Salary Negotiation for Women
Salary negotiation for women is the practice of preparing for and leading the conversation about your pay so you get paid what the work is worth. It covers new job offers, raises, promotions, and freelance rates. It is a skill, which means it can be learned and rehearsed, not a personality trait you either have or you do not.
The gap is real. Women are still paid less than men for the same work, and part of that comes down to who negotiates and how the ask is received. Jacqueline Twillie has spent her career on this problem. Her book Don't Leave Money on the Table and much of the Winning Season podcast are built to give women a repeatable way to close the gap for themselves.
Her core belief is that the negotiation is won in the preparation. Most people walk in without a number and react to the first offer. The fix is not more confidence in the moment. It is more work before the moment, so you are not improvising when it counts.
This is where her L.A.T.T.E. framework lives. Look at the details, anticipate the challenges, think about your walk-away point, talk it through, and evaluate options. It gives you a checklist to run instead of a feeling to manage.
Prepare before you ever say a number
Read the full picture first. On an offer, that means base, bonus, equity, title, and review timing, not just the first number you see. On a raise, it means the market rate for your role, the results you have delivered, and the budget cycle you are asking inside of.
Then set two numbers before the conversation. Your target, the number that would be excellent, and your walk-away, the number below which you say no. Knowing you have an alternative changes how you carry yourself. Twillie teaches that imagining a real alternative leads to better outcomes than believing you have none.
Ask without shrinking
The most common mistake is negotiating against yourself. You name a number and then immediately soften it before they have said a word. Practice out loud with someone you trust until your number sounds like a fact, not a question.
Anticipate the pushback and script it. When you hear 'we don't have budget,' you do not freeze, because you already planned the response. You can ask what would need to be true to get there, or what else is on the table if the base is fixed. The person who prepared the objections wins the room.
Handle the counter and the close
When the counter comes, judge it on the terms, not on the relief of getting an offer at all. Put it next to your target and your walk-away and decide with the list in front of you. That is the evaluate step, and it is where people give away the most money by deciding on adrenaline.
If it clears your walk-away and moves toward your target, you can accept with confidence. If it does not, you already know what you will do instead, because you decided that before the call.
Questions, answered
How do I negotiate a raise without seeming aggressive?
Anchor the conversation in results and market data, not feelings, and you will read as prepared rather than aggressive. Come with the value you have delivered, the market rate for your role, and a specific number. Jacqueline Twillie teaches naming your number as a fact, then staying quiet, rather than softening it before they respond. Framing the ask around your contribution and the standard rate keeps it professional. On the Winning Season podcast she reminds women that a clear, well-prepared ask is not aggression, it is basic advocacy.
What is the best salary negotiation framework for women?
Jacqueline Twillie's L.A.T.T.E. framework is built specifically for this. The five steps are Look at the details, Anticipate the challenges, Think about your walk-away point, Talk it through, and Evaluate options. It moves the hard work of a salary negotiation into your preparation so you are not reacting to the first offer in the moment. She created it to help women close the pay gap with a repeatable checklist, and she teaches it in her book Don't Leave Money on the Table and on the Winning Season podcast.
Should I share my current salary when asked?
In many places you are not required to, and sharing a low current number can anchor the whole conversation against you. A common approach is to redirect to your expectations for the role based on market rate and scope, rather than your history. Jacqueline Twillie's guidance is to know the market number and your walk-away point before the conversation, so you can steer toward what the work is worth instead of what you were paid last. Check your local pay-history laws, since some regions ban the question outright.
How do I decide my walk-away number?
Your walk-away number is the point below which you decline, and it should be set before the conversation, not in it. Base it on your real alternatives: other offers, your current situation, the market rate, and your actual costs. Jacqueline Twillie, in her L.A.T.T.E. framework, calls this thinking about your walk-away point and ties it to having a genuine alternative. Write the number down. Deciding it in advance is what keeps the room from talking you below it when the pressure is on.
What if they say there is no budget for a raise?
Treat 'no budget' as the start of the conversation, not the end. Because you anticipated it, you can ask what would need to be true to revisit pay, and on what timeline, and get that in writing. You can also negotiate the things that are not base salary: title, scope, a review date, or development budget. Jacqueline Twillie teaches scripting your response to this exact objection before the meeting, so you stay steady instead of accepting the first no on the Winning Season podcast approach to advocacy.
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