We all know that women in the UK get paid less than men.

In fact, the gender pay gap currently stands at 19.2 per cent. This means that women, on average, get paid 80p for every £1 earned by men.

So when it comes to negotiating our salary for a role, are we doing ourselves (and the female workforce in general) a disservice if we don't negotiate?

We're encouraged to 'lean in' to know our worth and fight for it, but a new study suggests that while often it pays to negotiate your wage, women who don't may have a good reason for doing so.

In fact, the survey found that asking for more as a default can actually harm your potential earnings.

The study by Harvard Business Review had two test groups, which included both genders.

One group was allowed to choose whether to negotiate for a higher wage following an offer and the other was forced to negotiate. The negotiations between 'worker' and 'firm' took place over a chat platform to ensure the workers' genders were anonymous.

The findings showed that women are 11% less likely to avoid negotiations of a higher wage than men if they had the choice, even though it almost always worked in the candidates' favour to negotiate.

However, it's clear choices to negotiate were carefully considered ones - the female candidates knew their worth and were unlikely to accept a wage below that.

Why negotiating your salary could leave you at a loss