You're Worth It: Overcoming the Negotiation Gap

Image Courtesy of Satrio Ramadhan

Women have grown to occupy more space in the professional world and that includes dentistry. Today, 37.7% of working dentists in the US are female (Health Policy Institute, 2024), which might appear to be a relatively small proportion but compared to the 24.1% in 2010, it’s quite an improvement (HPI: Women Make up Growing Percentage of Dental Workforce, 2021)

Yet, despite the growing numbers in the dental industry and the advancement of women’s movements, the pay gap is still very much present. In 1990, a female dentist made approximately $66,000 compared to her male counterpart who earned nearly $144,000. In 2010, the gap remained, female dentists earned about $120,000 while male dentists earned $185,000 (Now, 2018).

Today, a 22% pay gap still exists (Gundavarapu et al., 2023). I know because I have had firsthand experience with this. Recently, I went to a work interview and prior to the interview day, I had negotiated a daily rate of $700, which I was comfortable with. On the day of the interview, I saw a male colleague of mine and as we were catching up, I learned that he was given a daily rate of $750. Learning this information was troubling and here is why it concerned me: He had 6 months of work experience while I had 2 years of work experience. He was not open to doing root canals while I was open to doing all types of procedures. When looking at the situation objectively, his clinical preferences limited his production for the office and yet he was still earning more money than me. That’s when I started to question if the fear of negotiating was a personal weakness or a weakness shared by all women.

One would assume that the growing presence and influence of female dentists in the space would reinforce the confidence of other female dentists but in fact, female dentists are finding it difficult to advocate for themselves and this is leading to big losses, financially and professionally.

According to a Harvard Business Review (2021), 20% of females fail to negotiate their first salary. By avoiding the money talk they are losing about $7,000 in their first year of work and over a 45-year career that sum can reach 1 million dollars.

So why are women voluntarily giving up their hard-earned dollars? Well, there are many reasons, but three common underlying reasons are:

1. They don’t value their work. Women undermine their contribution or impact as providers, which may be attributed to their biological and social conditioning.

2. Women are grateful to even be given an opportunity. Social constructs have reiterated that females are less preferred and so they are more inclined to accept any offer to lessen the burden.

3. Fear of backlash. Women are afraid of confrontation because of the possibility of appearing bossy or unfeminine.

So, what can we, as female dentists, do to win a seat at the table?

1. Recognize your value. You are doing the same procedures as your male counterpart with equal credentials, so you are not less than.

2. Prepare yourself before a negotiation. Know what you’re looking for and what you are willing to compromise so that you don’t appear uncertain during a discussion.

3. Balance assertiveness with empathy. Use words like “we”, “us” and “team” to remind your employer that your reason for negotiating is for the betterment of the entire practice and not opportunistic.

4. Establish a position of power. Get comfortable in your space. The more space you take up, the more likely you are to dominate the room.

5. Practice negotiating. The more you negotiate the more comfortable you will become having and overcoming these awkward conversations.

(Women Negotiation Skills - Professional &Amp; Executive Development | Harvard DCE, 2024)

We women have already proven that we are just as capable as our male counterparts by earning the same title and holding the same leadership roles within our respective communities but it’s now time we start believing it too. So, stand up and have the confidence to negotiate — “because you’re worth it”.

References

De Janasz, S. (2021, November 30). How women can get what they want in a negotiation. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2018/08/how-women-can-get-what-they-want-in-a-negotiation

2. Gundavarapu, S. S., Surdu, S., & Langelier, M. (2023). Exploring the impact of household, personal, and employment characteristics on dentistry’s income gap between men and women. The Journal of the American Dental Association, 154(2), 159-170.e3. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adaj.2022.11.007

3. Health Policy Institute. (2024). Supply of dentists in the U.S.: 2001-2023 [Dataset]. American Dental Association. https://www.ada.org/en/resources/research/health-policy-institute/dentist-workforce

4. HPI: Women make up growing percentage of dental workforce. (2021). American Dental Association. https://adanews.ada.org/ada-news/2021/march/women-make-up-growing-percentage-of-dental-workforce/

5. Now, N. D. (2018, May 31). Women dentists reflect on gender gap in earnings. New Dentist Blog. https://newdentistblog.ada.org/women-dentists-reflect-on-gender-gap-in-earnings/ Women Negotiation Skills - Professional & Executive Development | Harvard DCE. (2024, January 8).

6. Professional & Executive Development | Harvard DCE. https://professional.dce.harvard.edu/blog/women-negotiation-skills-how-women-can-get-what-the y-want-in-a-negotiation/