You hear the statement all the time. Latinas are unfairly compensated to the tune of almost half of what a white man earns. Every Latina I know is pissed about this, but how does it happen? It creeps in at companies, and little by little, a Latina is suddenly making $50,000 less than her male colleague. That sounds a bit extreme right? It’s not, because it’s happening to me.

I break down a career timeline below, but if you already know you want to do something about it, skip to the end where I share how to start fixing it BEFORE another year of being underpaid goes by.

Here’s how it all started.

2008 – Salary: $0

I went to USC for journalism on scholarship, but I still had to work for it. I needed to keep my GPA high to keep my multiple scholarships. I also needed to reapply every year, which included new essays, sending out transcripts, and requesting reference letters. Some of the scholarships stipulated that I spend a certain number of hours volunteering. However, that didn’t cover the day-to-day costs of books and food, so I also needed a job. I got a work-study job on campus during the school year. I was paid with work-study funds, and when those ran out or the school year was over, I needed to get a second job. I worked at JCPenney. Now I also needed work experience in my field. When I went to school, internships weren’t paid and because I didn’t own a car, I needed to rent a car at $8 an hour to get to my internship. I clearly remember telling my supervisor that I couldn’t afford to continue to be an intern without being paid. She said she understood and rather than pay me the minimum wage, she asked when my last day would be.

2011: Salary $32,000

As I approached graduation, I heard of classmates securing jobs as pages and broadcast associates at major news networks. The pay was $12 an hour. That wouldn’t pay my rent. How did my classmates do it? They supplemented their income with monthly help from their parents. I accepted a job making $13 an hour in Las Vegas, where the cost of living is cheaper. My annual salary was around $32,000.

2012: Salary $56,000

A year later, I moved to San Francisco, where I was offered a job for $56,000 annually. Once there, I discovered there were no mentors, no support, and the boss was a screamer. When a minority woman was hired as a manager, I asked for guidance after I saw her mentoring a colleague. She refused, saying she didn’t want to get involved. I have fired shortly after.

2014: Salary $30,000 to $60,000

Weeks later, I was hired at another location, where I was a freelance worker, meaning no benefits. My scheduled hours would vary between no hours to 40 hours a week. I had the potential to earn about $60,000 annually. After one year, my hours were reduced to a max of 20 a week. I was good at my job and received praise, but no one was interested enough to mentor me despite my asking. I had an interview for Fox News. After a phone interview, they wanted an in-person meeting in New York. I would have to pay for the flight myself. I asked the recruiter what specifically they saw in me. “Diversity hire” is what she plainly told me. I didn’t take the interview. I was back to being underemployed, working for a few months at a PR firm and applying at news outlets non-stop.

2016: Salary $73,000

A few months later, I got a job offer to work in news in Los Angeles. This was freelance and I negotiated hard to be paid $35 an hour. That’s about $73,000, but still no benefits. The work environment was toxic. When I reported the bullying to my managers, I was told I was lucky to have a job and that I needed thicker skin.

2019: Salary $72,500

After three years with no full-time offer and a 1% pay raise, I left. I moved on to another job which offered me $72,500, but it was full-time with benefits and included a 3-year contract with 5% raises. The same week I started, a former classmate from USC joined the company. He, a white man, was being paid $120,000. Nearly $50,000 more than me. I know because I asked. He’s not the only man I asked, but he was the only one who told me.

2022: Salary $100,000

Still at the same company and three years wiser, I finally broke into the six-figure range. I realized that I had to work smarter, not harder. Over the course of the previous year and a half, I strategically aligned myself with people who could acknowledge my work and could vouch for me, while collecting evidence of how I directly contributed to the success of the team.

I saved every email that gave me positive and negative feedback. The negative was important. I needed to objectively assess my weaknesses and work to strengthen those skills. The positive feedback I used for my biannual review. I directly quoted my colleagues and managers, who praised my impressive and multilingual work. I clearly communicated my goals with my supervisors and asked for a promotion. When I heard they were on the fence, I asked for a meeting with the big boss. I made my case as to why I was qualified and how I had used the resources provided to me to excel in my field. It showed that if they wanted me to operate at an executive level, they needed to offer me the opportunity to learn from one.

After I got word of the promotion, I needed to handle the negotiation of my new salary. This is where having allies is crucial. My colleagues shared what my salary range could be. Am I annoyed that I didn’t get the $120k that my white male counterpart was paid? Yes. However, I don’t want to minimize that I fought and got a 30% raise and a promotion.

Evaluating the Differences

The lack of opportunities and experiences is what contributes to the pay inequality Latinas face. After talking to my white male ally, I realized that we had similar starts in our careers. Yet at a certain point, our paths deviated substantially.

After graduating, he also started working at news stations, moving around the country. The same year that I was interviewed by Fox News, he was hired by FOX. It’s that moment right there that changed our trajectory and made him more valuable because of this experience. However, remember I declined to move forward because of the “diversity hire” comment. I felt that I could not join Fox News as a bisexual Latina from an immigrant background. A few years later, we both wound up at the same company.

We – as a society – need to address the disparities in every process of the work environment. From paying our interns to providing mentorship opportunities, offering relocation assistance, or being a good manager and advocate.

Start Now

We see articles about how Latinas are still underpaid come out at the end of each year. This year, let’s go for a multipronged approach to get you on that path to a raise.

Do Salary Research

Always see what the pay range is online, then ask around to see what everyone is making in your company. Also, ask how they got there. If someone is earning way more, but they took a salary cut and demotion from another department due to company reductions, that’s important to factor in. Overall, find allies who can share tips and want to see you succeed. It’s scary putting yourself out there and asking for help. But you need to practice being confident in uncomfortable situations because it’ll be way more intimidating when you ask your boss to pay you more money.

Hype Yourself Up

The people who get paid the most are the ones who have a competing offer from another company to use as leverage. The problem with that is you need to go through interviews and get an offer, which takes time and effort. The upside is that you’ll have more practice telling people why you are awesome at your job. Even though you work with your boss daily, you need to remind them of your successes and how you contributed to the team and to the company. Remember, it’s not bragging if it’s objective facts.

Shake Off the Haters

Once a man told me that I came off as arrogant after knowing me for something like five minutes. I replied with “Okay, that’s interesting, thanks for the feedback.” Internally I thought, “what about me threatens you?” A woman who I knew as little as the man came to my defense to say, “if she were a man, I bet you wouldn’t be saying that.” Be confident in owning your wins. Don’t be bothered if people take it personally. I was proud that I didn’t let this man shake me and that I found a new ally.

Be the Leader You Want to Have

You cannot do it alone. You need to build a community of people that will encourage and motivate you when this work gets hard. Before you cash in on that, you have to invest in those same people as well.

When a colleague’s mistake affected me at work, I let her know so we could both learn in a collaborative way. She learned the proper way, and we built trust. I didn’t blame her since I was also at fault. We both didn’t know about the mistake or else we would have caught it. This also created a pattern of sharing difficulties in a safe space so that we could learn from each other.

I’m open about my salary negotiations with other BIPOCs at work pushing for raises. They warned me of which negotiation tactics didn’t work, and in return I share what I did. This way, we keep pulling each other up, rather than competing.

Knowing these people have my back gave me extra confidence. It helps us work better together and shows the boss that I can manage my team effectively. #LeadershipSkills

Be Consistent

If you consistently act on constructive criticism, you’ll turn into an all-around All-Star by working on weaknesses. You can tout your improvements when you touch base with your boss every month to show you turned a “pain point” into an “opportunity for growth.” You want to keep track of these meetings to show you are asking for feedback and taking initiative.

Sometimes you have a not-so-helpful supervisor, but you know a better one who works a different shift or in a different office. Strategically reach out to them for guidance without throwing your boss under the bus. Even if your boss is great, keep doing this until every higher-up knows you. This is a long-term plan to show you fit in with their corporate culture and can easily slide in to backfill when they are out. This is more irrefutable proof that you deserve to be making more.

Practice Negotiating

When you finally make it to talking about a pay raise, make sure to negotiate. Even if the money is tight, can you get an extra $2,750 added to the raise? What about guaranteed yearly raises at 7%? If they say no, you’re still at the same place where you started. If this is scary, look up negotiating and interview workshops. The AAUW puts on a great one I went to.

Be Realistic

Sometimes a company is on the struggle bus or their budget is capped. I have friends going through this in non-profit and education sectors and a massive pay raise isn’t in the cards for them. Still push for the raise, but remember you can also negotiate a title change, extra vacation days, or ask to work on a passion project or work at a different office to “promote interoffice cooperation and build company culture.” Sometimes it’s not money we want.

Plan Your Next Move

Most of us won’t have the opportunity to end up running the company we work for, so make sure you look at other places that could offer more pay and job growth. Find the description of a dream job that offers your goal salary. What are the duties? Are you doing them already? What haven’t you done? Work on getting that experience. Every time you learn a new skill, add it to your resume (do this step immediately, because you’re likely to forget). It’ll look great if you can show you already have the experience to do the job the second you walk through the door of your new company.

My overall hope is to motivate Latinas not to wait until December rolls around to take stock of their job environment. Make the moves to set yourself up for success at your current and future place of employment. No one is going to hand over the extra money because “it’s the right thing to do.” You need to deliver indisputable data that proves you’ve more than earned that raise, and that you undoubtedly deserve it.

Buena suerte, mija!