Start Smart and Work Smart

Start Smart Salary Negotiation workshops prepare college women who are approaching the job market with the confidence, knowledge, and skills they need to negotiate salaries and benefits.

When students leave the Start Smart campus workshop, they learn

  • how the gender wage gap affects their lives
  • how to develop a personal budget to determine salary needs
  • how to benchmark salary and benefits
  • how to negotiate for their first salary out of college

According to AAUW research, just one year after graduation, women earn just 82 percent of what their male counterparts earn, and the gender wage gap widens over the next 10 years.

Upcoming Workshops

Check back soon for dates, times, and locations of upcoming workshops.

Work Smart

Working women in the U. S. are typically paid 80 percent of what men are paid. The difference is even more pronounced for African American, Hispanic/Latina, Native, or Asian American women. The pay gap in Iowa is among the worst in the fifty states.

Women who know how to negotiate increase their potential to earn higher salaries and better benefits packages. AAUW is committed to helping women earn what they are worth, so is offering a FREE, online Work Smart negotiations workshop to anyone, whether or not she is a member of AAUW. To take the approximately two-hour workshop go to salary.aauw.org.