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Twitter Thread Starts A Discussion On Sharing What Your Salary Is With Your Peers To Check If The Pay Is Fair

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Lily Konings is a digital product designer with an impressive resume. However, her career wasn’t without its challenges.

Recently, Konings turned to Twitter to share what she went through when she moved to the tech hub, San Francisco. More specifically, how she ended up with a $30K smaller pay than her peers.

Lily’s honest tweets immediately went viral, sparking a discussion on unequal pay and ways to eradicate it. Here’s how it went down.

A few days ago, digital product designer Lily Konings tweeted about her experience with unequal pay

Twitter Thread Starts A Discussion On Sharing What Your Salary Is With Your Peers To Check If The Pay Is Fair

Image credits: lilykonings

Twitter Thread Starts A Discussion On Sharing What Your Salary Is With Your Peers To Check If The Pay Is Fair

Image credits: lilykonings

Lily touches on an important point. Generally, women and minorities ask for – and are offered – lower salaries than white men; this problem is called the ‘ask gap.’

In many fields, men expect higher salaries than women with comparable qualifications. For example, a study of online jobseekers in Argentina found that women ask for 6% less on average. This gap increases in male-dominated occupations — another study that took a look at US doctors in residency showed that women’s ideal starting salary averaged 92% of men’s ideal.

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Some people disagree with Lily’s arguments

Twitter Thread Starts A Discussion On Sharing What Your Salary Is With Your Peers To Check If The Pay Is Fair

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Twitter Thread Starts A Discussion On Sharing What Your Salary Is With Your Peers To Check If The Pay Is Fair

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Twitter Thread Starts A Discussion On Sharing What Your Salary Is With Your Peers To Check If The Pay Is Fair

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While these numbers might not seem that worrying at first, keep in mind that pay gaps at the start of a career compound.

“Over time it builds up because the percentage of raises is usually based on the base salary, so that accumulates over the years,” Zhaleh Semnani-Azad, a management professor at California State University, Northridge, told the BBC. “So, this is where women do miss out long term.” Some researchers have estimated that a difference of $1,000 in starting salary could lead to a cumulative loss of a half-million dollars.”

And some support her line of reasoning

Twitter Thread Starts A Discussion On Sharing What Your Salary Is With Your Peers To Check If The Pay Is Fair

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Twitter Thread Starts A Discussion On Sharing What Your Salary Is With Your Peers To Check If The Pay Is Fair

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Twitter Thread Starts A Discussion On Sharing What Your Salary Is With Your Peers To Check If The Pay Is Fair

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Twitter Thread Starts A Discussion On Sharing What Your Salary Is With Your Peers To Check If The Pay Is Fair

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Twitter Thread Starts A Discussion On Sharing What Your Salary Is With Your Peers To Check If The Pay Is Fair

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Twitter Thread Starts A Discussion On Sharing What Your Salary Is With Your Peers To Check If The Pay Is Fair

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Twitter Thread Starts A Discussion On Sharing What Your Salary Is With Your Peers To Check If The Pay Is Fair

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Twitter Thread Starts A Discussion On Sharing What Your Salary Is With Your Peers To Check If The Pay Is Fair

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Twitter Thread Starts A Discussion On Sharing What Your Salary Is With Your Peers To Check If The Pay Is Fair

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Twitter Thread Starts A Discussion On Sharing What Your Salary Is With Your Peers To Check If The Pay Is Fair

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Twitter Thread Starts A Discussion On Sharing What Your Salary Is With Your Peers To Check If The Pay Is Fair

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Twitter Thread Starts A Discussion On Sharing What Your Salary Is With Your Peers To Check If The Pay Is Fair

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Twitter Thread Starts A Discussion On Sharing What Your Salary Is With Your Peers To Check If The Pay Is Fair

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Twitter Thread Starts A Discussion On Sharing What Your Salary Is With Your Peers To Check If The Pay Is Fair

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Twitter Thread Starts A Discussion On Sharing What Your Salary Is With Your Peers To Check If The Pay Is Fair

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Rokas Laurinavičius

Rokas is a writer at Bored Panda with a BA in Communication. After working for a sculptor, he fell in love with visual storytelling and enjoys covering everything from TV shows (any Sopranos fans out there?) to photography. Throughout his years in Bored Panda, over 300 million people have read the posts he's written, which is probably more than he could count to.

Rokas is a writer at Bored Panda with a BA in Communication. After working for a sculptor, he fell in love with visual storytelling and enjoys covering everything from TV shows (any Sopranos fans out there?) to photography. Throughout his years in Bored Panda, over 300 million people have read the posts he's written, which is probably more than he could count to.

Mindaugas Balčiauskas

I'm a visual editor at Bored Panda. I kickstart my day with a mug of coffee bigger than my head, ready to tackle Photoshop. I navigate through the digital jungle with finesse, fueled by bamboo breaks and caffeine kicks. When the workday winds down, you might catch me devouring bamboo snacks while binging on the latest TV show, gaming or I could be out in nature, soaking up the tranquility and communing with my inner panda.

I'm a visual editor at Bored Panda. I kickstart my day with a mug of coffee bigger than my head, ready to tackle Photoshop. I navigate through the digital jungle with finesse, fueled by bamboo breaks and caffeine kicks. When the workday winds down, you might catch me devouring bamboo snacks while binging on the latest TV show, gaming or I could be out in nature, soaking up the tranquility and communing with my inner panda.

What do you think ?

Falcon 3 years ago

I feel like the question "how much would you like your salary to be" is complete bs and should be turned around where the employer tells the employee how much they will be paid, why and how or when it will be raised, so you can't do these stupid "gotcha!" moments.

7points

Kt 3 years ago

I have never worked anywhere, where I need to negotiate my salary. The idea is completely foreign to me! Any job ive applied for, the salary is advertised. Every where i have worked as well, you get a raise each year for so many years, so there will be people doing the same job on different levels.

0points

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Kendra Miller 3 years ago

At my unionized job we have a grid that outlines what we get paid based on how long we have worked there and inflation (year). This is the wage appendix we negotiated in the fall. At my non unionized job I made minimum wage for years even though I pretty much ran the show in my department. Only when they promoted the guy hired after me to me the head, as a consolation prize they gave me a wage increase. Honestly though that company is so badly run if they had to pay everyone fair wages they would probably go out of business. IMG_202108...555686.jpg

3points

NsG 3 years ago

Spirit of enquiry question - is this a uniquely US thing - you asking for your own salary and job postings rarely even giving a range - or is it universal and the UK is the oddball by putting salary ranges in the ads and negotiations for salaries not really being a "thing"? I've never been given the opportunity to negotiate - the salary is £x, take it or leave it, you'll get salary bumps within the range for your role.

3points

Wilf 3 years ago

It's getting more common in the UK, sadly. My wife works for a multinational company and they don't reveal pay, only very vague 'grades'. My wife had to ask her colleagues about their pay to work out whether she had got offered the bottom or top of the band when she joined the company.

2points

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Falcon 3 years ago

I feel like the question "how much would you like your salary to be" is complete bs and should be turned around where the employer tells the employee how much they will be paid, why and how or when it will be raised, so you can't do these stupid "gotcha!" moments.

7points

Kt 3 years ago

I have never worked anywhere, where I need to negotiate my salary. The idea is completely foreign to me! Any job ive applied for, the salary is advertised. Every where i have worked as well, you get a raise each year for so many years, so there will be people doing the same job on different levels.

0points

Load More Replies...

Kendra Miller 3 years ago

At my unionized job we have a grid that outlines what we get paid based on how long we have worked there and inflation (year). This is the wage appendix we negotiated in the fall. At my non unionized job I made minimum wage for years even though I pretty much ran the show in my department. Only when they promoted the guy hired after me to me the head, as a consolation prize they gave me a wage increase. Honestly though that company is so badly run if they had to pay everyone fair wages they would probably go out of business. IMG_202108...555686.jpg

3points

NsG 3 years ago

Spirit of enquiry question - is this a uniquely US thing - you asking for your own salary and job postings rarely even giving a range - or is it universal and the UK is the oddball by putting salary ranges in the ads and negotiations for salaries not really being a "thing"? I've never been given the opportunity to negotiate - the salary is £x, take it or leave it, you'll get salary bumps within the range for your role.

3points

Wilf 3 years ago

It's getting more common in the UK, sadly. My wife works for a multinational company and they don't reveal pay, only very vague 'grades'. My wife had to ask her colleagues about their pay to work out whether she had got offered the bottom or top of the band when she joined the company.

2points

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