Female workers should use their 'negotiator potential' to close the gender pay gap

Female workers will struggle to close the current gender pay gap of 20.2% unless they become more proactive in negotiating salary increases with their bosses, claims an expert.

But the problem, according to Corinne Mills, managing director of consultancy Personal Career Management, is that too many women undervalue their contribution to the business and are reluctant to talk about how much they are worth in case of a negative reaction.

"In my experience, men simply ask for pay rises more often than women who hardly ever seem to at all and often seem embarrassed to talk about money," she said. "Some of the pay disparity between men and women may partly be explained by men asking for salary rises, while women don't."

She added that employers were unlikely to pay a higher salary unless they needed to, but men tended to simply grab the bull by the horns rather than agonise about whether to seize the initiative.