Lower-class employees face greater professional backlash for negotiating their salaries
A recent study indicates that people from lower-class backgrounds are less likely to negotiate their salaries. When they do ask for more, they tend to face stronger social backlash from employers, creating a difficult double bind.
A recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) reveals a significant disparity in negotiation behavior between individuals from different socioeconomic backgrounds. Lower-class workers are less likely to negotiate for workplace benefits and face harsher social penalties when they do negotiate, contributing to the persistence of economic inequality and the "class ceiling" phenomenon. This double bind can compound financial struggles over a person's career.
Researchers propose that this negotiation gap is driven by two psychological factors: a person's sense of power and their concerns about social backlash. Higher-class environments, with their abundant resources and opportunities to exert control, foster a stronger sense of power in social interactions. Conversely, lower-class environments often emphasize cooperation and harmony, making negotiation feel like a violation of social norms.
Consequently, lower-class individuals are less inclined to initiate negotiations, which in turn results in lower starting salaries and stagnated career advancement.
To investigate this issue, the study conducted five separate studies involving thousands of participants across various settings. The findings consistently demonstrated that individuals from higher socioeconomic backgrounds were more likely to negotiate for starting salaries, benefits, promotions, or job content, and those who did negotiate reaped substantial career benefits.
For instance, those who negotiated their starting salary secured an average pay increase of over $3,800 per year compared to those who did not negotiate.
Lower-class workers, on the other hand, exhibited a diminished sense of power and a heightened fear of social backlash, which hindered their inclination to initiate negotiations. These findings shed light on how modern institutions perpetuate social stratification, as economic inequality has grown over the past few decades. Even when education and credentials are similar, individuals from lower social classes tend to earn less and advance more slowly than their higher-class counterparts.
Written by urgent.news from PsyPost's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
