If you could earn thousands of dollars more a year just by having a two-minute conversation, would you do it? That might sound like an easy “Yes,” but for a lot of people, the answer, surprisingly, is no.

A startling number of people don’t negotiate their salary when they’re offered a job or haven’t had a raise in a long time. Over more than a decade of writing an advice column about work, I’ve been stunned by how frequently people tell me they’ve never fought for bigger numbers, not even once during their careers. Instead, they accept the first number an employer offers, because they’re worried that they’ll look greedy or mercenary. This strikes me as odd—the whole reason we work is for pay! And that conservative approach leaves people making far less than they could earn if they pushed past the discomfort and spoke up. READ MORE