At work, women are twice as likely as men to be mistaken as someone more junior. They’re also twice as likely to have colleagues comment on their emotional state. And they’re two and a half times as likely to have someone remark on their appearance.
All of those are microaggressions, which are “subtle behaviors and comments that reinforce harmful stereotypes about historically marginalized groups,” explains Shanae Chapman, CEO at Nerdy Diva, a company focused on diversity and inclusion in tech.
While having “micro” in the name might make you think these types of offhand mentions are harmless, they really add up. And, as it turns out, microaggressions don’t just affect your culture and work environment – they affect your pay equity too.
How do microaggressions impact equal pay?
It’s not hard to see how ignorant and insensitive comments would create a less-than-ideal work atmosphere for women. When they’re consistently on the receiving end of these types of jabs and judgments, it makes sense that they’ll feel dissatisfied and discriminated against.
But connecting the dots between microaggressions and pay? That feels tougher to do, especially when “perpetrators and bystanders write them off as ‘jokes,’ ‘honest mistakes,’ or ‘ignorance,’” rather than real, tangible discrimination, explains talent and DEI consultant Daniela Herrera.
Make no mistake – money and microaggressions have a closer relationship than you might realize. Here’s how.
Minimizing skills and contributions
“Women often contend with lack of attribution for their ideas and contributions, questioning of their skills and competencies, undermining of their leadership, and even interruption during meetings,” says LaShawn Springer, DEIB Consultant and Speaker.
“Women often contend with lack of attribution for their ideas and contributions, questioning of their skills and competencies, undermining of their leadership, and even interruption during meetings.”
That’s frustrating and demoralizing for women any day of the week. But when performance review conversations – many of which are tied to promotions, bonuses, and salary increases – roll around, there are even more sinister implications.
It’s nearly impossible to advocate for a pay bump when you aren’t getting kudos or recognition for the work you’re already doing.
Disparaging behaviors and personality traits
There’s no shortage of double standards for women at work. Where their male colleagues are passionate, women are emotional. Where men are assertive, women are difficult.
Research from the Center for Creative Leadership shows that women are referred to as “bossy” more often than men are. And even worse, those “bossy” women coworkers are seen as more unpopular and less successful when compared directly with “bossy” male coworkers.
As a result, women are more likely to tone down their behaviors in the interest of seeming more agreeable and cooperative.
According to McKinsey’s 2023 Women in the Workplace report, 78% of women who face microaggressions at work admit they adjust the way they look or act to protect themselves.
That can hold them back in pay conversations where some confidence and self-assuredness are necessary for them to advocate for themselves. “When doing so, women, and particularly Black and Brown women, are deemed aggressive, rude, or overbearing,” shares Daniela.
Fueling imposter syndrome
“Microaggressions in the workplace are often so insidious that they sometimes cause the individual to internalize those messages and start questioning themselves,” explains LaShawn.
And sure enough, imposter syndrome appears to be a mostly female phenomenon. In a recent study of 4,000 adults, 53% of women say they’ve experienced a feeling of unfounded self-doubt, incompetence, or being underqualified. In comparison, 54% of men say they’ve never felt imposter syndrome at all.
And unfortunately, that self-skepticism doesn’t fade as women climb the ladder. If anything, it intensifies. An alarming 75% of female executives across industries say they’ve experienced imposter syndrome in their careers, according to a survey of 750 high-performing executive women conducted by KPMG.
Plus, women who are historically underrepresented in their industries often deal with “assumptions from managers that the candidate should just ‘be grateful’ to have a job,” which minimizes their worth and skills when talking about money, explains Shanae.
Even with all of that self-doubt chipping away at their confidence, women still broach the subject of money. The claim that they don’t negotiate as much as men is a flat-out myth. But, while research shows that women approach compensation discussions just as much as men (if not more), they’re still more likely to be rejected.
Punishing parental leave
This aspect is a little more nuanced, but still well worth mentioning when discussing the experience of women at work. Not all working women are working mothers, but those that are face an additional uphill battle to advance their careers and their earnings.
“Those reentering the workforce report being negatively impacted in salary and advancement,” LaShawn explains. “For example, not being assigned projects with greater visibility in the company.”
“Those reentering the workforce report being negatively impacted in salary and advancement. For example, not being assigned projects with greater visibility in the company.”
This experience isn’t just anecdotal – there’s data to back it up. One report published in the Journal of Applied Psychology concluded that longer maternity leaves are related to reduced wages and more limited access to higher-level positions and other career advancements.
6 strategies to reduce microaggressions
The ties between microaggressions and pay equity are stronger than you might think. But now for the bigger question: What can you do about it?
1. Closely examine your performance review and promotion processes
First, take a magnifying glass to your existing processes. While you want to look for areas where bias can easily creep in (and provide adequate training to address those), it’s also important to understand what counts toward your performance reviews and your advancement decisions.
“Women more often take on additional unpaid labor, such as leading employee resource groups or organizing volunteer opportunities,” says LaShawn. “All of which advances the culture and is often touted by the company externally, but is rarely accounted for in the review.”
When a performance review cycle wraps up, look back through your data to identify patterns. “Are there certain demographics who are routinely landing above or below the line?” LaShawn asks. “Ask the pertinent questions about whether microaggressions are at play in the ‘why.’”
2. Make pay decisions in groups
Another helpful step is to “ensure no pay decisions are made in isolation,” explains Robert Franklin, co-founder at Seven Focus, a consulting firm focused on equity. “Having multiple people involved allows for challenging thinking, biases, and microaggressions.”
“Having multiple people involved allows for challenging thinking, biases, and microaggressions.”
But this isn’t just a numbers game, especially when groups easily fall victim to cognitive biases like groupthink and social conformity that cause mind melding.
To combat this, don’t just pull together a group – pull together a diverse group with people or leaders from different teams, backgrounds, and experiences. Not only will you mitigate biases, but diverse teams also make better decisions.
3. Conduct pay equity audits
A pay equity audit – a careful review of your compensation practices to ensure fairness – is one of the most meaningful and tangible things you can do to prioritize equal pay within your organization. And fortunately, SHRM research shows that an impressive 70% of employers currently do review their salaries.
If you don’t yet count your organization as part of that statistic? It’s time to step up. You can run this audit internally or bring an external expert or service provider to dig into the data and help you identify the best ways to address disparities.
While you’ll likely find areas in need of immediate fixes, you can use your audit information to take a more proactive approach too. “Many times, new processes and systems are put in place to further mitigate pay disparity,” says LaShawn.
4. Define clear pay and promotion criteria
Ambiguity is a clever way to avoid true equality, which is why “organizations can also get specific on what qualifies for what type or level of salary,” Robert shares.
How many years of experience do they need for a certain type of role? What counts as experience? What specific skills do they need to possess? How are they expected to demonstrate those skills? “By sharing what’s needed to achieve the highest levels, many of these acts of discrimination around salary and skill would be diminished,” adds Daniela.
When more than 83% of men said in a survey conducted by employee recognition platform Nectar that they understand how promotions work in their organizations, compared to only 76% of women, that level of detail gives women the clarity they need to better advocate for themselves.
5. Offer bias training (and plenty of opportunities for practice)
Of course, training and education are always popular and reliable suggestions when it comes to combating bias and discrimination at work. However, “there is an ongoing debate, even among trainers and educators, that bias training is not effective for behavior change,” warns Jamie Villarreal-Bassett, also a co-founder of Seven Focus.
Does that mean training is meaningless? Not exactly. Here’s the deal: Having your leaders participate in a single workshop or watch one PowerPoint presentation isn’t going to make much of a difference within your organization.
The real magic happens when they’re given opportunities to practice what they’ve learned in those trainings, including calling each other into conversations about the impacts of their own biases. “Organizations that build time, space, and structure for practicing skills learned in training realize the most rapid and sustained growth and change,” Jamie adds.
6. Prioritize pay transparency
You won’t get away with paying women less if you’re candid and upfront about salaries. And though the concept of pay transparency might have your stomach in your shoes (it’s worth questioning why you feel that way in the first place, by the way), publicly sharing salary information has proven to mitigate gender gaps in salary negotiations.
In fact, one 2022 study found that pay inequity fell by up to 45% in transparent organizations compared with those that were tight-lipped about their pay information.
If you’re not ready – or dealing with a lot of internal bureaucracy – before getting the go-ahead to attach real numbers to job descriptions, try including this simple word instead: negotiable.
True transparency is always better. But in job postings specifically, research from Harvard Kennedy School’s Women and Public Policy Program shows that if employers mention wages are negotiable, genders are equally likely to initiate a negotiation. In short, that seemingly inconsequential little word gives women a sense of “permission,” which boosts their willingness to negotiate.
Microaggressions lead to macro impacts
While the term “microaggression” is catchy, it’s really a misnomer. It makes these barbs and put-downs seem inconsequential when, in reality, they’re impactful and influential.
That’s especially true when it comes to pay equity within your organization. Microaggressions can sneak in and color your perceptions and processes in ways you might not even realize.
The good news is that there are things you can do to be more mindful of these subtle behaviors and ensure equitable pay. After all, whether you’re taking small steps or big steps doesn’t matter as much as ensuring you’re taking steps in the right direction.
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