I’m with Logistic on this. The author said flat out the person is in salary negotiations and she can automatically offer more if they simply say they want more. It’s not as if there is some kind of active bidding going on between applicants for the same position. At that point the person already has the job. That’s why it’s called “salary negotiation”. It’s yours at the salary they offer. You can easily ask for more. If they say “no, we can’t afford that, x is the best we can offer to pay you”, fine, either take it or leave it. It’s not like some kind of gameshow where you lose the job if you pick a higher number and they say no.
I think the author has a point, and actually might be illuminating yet another perfectly reasonable explanation for the pay gap that has nothing to do with sexism…namely, men are better negotiators. Which evidently doesn’t even take much.
If you want to make a case for why this is a positive thing, (which it sounds like you’re trying to do), the way to do that is to simply point out that negotiation is a skill just like any other…and people get rightfully rewarded based on the productivity of their skill. Obviously, if you’re a more skilled negotiator, it pays you more…just like being more skilled at virtually anything if used in the right way.
The author is making a valid point…namely that if women want to make more money they need to wake up do the things that would earn them more money…like ask for it.