A scorecard for women who stopped checking years ago
Up to a point, the conventional wisdom still stands on its own. When you love your work, pay drops down the list. A decent manager, meaningful projects and colleagues you trust count for more than a few extra points of percentage, and pursuing every dollar can wear anyone down. Many women who jumped ship for a 15% bump in Greater Cincinnati now find themselves less content at a higher salary.
Still, I'd argue the opposite risk is just as real. Affection for your job is precisely when you're most likely to be paid below market, since the people setting your compensation can read that affection clearly.
Stage 1. Your loyalty has become part of the price
Compensation isn't determined by what you've earned. It's determined by what replacing you would cost, adjusted for how likely you are to walk out. McKinsey and LeanIn's 2025 research found that just 54% of companies treat women's advancement as a high priority, and the rest are unlikely to offer a fix on their own. Three signs this applies to you: no outside conversations in three years, every raise has been the same standard percentage, and no one has ever made you a counteroffer because you never gave them a reason.
Stage 2. Your responsibilities expanded and the paycheck didn't
Research in the book The No Club found that at one professional-services firm, women put in roughly 200 more hours a year than men on work that doesn't advance a career, and were asked for it about 50% more often. When you love what you do, you agree faster. Three signs: your scope has grown but your title hasn't, you train colleagues who may earn more than you do, and the planning, note-taking and offsite logistics keep landing on your desk without anyone tallying them.
Stage 3. The local market shifted while you were focused on the work
A growing number of states now require posted salary ranges, so the going rate is out in the open for anyone who checks, and you may not have checked. Three signs: a newly hired peer at your level started above you, a recruiter quoted a figure that caught you off guard, or you can't name the salary band for your own role, let alone where you fall within it.
Where the familiar guidance still holds in Cincinnati and the surrounding Southwest Ohio towns.
You shouldn't walk away from a job you love for a 5% difference. The advice only goes wrong when it becomes an excuse to stop looking at your numbers. Passion for your craft and an accurate sense of its market value can coexist without any tension. The Cincinnati women who are paid fairly in jobs they love are usually the ones who kept track of their market rate the whole time they stayed.
Your following action
Tally your total across the nine signs. If you count three or fewer, you're probably in good shape; check your pay once a year. Four to six means your pay may be slipping behind, so spend thirty minutes this week on a market check: pull three posted ranges for your title in the Cincinnati metro and note the midpoint. Seven or more means you may be quietly subsidizing your employer, and loyalty isn't a line item on anyone's budget.
During your next regular one-on-one in Cincinnati or Covington, raise a single calm question with your manager: "Could you help me see where my pay falls within the range for my level, and what I'd need to do to get to the midpoint?" This is a request for clarity, not an ultimatum, so you aren't signaling any intent to walk out. You're asking a straightforward question about the numbers, and a manager who avoids it has given you an answer of their own.
Tally up how many of the nine signs applied to you.