Finding the right employer and learning to sell yourself are key factors in narrowing the construction gender pay gap, a panel of industry compensation and recruiting experts told attendees of ENR’sGroundbreaking Women in Construction会议8月25日。

The construction gender gap is narrower than in other business sectors, where some studies calculate that women are paid about 82 cents for every dollar a man earns, noted Jean McGrory, senior director of total rewards for莫滕森建筑and session moderator. A study by the data analytics firmPayScalefound that “when we control for job title, experience, industry, location … what happens then? You start to see that overall in the U.S., we make 99 cents for every dollar a man makes,” she said.

但是，她指出，在高薪建筑业领导职位上，男人仍然比女性多得多。当这些领导人退休时，“妇女如何进入这些角色并开始在行业中产生更大的影响？”她问。

金·巴克斯特（Kim Baxter），副总裁National Roofing Partners, emphasized the need for more leadership education that helps women “sell ourselves” effectively when it comes to seeking raises or equal compensation. “Women are fixers, doers, we take care of problems. But when it comes to ourselves, we tend to put ourselves second or third,” she said. “I attended a leadership course where we were coached on how to have a voice about yourself and how to move forward as a female in the construction industry.”

招聘公司高级招聘人员Stephanie KaufmanDHG搜索，强调寻找一位高级导师，以提出谈判技能的建议，因为人们提高了队伍。“确保您是前端的猛烈谈判者。它为您的职业发展定下了基调。与某人合作以提高这些优势。”

迈克尔·哈德里克（Michael Headrick），副总裁PCL Construction,也鼓励女性说话时的感觉it’s time for increased compensation. “If you work for a company you trust, you’ll typically get an answer or investigation or determination of what that compensation should be,” he said. “You need to have a good reason why you’re asking for the change. Speak up!”

The ability to assert oneself, he added, is a skillset that companies like PCL want.

巴克斯特补充说，但是有效地大声疾呼包括准备和倡导团队的能力。“您可以带来数字，例如销售[数字]……我很想促进您自己没有到达那里。您的员工帮助您到达那里。成为一个好的领导者表现出您的价值。努力工作并支持您的团队，并成为每个人都想每天与之合作的人。您可以准备好要点，但是大多数时候您不需要它们……否则也许您正在为错误的公司工作。有时您只是不为合适的老板工作。您需要找到要支持您的人。”她说。

She advised women leaders to not only take educational courses themselves, but to encourage their staff to do so as well. “I just finished aTEXO[Texas contractors association] leadership course for women … focused on how to sell yourself and take your team with you, not push people out of the way to get there,” she said.

Kaufman noted that sometimes women have to pick their battles and refine their expectations. Citing a past experience working for a large Midwest general contractor, she recalled “it was a bit of a challenge” recruiting women and people of color. “As a female going in, you have to take a look at the landscape. Don’t go in guns blazing. You’re not automatically going to change the world” just by being one of the first women in the company, she said. “In some companies, the culture just is not supportive of females or minorities to move up. Instead of being frustrated, I just realize I have to drive my own career. If I can’t do that here, I’ll find a company where I can.”

Headrick强调了与现场校长合作或受到指导的价值。他说：“ [校长]学会就他们所做的一切进行每天谈判。”与院长联系“是弄清楚如何成为自己的拥护者，但也有能力日复一日地谈判的好方法。”

He added that negotiation can’t just be taught in a classroom. “You have to practice. I encourage everyone to practice.”

Monetary compensation isn’t the only factor, and shouldn’t be the first item of discussion when interviewing for a new job, said Kaufman. “Compensation really comes up at the very end when the company is ready to present an offer. It’s about a good cultural fit for the candidate and company.”

巴克斯特补充说，薪酬并不总是关于金钱的。她建议，如果公司的预算不能促进加薪或促销，则该员工可以要求额外的假期，更多的病日，甚至一个小时的午餐时间来午餐，以便去健身房。

Headrick advised interviewees that in addition to being prepared to sell themselves, they should “reverse the chairs.”

He said it's useful to be “sitting in the opposite chair. What questions are you expecting to hear? When I conduct interviews, I like to throw out some crazy questions to see how [candidates] think on their feet. They have to be prepared enough to come up with an answer. That’s the business we’re in. We have to fight fire drills frequently.”