Kerry Jones, Marketing Manager at research team Fractl, discovered that though overall white males are most likely to ask for a raise, men of any race generally leave behind their female counterpart. In the percentage of people who have asked for a raise surveyed, 75.5 % of white men had, versus 49.6% of white women. Of black men surveyed, 64.9% had asked for a raise versus 47.4% of black women. The racial/gender group that appeared least likely to ask for a raise were Asian women, at just 40.8%, with Asian men at 51.8%.
There was also a disparity in who said they felt comfortable asking for a raise against who actually did, with 69.9% of black men, for example, saying that they’d be fine with it. This may be because people are generally more comfortable asking for raises from someone of the same race or gender as themselves, and the more of a minority you are the less likely you are to find management who you identify with. Jones writes:
More than a third of female respondents believe they’ve been passed up for a raise on account of their gender or race. Perhaps women feel they are less likely to be rejected if the person across the negotiation table looks like them. While white women were most likely to think their gender played a role in a denied raise request, non-white women were more likely to believe a raise was denied due to their race or a combination of factors.
