I talked to three women who asked for higher pay. This is what they got

By Natalie Todoroff, Bankrate.com

When Jessye Kass Karlin asked for a raise, she didn’t just need one person to say “yes.” She needed eight.

A director of programs at a women’s shelter in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Karlin was in her mid-20s, making around $60,000 per year. She sought a $20,000 salary increase and a new title: executive director. “I sort of had that role already but didn’t have the title or pay to honor the work that I was doing,” she tells me.

Karlin felt she was doing everything right, and then some. Before, the shelter had no formalized volunteer prep, so she created trainings focused on de-escalation tactics and dealing with trauma, as well as an official eight-hour onboarding process. During her tenure, Karlin also increased volunteer retention by almost 80% and boos