Are you a mom? Are you horribly underpaid? Here’s how to get the money you deserve

The gender pay gap is well documented, and sadly still an issue in 2023.

Women make 84 cents for each dollar their male counterparts earn. In the early part of a young woman’s career, pay inequity isn’t as noticeable because it’s simply not as severe. It’s when adults decide to build their families that the gap between women and men's’ earnings widens the most, between the ages of 35 and 44.

It’s here in this age range that women earn 74 cents on every dollar a father earns. Some researchers refer to this as the fatherhood bonus. Also of considerable note is that the pay gap is much worse for Black, Latina and Indigenous women.

The tricky part is that the pay gap never closes completely in 94 per cent of occupations after mothers return to work. So the argument that the pay gap stems from women choosing lower paying work just because they are working mothers is bunk.

I could go on about the appalling salary data, but there’s a great new book by Janine Rogan that does a better job called “The Pink Tax: Dismantling a Financial System Designed to Keep Women Broke.”

Instead my focus is to try to be helpful to mothers who are in the thick of the pay gap and are suffering financially.

Find out what your employer is doing about pay gaps in general to see if your values align

Top employers audit pay bands by race, age, gender, orientation, position, experience and more. When these employers come across inequities, they fix them. And, if you come across these inequities first and bring it to them, they fix them. Top employers hire with diversity as a top priority and into key positions.

These employers often prioritize and promote male parental leave, flexible work schedules, robust retirement savings programs and financial planning support for employees, remote or hybrid work, complete transparency around pay bands and some even have on-site child care. So, if you find yourself looking for work, looks for these employer characteristics.

If it seems your employer isn’t doing enough about the pay and position inequities, it’s possible there is a misalignment on core values in general; so, time to wrap your head around leaving for an employer that cares to be a leader in this area (they do exist!).

Get to know what you should be paid, and use this data in salary negotiations

You should be paid properly for the work you’re doing and that means at or above the market rate. Some of my favourite places to look for comparable salary data include: Payscale; Glassdoor; job posting sites like LinkedIn, Monster and Indeed (many employers are starting to post pay bands alongside job descriptions; consulting firms like Hays and Morgan McKinley publish salary guides and calculators; and professional associations often publish salary data for their members.

Armed with data, you can enter salary negotiations with a current employer from a position of strength. Your request for equal pay is based on real information that can’t be ignored. If the competitive market data isn’t compelling enough for your employer to correct your pay, and you’re underpaid by more than 15 per cent, it’s a sign you need to change jobs.

Mothers are some of the most productive members of the workforce and if growth is something you want, make a plan that can be shared with others who can help make it happen.

These plans typically consist of two to three professional goals and one personal development goal that you set for the year, but are updated quarterly. If you’re struggling with making a plan for your career, which I know I certainly had to wrestle with after my son was born amidst the pandemic, you may want to invest in career coaching, designing a new job seekers profile on LinkedIn or pairing up with a mentor.

It’s not lost upon me that all of these activities take precious time that most working mothers simply don’t have much of and these activities all require the courage to do things differently, and to ask for what you want.

Working at these items a bit every week is going to do wonders for your personal financial wellness and your career confidence. From a financial well-being perspective, many good things will come from earning more; which enables your ability to save for retirement and to design the life you desire, and can better afford.

This article was originally published in The Star. Lesley-Anne Scorgie is a Toronto-based personal finance columnist and a freelance contributing columnist for the Star.