There are consequences for not negotiating

Research also suggests that the impact of not negotiating your salary at the outset of your career may be difficult to overcome.

Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever provide some interesting statistics to support this:

• By not negotiating a first salary, an individual stands to lose more than $500,000 by age 60—and men are more than four times as likely as women to negotiate a first salary.
• In one study, eight times as many men as women graduating with Master's degrees from Carnegie Mellon University negotiated their salaries. The men who negotiated were able to increase their starting salaries by an average of 7.4 percent, or about $4,000.
• Another study calculated that women who consistently negotiate their salary increases earn at least $1 million more during their careers than women who don't.

This highlights the fact that an important first step in any negotiation process is making the decision to engage, the decision to negotiate!