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(ARTICLE) How To Negotiate Getting A Higher Salary With An Employer

Added 2021-02-27 13:18:41 +0000 UTC

An initial job offer probably won’t include your ideal salary (very few offers do), so it’s up to you to ask for what you want and state your case.

Negotiating money is rarely easy and often uncomfortable, but this shouldn’t hold you back from trying to improve your earnings.

The first step in your salary negotiation journey, then, should be to sign up for a service that aggregates and compares salaries.

https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/index.htm

Glassdoor is a great place to start.

If you’re using Glassdoor, sign in and provide them with your level of education, the current job title you’re seeking and your location.

If you’re already working in the industry, you can use the included tools to see if you are being paid what you’re worth.

And if you’re still job hunting, you can type job titles into the search bar and see what types of salaries are associated with those roles.

Never attempt negotiate your salary without doing your research first.

Start Negotiating Your Salary Once You’ve Been Offered The Job.

It is not a good idea to start negotiating your salary before you’re actually offered the job. Think about it from the employer’s point of view:

“we haven’t even decided if we definitely want this person on our team, and they already want to start telling us how much we should pay them?”

It can come off as entitled or arrogant, and people generally don’t want such a person on their team.

What you should do prior to receiving a job offer is establish what the general expected salary range is for the position.

Aim For The High End

Oftentimes when you search for salaries on sites like Glassdoor, you’ll see a range of salaries instead of one single number.

Seeing this, you might think that you should provide your potential employer with a range of salaries, since that’s what is presented on most sites. But this is actually a really inefficient way of negotiating.

In fact, you should NEVER provide the hiring manager with a range. Instead, use the specific number at the highest end of that range.

Why?

Two reasons.

1.) you never want to give the hiring manager an excuse to lower your salary without a little negotiation.

2.) chances are the hiring manager will eventually try to negotiate you down. You want to start high, so you’ll still be satisfied with your salary even if it gets negotiated down by a few thousands.

Always ask for at least 10% more

Ask for at least 10% more base salary, and possibly more, depending on where the offer falls in the market range.

ASK ASK ASK.

Ask for more than you think they will give you so there is some wiggle room for the company to negotiate with you. They will likely not meet your full request.

So, if you would like a mid-range salary, then ask for a salary at the top of the range. Or, ask for 20% more but aim to get 10%. It’s no big deal.

HR people and managers negotiate this stuff all the time. You have nothing to lose.

The reason you did research is that you want to know how good the offer is.

For instance, here are two scenarios.

The first shows how to negotiate when the offer is too low.

The second is shows how to negotiate when the offer is actually pretty good.

Let’s take the low offer first.

For example, If the going rate for a marketing manager in your area is between £30,000–60,000 and they offer you £35,000, here’s what to do.

First, point to your research. For example, say,

“Thank you so much for this offer to work at XYZ. I’m so excited about XYZ, the marketing role, and I think it’s a great fit.

Based on my experience, my education, and the market rate, I expect this role to be in the £60,000 range, depending on the package including benefits.

The HR person will probably say something like, “Wow, that’s out of our range. I can go back to ask for more, but we probably won’t be able to get to £60,000.”

Then, you can respond with something like, “Thanks so much for your help with this! I appreciate it. When do you think you will have an answer?” Don’t commit to the £60,000 until they confirm it.

They most likely won’t give you the £60,000 salary but there’s a chance they can end up coming back with a higher salary than they initially offered you.

Don’t feel bad for asking. If they’ve decided to hire you then that means they WANT you for that position.

Paying you an extra 5-20K is peanuts to a company

Avoid Discussing Salary Too Early

If at all possible, you want to prolong your salary request until towards the middle or the end of the interview process.

Why?

Simple

You want the hiring manager to be as invested as possible in you by the time you make your ask.

If you speak with your future manager and provide them with a complete understanding of what you can bring to the company, the whole hiring team will be more willing to accommodate your salary requests since you’ve already shown them how you can be of use.

Set Expectations During Your Interview

The above tip can be tough to implement because many hiring managers will ask during your first interview what salary you’d like. In this case, it can be tough to avoid the question.

Provide them with a specific answer backed by research, as discussed above, and see how they respond. Most hiring managers won’t say “no” outright, unless you give a response that is completely out of their desired salary range.

Do Not Disclose Your Current Pay Or Your salary History Prior To A Job Offer.

First of all, it’s irrelevant. The job is worth some figure within the market rate for that role, taking into account the skills, background, and experience of the person doing it—none of which has anything to do with your salary history.

Secondly, particularly for anyone who’s been underpaid (and there continues to be a meaningful gender & race wage gap), it can only hurt you. And what if you actually had no idea you were underpaid?

You’ll never know what kind of offer you could get if you’re content to reveal your current or past salary to a potential employer as a measuring-stick by which to determine how much to pay you.

So, don’t answer how much you use to make — go back to your script and say something like,

“Based on my research and the fact that I have XYZ years of experience, a masters degree fromXYZ, and the market, I would expect this role to be in the £XYZ range.”

If they press you, don’t be dishonest.

For example, let’s say I made £70,000 in my last job, and the HR person is turning the screws on me trying to get this number. I would tell them that I made £95,000 in base and including benefits.

The point is to anchor the HR person on a higher number so they make you the best offer.

They are trying to take advantage of you by ignoring the value of the role in the market by asking about a previous — and irrelevant — role.

Bullshit Some Companies will try

They will try to rush you to accept the offer by telling you the offer letter “expires” in 24 hours, or that they need an answer by 5:00 PM.

LOL

After spending 4 months looking for the new hire and dragging you into 5 rounds of interviews, they can definitely spend an extra day or two negotiating the offer.

Part of the issue is that they probably are stringing a Plan B candidate along waiting to see if their first choice (you) will accept the offer.

Usually, the HR person is doing the negotiation. Their whole job is to hire the best people for the lowest amount of money possible. They literally expect you to ask for more money. Negotiations are what they do all day long. They don’t feel nervous, and neither should you.

They tell you upfront that they can’t negotiate on the salary. Ask for more money anyway. Ask them to ask for you.

If the hiring manager — your future boss — is negotiating your salary, I know that it can feel more difficult. They may feel uncomfortable, but like the HR person, they expect you to ask for more money.

You have nothing to lose. They won’t rescind the offer.

So Ask for more money.

Learn How To Negotiate Salary By Email

For those who are nervous about negotiating their salary, email is a great way in which you can learn the basic strategies. When negotiating salary by email, remember the basics.

Leverage your research to make sure you’re being paid at market value. If the hiring manager has offered you a lower salary than your market value demands, you can lead by saying something like:

“Hi [Hiring Manager],

Thank you for the offer — I appreciate your confidence and your time. I’m excited to begin my career with [Company], but before I accept the offer, I have a few questions I was hoping to run by you. As I’ve conducted my job search, I have been able to better contextualise the salary I hope to receive. I’d like to discuss what it would take to raise my offer to [Requested Salary], so that I can be better positioned to provide the team with the high quality of work I know is necessary to excel in this position.”

“Based on my research, the salary range for this role, in this industry, in this geographical location is between

£/€/$________ and £/€$_________.

My target salary is £/€/$________ and the lowest amount I will accept is £/€/$_____.”

You do not need to remember this word for word, it’s just a blueprint to give you an idea on how to respond to a salary offer.

Make sure to frame your requests as you helping them and bringing some value.

Start with

“what can I do to exceed your expectations”

and the company will be more likely to meet you in the middle.

What Else Can You Ask For?

People can easily make the mistake of focusing solely on base salary as the end point of the negotiation.

In fact, base salary should be the starting-point of your negotiation.

The entire concept of negotiation means that you may be willing to give something up in exchange for something else.

See if you can identify things that are easy for the employer to say “yes” to, and that are valuable to you.

The good thing about negotiating items other than base salary is the opportunity for creative thinking. for crafting items that would be of genuine value to you.

E.g.

- you can ask for

- more annual holiday days

- more sick days off

- Work from home one day a week or increased flexibility. Does the company have an office overseas? Can you ask to work there for a month?

- Ask for scheduled performance evaluation in 6 months, with the idea that they can give you a raise at that time — at any rate, you should understand how and when performance is evaluated and how compensation and raises are made.

- A training budget — classes are a great way to learn skills to get a better job.

Salary Negotiation Tips to Earn a Raise

So, you’ve negotiated a great starting salary, and you’re pleased as punch with your juicy new paycheque.

Good. But let me tell you, it’s human nature to want more, and after a year, you’ll be dreaming about even bigger numbers.

Put the Fucking Work in FIRST!

We all want more money, but focusing on the raise before you focus on your work would be putting the cart before the horse.

When it comes to salary negotiation, it’s all about showing your manager (and you manager’s manager, for that matter) that you provide excessive value.

Once you’ve done great work, then and only then should you feel empowered to ask for an increase. Let your track record speak for itself, and you’ll barely have to do any talking.

Choose the Right Time

Most people generally think of raises around key time periods at work, like yearly work anniversaries or performance reviews. But if you think this is the best time to ask for a raise, you’d be dead wrong.

Managers have to plan everything in advance, which means that company executives will have a budget planned for next year, and they’ll want to stick to it.

If you ask them for a raise after they’ve already budgeted a specific amount of money for you, they’ll be more likely to turn you down.

Instead, head into your manager’s office 6-7 months before that important anniversary or performance review, and use the tip below to ask for a raise well in advance.

Learn What to Say When Negotiating Salary

If you’ve been following along with the steps above, you’ll already have an amazing work record and a long list of achievements to use in your advantage when it comes time to negotiate your raise.

Before you head in to your manager’s office, you should also head back to Glassdoor.com and make sure that your compensation continues to match or exceed the market value for your given title.

With this information, you’ll be able to make a good reason for increasing your salary.

Begin by demonstrating the value that you have provided to the company already.

Then, ask your manager’s opinion of how you can exceed the expectations that are set out for you.

Make sure your manager knows that you want to be more than average, and that if you achieve this goal, you expect your salary to increase to match.

A good way to start this conversation would be,

“As you might recall, over the last year I set out to achieve [list of goals that you and your manager had set out previously].

In that time frame, I have exceeded those goals by [list of innovative processes and/or projects you’ve accomplished], leading to [list of the results you’ve been able to achieve].

Based on these results, I would like to discuss with you what it would take for me to continue exceeding your expectations in this role.

And should I be able to continue exceeding those expectations, I think it would be reasonable to adjust my salary upward in order to reflect and support my continued success in the role.”

You don’t have to remember this word for word, it’s just a blueprint

Close With A Clear-Cut Deadline & Goals

By using the tip above, you will be able to get a clear sense of how your manager expects you to exceed expectations in your role.

Be sure to push for specific information or additional roles that you can take on to add value to the company.

Once you have a specific list of items in hand, set a specific deadline for those goals, at which point you can report back to your manager and ask for that “salary adjustment”.

Ideally, you can combine all of the above tips by setting an initial meeting with your manager 6-7 months before your yearly work anniversary, and setting goals that come due at that time.

This way, your manager will know in advance that you intend to ask for a raise around your work anniversary.

Receiving An offer

At the moment you receive an offer, your only goals (usually) are to convey enthusiasm for the role, express appreciation, and get an offer in writing.

Once it is in writing (usually via email), it’s gone through all the approvals and you can be assured that the position has been established and that they want you in the role. Basically, a written offer is more concrete and easier to review in detail.

The most important thing to remember about receiving an offer is that you do NOT want to negotiate during this initial conversation.

The employer is coming in with all of the information and you’re learning it for the first time!. Never go into a negotiation from this disadvantaged position.

Action: Be gracious, express enthusiasm for the role/ team/ company/ opportunity, thank them for their effort, let them know you look forward to getting the written offer so you can review.

Why express enthusiasm?

If you express enthusiasm, they will know that you are genuinely interested and will be more willing to put in extra effort to get you a good offer. In order for them to be interested in negotiating, they need to think it will be worth the effort (i.e., that you will accept).

Do not express feelings/thoughts about the offer itself — unless:

It is very low. In this case, it can be good to ask right away how they arrived at this level of compensation. Having this information can help your negotiation later.

It is very high. In this case, you may just want to express enthusiasm for everything and go for it. You can still negotiate, but it’s really your choice (in every situation).

Your other action when receiving the offer is to ask questions. You’ll have more opportunities to ask questions — but it’s still good to try to get some clarity right away.

The actual conversation

In the negotiation, you want to state your request and rationale and then follow-up with an open-ended question (one they cannot answer with a yes or no).

“What are your thoughts around this salary?”

“Do you have any thoughts or ideas on how we can close the gap between the initial offer and market value?”

After you ask the open-ended question comes the MAGIC part: silence.

This sounds simple, but it’s very important.

You want to ask the question and then be silent. Give them time to respond....People tend to fill the silence, and you want them to actually consider and respond to your request.

What If They Refuse to Increase Their Offer?

If you’ve gone back and forth and your potential future employer has refused to go any higher on their salary offer, you have a choice to make.

If the offer is below your minimum acceptable salary, think long and hard about the risk in taking a job that pays less than you really need to live on.

Could you get a better offer somewhere else? If so, you probably want to pass on the current offer.

If the offer is above your minimum acceptable salary but below your target (and you feel like you really deserve more), you’ll have to decide whether the additional benefits and perks you’ve negotiated are enough to make up for the difference in lost wages.

And again: could you get a better offer somewhere else? It can feel pretty crappy to accept a job you’re otherwise excited about but feel disappointed when you look at your paycheque every two weeks.

Over time, (if you can’t get a raise that makes you happy) that disappointment can build into resentment, and then you’re probably back on the job market again, looking for a company that will pay you what you know you’re worth.

Finally, if you’re unhappy with a final offer, ask for a couple days to think it over before giving them your decision.

You’ll need that time to do some real reflection, and it gives them an opportunity to come back and raise it a little more—in case they were bluffing and start to worry that you’ll turn them down. (But don’t count on this happening)

Final note: You can generally ask for more money twice (they give an offer, you ask for more, they say no, you ask again) and then you have to either take it or leave it. Otherwise, it’s considered greedy/bad form.