Are you paid what you’re worth? Do you believe you deserve more money for the job you do? Are you making a job change and want the money to be as lucrative as possible in your new position?

If so, you need to ask for the money! I don’t know about you but negotiating salary and asking for money has never been my strong point. In the past I was never bold enough to really ask for what I felt I deserved. That being said, overall, the salaries I was offered were competitive so it wasn’t that big of a deal. Yet, if I were a man, perhaps I would’ve asked for more and received it which would’ve compounded my earning power over time.

Tory Johnson, CEO of Women For Hire and the official workplace contributor on ABC’s Good Morning America has written a third career book for women called “Take this Book to Work: How to Ask for (and Get) Money, Fulfillment and Advancement” . In it, she tackles the how-to’s in asking for (and receiving) more money. Here’s a startling fact from a recent advice column on their site:

“Men are four times more likely than women to negotiate the first offer, thus they accumulate an average of a half-million dollars more in their paychecks by age 60. Whether by nature or by nurture, many women shy away from negotiating salary. We assume that if we jump into the job, pull up our sleeves, and get down to business, someone will notice us and reward us accordingly. Rarely does that happen, and so you wind up cheating yourself out of money by not asking for it. ” A New Book from Women For Hire Tory Johnson, CEO of Women For Hire and the official workplace contributor on ABC’s Good Morning America

This statement is pretty hard hitting if you consider it from the lesbian demographic as a whole. After all, we are all women! This alone could account for a large portion of the shortfall in purchasing power when you compare gay men to lesbians. A recent article in the San Francisco Chronicle states:

The average California lesbian couple’s household income is $65,000, compared to $73,600 for gay men, according to census data.

While I haven’t poured over the census, I would suspect this is fairly consistent across the US. As a result, while we may outearn our straight counterparts, we still lag behind the male population. So, don’t let fear stand in your way to increasing your earning power. Take a peek at the book and arm yourself with the tools and knowledge to ask for the money you deserve.