Ok everyone, get comfortable. Today we are talking about money. As women, we are conditioned to believe that talking about money is rude and even vulgar. Respectfully, that is ridiculous.
The greatest financial mistake I made in my life was not asking my mentors and my peers what my salary expectations should be out of college. As a result, my first job as a college graduate paid me $32,500 annually, without benefits. Yes, you read that correctly. This financial mistake haunted me throughout the early stages of my career because I stayed at that job.
Notwithstanding, that job taught me some very valuable (and hard) financial lessons. The greatest lesson that it taught me was to know my worth. I distinctly remember a time about three years into that job where I found out that someone with less experience and education than me was hired at a higher hourly rate. I marched into my employer’s office and told them something along the lines of: “I like working here, but you have to pay me what I am worth. I know that I am under paid, I want to continue working here. But, I have expenses. I am going to law school and I have a household to support. I never want to talk to you about money again. Please, fix this so I don’t have to talk to you about money again.” My pay was increased, but not nearly enough. The justification being one day, when I finished law school, my pay would get substantially better. Let’s just sidebar with each other for a moment. If anyone ever tells you this, it’s a red flag. You should be paid for the work that you are doing now. Don’t let anyone set arbitrary goal posts that can be moved as easily as they were set.
Now, to be clear, while that job was not for me long-term, and while the pay was abysmal given the hours worked, job duties, and the overall work environment, the job served an important role in shaping me into the attorney that I am today. It just didn’t pay what was commensurate with my skills, experience, education, and job duties.
When I left that job last year, I was making six figures, but still did not have any benefits whatsoever. There was no work-life balance, the opportunities for developing my skillset were dwindling, and to be absolutely fair, my heart just wasn’t in it anymore.
It may sound completely counterintuitive, but that six figure raise actually incentivized me to ramp up my search for a job in the public sector. My concern was that I would get addicted to the money that I was making at my old job and that I would fall into the trap that so many other young attorneys with big dreams fall into where they are not passionate about the work that they are doing, but feel unable to leave because the money is too good. I didn’t want that for me. I knew that I wasn’t made to just survive: I was made to thrive and I have a purpose.
Moreover, I was painfully aware that I was woefully undercompensated as I did not have any traditional employee benefits such as a retirement plan, insurance, etc.
I knew that in order to work in the public sector, I was going to have to take a reduction in pay. But, it was worth it to me knowing that it would be offset by employee benefits, better work-life balance, and most importantly, the opportunity to develop my professional skills while serving my community.
So, without hesitation, I accepted a 5 figure pay cut and full employee benefits. It was the career best decision that I have ever made.
You see, those employee benefits have a financial value. Where my husband and I were paying close to $400 per packcheck for healthcare, we are now paying a tiny percentage of that. We also have an HSA and I have started an employer funded pension. These employee benefits came with another benefit: they reduced my taxable income, significantly, so my take home pay is actually almost equal to my former take home pay.
I encourage everyone to ask what others are making. Information is vital to making wise decisions regarding your career. You are trading hours of your life and your skill set for a paycheck, make sure that you have all of the information necessary before accepting any compensation package.
Here are some questions that you should consider asking your peers prior to a job interview if you are just starting out:
- What was the starting pay at your first industry specific job and did your employer offer you benefits?
- Did you have any qualifications, education, or experience that may have influenced that starting salary?
- What should someone just starting in the industry now expect to make as a starting salary?
- Did you feel that you compensation was fair at the time that you accepted your employment?
- Do you know what other businesses in the industry pay their employees?
- Do you feel that what those other businesses pay their employees is fair as compared to your employer? And can you identify where their package falls sort or exceeds expectations?
If you are already working in your industry, here are some conversations that you should consider having with your peers:
- My current salary is X, my job duties are Y, I have approximately Z hours per day off the clock. Do you think that my salary of X is fair considering my experience, education, skill set, and book of business (if applicable)?
- I have taken on this new duty, but I have not been compensated, if you had to guess, what would you estimate the value of this duty to be?
- If you were going to hire me at your business, what would you estimate your employment offer to me to include? Can you describe your employment benefits package?
These questions are meant to be illustrative and not meant to be an exhaustive list. They are meant to get you to start thinking: what am I really worth?
The only way to know your worth is to understand (i) how others perceive your worth and (ii) the actual worth of others actually situated.
Get out there. Ask the questions. Let’s normalize talking about money.
The Lady Esquire 