You don't negotiate? It'll cost you!

National Public Radio recently broadcast a piece about a subject near and dear to my heart -- negotiation. The piece was titled "Ask For A Raise? Most Women Hesitate" and it can be found at www.NPR.org.

My interest in negotiation was peaked after reading the book, "You Can Negotiate Anything" by Herb Cohen.

When I talk about negotiation with my students, I tell them that if they apply the basic principles of negotiation, they will be $100,000 richer by the time they retire. I now realize that I may have underestimated the benefits of negotiation.

According to economist Linda Babcock of Carnegie Mellon University, "by not negotiating their job at the beginning of their career, they're (women in particular) leaving anywhere between $1 million and $1.5 million on the table in lost earnings over their lifetime,"

And women are FOUR TIMES LESS LIKELY TO NEGOTIATE than men. Why don't women negotiate? The reasons are complicated but according to Babcock, "women often just don't think of asking for more pay. If they do, they find the very notion of haggling intimidating, even scary."

Now this is a complicated topic and can't be covered in a single blog post. I will periodically talk about negotiation in upcoming blog posts. Stay tuned.