negotiate salaries and workplace benefits and may face greater social backlash when they do, according to a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), reports a Qazinform News Agency correspondent.
Researchers conducted five studies involving thousands of workers, students and human resources professionals to examine whether socioeconomic background influences a person’s willingness to negotiate.
“There’s a large body of literature that documents a gender gap in negotiation. However, we know very little about social class differences,” said Ying Lin, assistant professor of management at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
One study involving 7,883 Australian employees found that people from higher social-class backgrounds had 1.15 times greater odds of negotiating their starting salary.
Another study of 634 MBA students at a U.S. business school found that those who did not negotiate received starting salaries averaging $6,450 less than those who did.
A separate survey of 995 U.S. workers found that employees who negotiated their starting salary gained more than $3,800 a year on average. Around 95% of those who asked for a promotion received one, compared with 48% of employees who did not ask.
However, researchers found that negotiating can carry additional risks for lower-class workers.
In an experiment involving 1,133 HR professionals, a fictional job candidate displaying lower-class social cues was judged more negatively when negotiating his salary than a candidate displaying higher-class cues. Negotiating candidates were generally viewed as less cooperative, but the penalty was significantly greater for the lower-class candidate.
“If you’re a person from the lower class, it helps to recognize that hesitation to ask is not a personal or personality failing; it’s completely normal and also a rational response to potential backlash,” Lin said.
She added that companies could reduce inequality by making negotiation opportunities transparent, reducing employees’ dependence on asking for better conditions and including social class in workplace equity assessments.
The study suggests that differences in negotiation behavior and employers’ responses to it may contribute to the persistence of the so-called “class ceiling” in career advancement.
Earlier, Qazinform News Agency reported that about seven in 10 South Koreans consider having at least two children ideal, although many ultimately have only one due to financial pressures and other factors, a new study showed.
