I’ve decided to deem this “Negotiation November” on my blog. Last year, we had Niche November, where I spent the month talking about the importance of a niche and giving tips on how to find your niche. If you missed this series, I highly recommend checking out my posts on narrowing your niche, why money shouldn’t be your highest priority, and my responses to common questions about niches. I think that having a great niche is key to earning a high income. But none of this matters if you don’t negotiate competitive rates, which is why I’ve decided to focus on negotiation this month.

Every Freelancer Should Read Erik Sherman’s Article on the Gender Pay Gap in Freelancing

After recently sharing my tips for becoming a better negotiator, I read an article by fellow freelancer Erik Sherman, entitled Women Who Freelance Are Paid a Third Less Than Men: Time to Change That. I can’t stop thinking about it. In the article, Erik recaps a study by HoneyBook which found that women freelancers earn less than men – about 32 percent less overall and also per hour. But the most valuable part of the article are actually the excellent tips Erik provides for women freelancers to tackle this inequity. I think that this article should be required reading for all freelancers, regardless of your gender.

Why I Think the Pay Gap Exists

I have thought a lot about the pay gap since reading the article. Erik offered some thoughts on why he thinks it exists, but as a woman, I wanted to share my thoughts on the pay gap. From my perspective, I think that for most people it’s a combination of three factors.

Huge caveat: I know that there are exceptions and outliers to every point and assumption that I make here so if I accidentally offend someone with my generalities, I am sorry. I hesitated to write this post in fear of upsetting someone, but I decided to take the plunge and do it anyway because I think that people talking about uncomfortable topics like this is the only way that things change.

1. Women are more likely to consider themselves poor negotiators. Over the years many freelancers have told me that they were not good at negotiating. I realized that the only people who have said this were women. I’ve talked to many men at conferences, through writer groups and on the phone during coaching sessions and not a single man has ever confessed that they were nervous about negotiating or considered themselves a poor negotiator. But I can’t even count the number of women that have shared this with me. I think that the biggest reason for the pay gap is that many women struggle with negotiation skills, and may lack the confidence to be good at negotiating. I know this is a generality, but I see it in myself and enough other female freelancers to think that it is true for many people. Notice that I did not say women as a group are poor negotiators, but that they consider themselves to be poor negotiators, which leads to lower confidence in negotiating. Since confidence is a huge part of negotiating, I am positive that this contributes to the lower rates.
2. Women are more likely than men to be in lower paying niches. While there are men writing in niches that typically pay less, such as lifestyle and travel, and there are plenty of women writing in higher paying niches such as tech, I do think that more women write in the lower paying niches than men. I personally think that this has a lot to do with the pay gap. I know that when I talk to other freelancers in those niches, they tell me that it is very hard to find clients willing to pay the type of rates I find in tech. Yes, higher paying lifestyle gigs are out there, but my experience is that they are fewer and can be hard to find.
3. Many women primarily freelance for reasons other than money. While I know several male freelancers who do it so that they can have the flexibility for their family, I think that this motivation is probably higher among female freelancers. Maybe it’s just that there are more female freelancers, I am not sure. While, for many female freelancers, the reason is the flexibility to be around when their kids need them, it may also be flexibility to travel, care for aging parents, or even for their pets. Erik mentions this as a partial reason, especially in terms of the overall amount freelancers earn because women may be likely to work less hours because of caring for families. From my own perspective, I think that this is a primary reason for the pay gap. Yes, I am betting that women may work fewer hours than men as a whole, but I don’t think that’s the entire reason.

When I was first starting out as a freelancer, I was so happy to have the flexibility to both make money and be around for my kids that I was just happy to be making good money and didn’t actively negotiate for higher rates. Like other female freelancers I talked to, I also had the goal of simply replacing my full-time pay, minus commuting and child care costs. Once I got to this point, which is considerably less than I am making now, I was content to just earn that amount. It was a combination of not knowing what was possible and not wanting to risk losing clients (and my flexibility) that I was nervous to negotiate too hard. Money was important to me, but I really focused on the other benefits. It took me years to realize – as Erik put it in the article – that I was worth it and that it was very possible to have both – good income and flexibility.

I am not attempting to speak for all freelancers on this third point (or any of them really), but I really think that this contributed to me being content to earn in the $40K range for many years. No, money isn’t the main reason that I freelance, but I finally realized that doesn’t mean that I should be paid less than I am worth.

What You Can Do About the Gender Pay Gap

I totally agree with all six of Erik’s takeaways and wanted to add three more of my own:

1. Talk about money with male freelancers. Erik mentioned this in his article, but I wanted to stress it. When I first read his article, I thought that the study was wrong and proclaimed (to myself) that I was being paid the same as male freelancers. I talk about money with other freelancers regularly so I know that I’m being paid in the same range as others writing about B2B tech. But after reading this article, I realized that I mainly talk about money with female freelancers, so I have no idea if I am being paid the same for similar work as other men writing in my niche. So I’m going to revise my recommendation to talk about money to talk about money with both male and female freelancers. If you are a male freelancer, don’t be afraid to tell a female freelancer that you are making more for similar work. She needs that information so she can negotiate higher. You would want someone to let your wife or sister know that she is underpricing herself, so do the same for someone else’s wife or sister.
2. Look to add B2B and/or technology to your niche. If you are in a lower paying niche, look for ways to use your expertise and experience to add a higher paying niche. The easiest way to do this is to a technology to your niche, such as hospitality technology for travel writers or educational technology for educational writers. Check out this post on how to do it. Another way to add a higher paying spin is to look for a B2B angle. For instance, gardening writers can look for companies making products for gardening stores and fitness/wellness writers can approach companies selling products to gyms.
3. Learn how to be a better negotiator. Negotiation is a skill that many of us have to learn. Just because you aren’t a natural born negotiator doesn’t mean you can’t learn to be a great one.  Instead of just saying “I’m not good at it” like I did, I think it’s important for all freelancers, especially women to take the time to actively learn negotiation skills. I’m going to write about several of these over the next few weeks, including the value pricing that Erik mentions in the article. And if you have a good perspective or tips for negotiation, please email me. I would love for you to do a guest post on my blog.

What are your thoughts about Erik’s article? Why do you think the gender pay gap exists? What do you think we as freelancers should do about it?