A 2024 Resume-Now survey of 1,000 workers across the US, UK, France, and Germany found that 60% named not asking for a pay raise as their top career regret, the single highest-frequency item in the survey. On the action side, a separate Fidelity Investments study of 1,524 US workers found that 85% of those who counteroffered got at least some of what they asked for. The resulting action-regret rate is estimated at around 20% — an upper bound derived from the Fidelity success rate and the absence of any direct “do you regret asking?” measure, rather than a directly measured figure.
Pew Research Center’s 2023 nationally representative survey (5,188 employed US workers) found that most workers did not ask for higher pay than what was initially offered when last hired: only about 30% said they did ask (32% of men, 28% of women). That large non-negotiating majority is directionally consistent with the Resume-Now regret finding, suggesting that the population that never asked overlaps heavily with the population that later wishes it had. Alongside the 60% who regret not asking for a pay increase, 51% of Resume-Now respondents regret not asking for a promotion and 58% regret not negotiating salary when taking a job, so missed-compensation regrets cluster near the top of the list. This pattern is consistent with Gilovich’s temporal model, where counterfactuals about paths not taken solidify and become harder to dismiss as careers progress.
The main caveat is that the 20% action-regret rate is inferred rather than observed. No large study was found that directly asked workers who had negotiated a raise whether they regret doing so. The Fidelity figure counts any partial win as success, which may still leave a negotiator feeling undercompensated. Regret rates are also subject to hindsight bias: workers who remain underpaid may retrospectively attribute their situation entirely to a single missed negotiation when structural factors — industry, credential, local labor market — also constrained the outcome. Even so, the directional asymmetry is consistent across multiple independent data sources and fits the established Gilovich inaction-dominance pattern for long-term career regrets.
Źródła: działanie
Rejestr twierdzeń
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1/2 źródeł niezależnie zweryfikowanych słowo w słowo z podanym źródłem
[1]Resume-Now — Career Regrets Survey 2024
Zweryfikowane
Badanie pierwotne
60% of workers name not asking for a pay increase as their top career regret; the survey does not measure regret among those who did ask, so the action-side rate is derived (see calculation_notes)
Cytat
“"Top career regrets include not asking for a pay increase (60%), not prioritizing work-life balance in one's career (59%), staying at a job too long (58%), and not negotiating salary when taking a job (58%)."
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Dane źródłowe z
2024-03-01
Dostęp
2026-05-13
Weryfikacja
Cytat niezależnie pobrany ponownie i potwierdzony słowo w słowo z podanym źródłem podczas naszego audytu ugruntowania.
Obliczenie
Resume-Now survey of 1,000 US, UK, French, and German workers, 2024. The 20% action-regret rate is a conservative estimate derived as follows: the survey does not report a direct "do you regret asking?" figure. However, the combination of (a) 60% inaction regret and (b) Fidelity's independent finding that 85% of negotiators got something out of the ask implies that fewer than 20% of people who asked experienced a clearly negative outcome. The 20% estimate is an upper bound on action regret, including people who felt awkward, sensed social penalty, or received a flat refusal with no follow-up offer.
[2]CNBC / Fidelity Investments — Negotiating a job offer works: 85% of Americans who counteroffered were successful↗ 1 other entry
Źródło referencyjne
85% of Americans who counteroffered on salary or benefits got at least some of what they asked for
Cytat
“"85% of Americans -- and 87% of professionals ages 25 to 35 -- who countered on salary, other compensation or benefits, or both pay and other compensation and benefits got at least some of what they asked for."
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Dane źródłowe z
2022-05-13
Dostęp
2026-05-13
Obliczenie
Fidelity Investments / Engine Insights survey of 1,524 US adults ages 25-70, conducted March 2022. The 85% success rate is used as the primary anchor for the action-side: if 85% obtained a partial or full win, the maximum plausible regret rate among those who asked is approximately 15-20%, and the actual rate is likely lower because not every unsuccessful negotiation results in lasting regret.
Źródła: bezczynność
Rejestr twierdzeń
Każda liczba poniżej jest tym, co podało dane źródło — z dosłownym cytatem, na którym się oparliśmy, i sposobem, w jaki doszliśmy do naszej wartości. Kliknij dowolny link, żeby zweryfikować bezpośrednio.
[1]Resume-Now — Career Regrets Survey 2024
Badanie pierwotne
60% of workers name not asking for a pay increase as their number one career regret; 51% regret not asking for a promotion
Cytat
“"Top career regrets include not asking for a pay increase (60%), not prioritizing work-life balance in one's career (59%), staying at a job too long (58%), and not negotiating salary when taking a job (58%). 51% of employees regret not asking for a promotion."
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Dane źródłowe z
2024-03-01
Dostęp
2026-05-13
Obliczenie
Resume-Now survey of 1,000 workers across four countries, 2024. The 60% inaction-regret rate is taken directly from the survey's top-line finding that "not asking for a pay increase" is named by 60% of workers — the single highest-frequency career regret. This is a direct regret measure: respondents were asked what they regret most about their career, and not asking for more money was the most common response.
[2]Pew Research Center — When negotiating starting salaries, most U.S. women, men don't ask for higher pay↗ 1 other entry
Źródło referencyjne
Most US workers did not ask for higher pay than initially offered when last hired; only about 30% did ask (32% of men, 28% of women)
Cytat
“"Most U.S. workers who are not self-employed say they did not ask for higher pay than what was initially offered the last time they were hired for a job, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. ... men are slightly more likely than women (32% vs. 28%) to say they did ask for higher pay than what was offered."
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Dane źródłowe z
2023-04-05
Dostęp
2026-05-13
Obliczenie
Pew Research Center nationally representative survey (5,188 employed, non-self-employed US workers out of 5,775 US adults), 2023. Establishes that a majority of workers never attempt to negotiate: only about 30% say they asked for higher pay than initially offered (32% of men, 28% of women), so roughly 70% did not. Pew does not print a single combined percentage; it reports "most" plus the gender split. This large non-negotiating majority is the population from which the inaction-regret figure is drawn, and it is directionally consistent with the Resume-Now finding that not asking for a pay increase is the most common career regret. Pew itself measures behavior, not regret.
Zastrzeżenia
Wskaźnik 20% żalu po stronie działania to wyprowadzone oszacowanie górnej granicy, nie bezpośrednio zmierzona liczba. Nie zidentyfikowano dużej ankiety, która pytałaby pracowników, którzy negocjowali podwyżkę, czy żałują tej decyzji. Liczbę wnioskuje się z dopełnienia 85% wskaźnika sukcesu Fidelity oraz z jakościowego kierunku ankiety Resume-Now. Wskaźnik 60% żalu z zaniechania pochodzi z internetowej ankiety panelowej (Resume-Now, n=1000) obejmującej cztery kraje; amerykańskie dane podgrupowe mogą różnić się od nagłówka. Ustalenie Pew, że 58% pracowników nigdy nie negocjuje, ustala kontekst mianownika, ale samo nie mierzy żalu. Wskaźniki żalu mogą być zawyżone przez efekt nadwiedzy: pracownicy, którzy wiedzą, że mogli negocjować, mogą przypisywać obecną pensję tej zaprzepaszczonej okazji, nawet gdy dominowały inne czynniki. Wyniki negocjacji płacowych zależą też silnie od branży, płci i warunków rynku pracy; asymetria żalu może być mniej wyrazista na rynkach, gdzie negocjacje są rzadkie lub gdzie podwyżki są strukturalnie ustalone. Kierunkowe ustalenie — dominuje żal z zaniechania — jest spójne między wieloma niezależnymi ankietami.
