Compversation #27 - No Need to Negotiate Again?

Skills, performance, experience, role complexity, and the scope of responsibilites…. 

All of these factors can (and should!) influence an employee’s pay. What shouldn’t be a factor? Unless the employee is a crisis negotiator, their ability to negotiate should never be given more weight than other soft or hard skills.

Let’s consider this for a moment: why on earth should a developer, an accountant, or even a product manager be rewarded for a skill that isn’t particularly relevant to their job? 

Yet, the ability to negotiate continues to influence compensation packages. A survey conducted by CultivatedCulture of 22,000 respondents revealed that 46% of those who negotiated their salary received more than they expected, and 93% managed to beat the initial offer…

Assume two employees both start their careers earning €63,000 and receive a 10% raise every five years. If one of them negotiates an extra 10% each time, that person ends up earning €1.7 million more over the course of their career.

For most of us (myself included!), that feels pretty unfair and unjustified.

But what about salespeople? Their “negotiation skills” are directly tied to how well they do their job, right?

Yes, for sure. But in reality, even though sales roles involve a degree of negotiation, there are plenty of other traits that make a great salesperson. Some may even be excellent negotiators for the company’s benefit, but not necessarily for their own.

So really, there’s no good reason to give negotiation skills so much weight. Even for salespeople. Especially since negotiation is the biggest driver of gender pay gaps within companies for equivalent roles.

Of course, there are systemic biases that prevent women from accessing certain positions (like the glass ceiling, or discouragement from pursuing scientific or technical careers).

But when it comes to negotiation, women often lose out compared to their male peers in equally valuable positions.

That’s why many of us have been advocating for years to eliminate salary negotiations altogether. And the new European legislation on pay equity seems to be moving in that direction. Towards a complete disappearance of negotiation in the workplace? 

Hmmm, not so fast.

Sorry, your colleague just negotiated better…

Soon, giving that answer to someone asking why their colleague earns more won’t just be unacceptable; it’ll be illegal.

That’s the spirit of the European Pay Transparency Directive, which will soon be implemented into law across member states. All pay decisions must be based on fair, neutral, and objective criteria (and of course, they must be non-gendered). To discourage recruiters who might still be tempted to negotiate, the directive includes specific provisions, like banning questions about a candidate’s current salary.

This should, amongst other things, reduce the anchoring bias. The first number mentioned in a negotiation “anchors” the discussion at a certain level. If that number’s too low, it’s hard for the candidate to bring it back up later. It becomes a vicious cycle: miss your first negotiation, and it’s nearly impossible to catch up.

The spirit of the law is clear: if only objective criteria determine pay, this will gradually reduce the role of negotiation…

But to eliminate it entirely? Honestly, even if pay becomes highly regulated, it’s hard to imagine negotiation disappearing completely from a career path.

For instance, even applying for a management role or making yourself available for promotion can be a form of negotiation (we’ll get to that later). But the goal is to make companies accountable, so they can’t justify pay gaps, especially between men and women, by saying one person “negotiated better.”

Negotiation for everyone?

Obviously, these changes won’t happen overnight. And simply incorporating the European directive into law in June 2026 won’t magically remove the role negotiation in career paths. 

So, what do we do in the meantime to make professional trajectories fairer? We know negotiations tend to work out less well for women than for men, and they’re less likely to get what they want through that process.

While gender is the most visible and serious factor, many others come into play. Not everyone walks into a negotiation on equal footing. Success can depend on personality, sociocultural background, or even nationality. 

One potential solution is to reduce this inequality by teaching negotiation skills to those who need them. Many initiatives offer coaching workshops to help women develop tactics for getting better outcomes. I’ve run such workshops myself, convinced that part of the problem lay in women’s hesitation to negotiate, due to biases and learned behaviours shaped by a sexist society. But I came to realise this approach is problematic in several ways:

• First, it shifts the responsibility for the pay gap onto women themselves, implying they’re just not good enough at negotiating. In fact, a fascinating 2023 study published in the Annual Review of Economics explored different strategies to reduce the gender gap in salary negotiations. It found that encouraging women to negotiate, besides being guilt-inducing, is less effective than systemic changes that reduce the weight of negotiation within companies. The authors advocate for an approach that focuses on “fixing the system,” not “fixing women’s behaviour.”

• Another recent study completely changed my perspective. I’d always assumed women were less likely to negotiate. But a team of three American researchers proved in 2023 that this is actually an outdated stereotype. In reality, women don’t negotiate less than men. This gap existed at the end of the 20th century, then narrowed, and has now reversed. Today, 54% of women negotiate, compared to 44% of men. However, women are still more likely to be told “no” when they try.

Of course, this may vary by geography, and some studies contradict these findings; for example, surveys in the Balkans or the UK still show women being less likely to negotiate.

Even so, until things change, I don’t see how we can entirely phase out negotiation workshops. After all, they’re a pragmatic fix in an imperfect system.

It reminds me of the debates around affirmative action law. We need practical measures that drive quick results. Yes, the idea of quotas has sparked heated debates, but the law has undeniably improved gender parity on corporate boards. And that’s helped reshape mental models and, eventually, drive deeper societal change. 

As a fan of Christopher Nolan, allow me to quote The Dark Knight: negotiation workshops, like Batman, are “the hero Gotham deserves,” even if they’re far from perfect.

Should we let the loudest voices win?

When it comes to negotiation, the truth is complicated, and I’m not without contradictions myself.

I’ve spoken out publicly against negotiation in the workplace for years, and I’ve never negotiated my own salary. Yet… when managing Figures, I value initiative and reward employees who take action, push for transfers, or ask for promotions. Isn’t that, in a way, encouraging negotiation?

And it’s not just us — I’ve seen the same in some of the most transparent organisations I admire. Take Lucca, for example, which is known for its pay transparency. The company also practices self-determined salaries. Beyond standard raises, each employee can make their case by submitting a file explaining why they deserve more.

It’s a question I used to ask myself back at Criteo: promotions there were based on individual initiative, meaning that to be promoted, you first had to formally ask for it. So, how much of this behaviour is shaped by social bias? Are men, who are often raised to be more self-confident, simply more likely to put themselves forward?

As an HR professional, I often remind myself that one of my missions is not to let the loudest voices always win — to make sure those who do great work quietly, efficiently, and without fuss still get the recognition they deserve.

How do we balance that with a company culture I deeply value, one that prizes initiative and personal ownership?

I haven’t figured it out yet. So, I’ll throw the question to you — maybe it’ll get you thinking too.

If you have ideas, I’d love to hear them. My inbox is open!

To continue the conversation 

Here’s a selection of reads to keep the discussion alive. And please, send me any articles you’ve found thought-provoking!

2025 Fair Impact Report – PayScale 

Payscale’s annual report is out, confirming something I’ve observed myself: employees often believe they’re underpaid, even when they’re at or above market average. This creates real retention challenges, even for employers who are fair on pay. I’ll dig into this in an upcoming issue.

Gender Differences in Negotiation: Can Interventions Reduce the Gap? – María P. Recalde & Lise Vesterlund – Annual Review of Economics 

I highly recommend this paper, which examines the effectiveness of various strategies to reduce gender gaps in salary negotiations, from individual interventions to systemic reforms.