If you saw a nickel on the sidewalk, would you pick it up? Perhaps not. Especially if it was raining.
If you saw a $100 bill on the sidewalk, I'm sure that you'd pick it up. You probably wouldn't even notice the weather!
Now if you saw a briefcase, stuffed with hundred dollar bills, which promised to pay out EVERY YEAR, you'd think that you need your eyes checking!!
But that's exactly what thousands of candidates do every year, by not knowing the salary they are worth.
So where do you begin in getting a salary increase?
There are a number of bits of homework you need to do first
Salary comparison
A salary comparison is vital if you are going to be in a strong position in any kind of salary negotiation.
There are a range of resources open to you when conducting a salary comparison. Our advice is to use them all to triangulate on a central estimate of what you are worth.
Salary increase negotiation strategy
Many people feel very uncomfortable about negotiating their salary. After all, isn't it going to show your prospective employer that you care more about money than working for them?
While that might be partially true, imagine how it might look from the other side. If they are hoping for a go-getting bright young thing to join their team, and they offer a salary which is on the low side of what they think they need to offer, and you accept it straight away, then what will they think? They might think that even at this low salary, that this is the best offer you've been able to get. Even worse, they might think that if you can't negotiate for YOURSELF, how successful will you be in negotiating for THEM!
There are occasions, however, when you might be asked what your salary expectations are. A response you could use in this situation could be "I am looking for a meaningful increase in responsiblity compared to my current role, and would expect my salary to reflect this".
If you are pressed for a number, then you can fall back on the work you did on your salary comparison. At this point, keep the discussion high level with a response like "Similar positions with other companies are offering salaries in the range of $40,000 to $50,000, and I would expect the person you want to fill this role to require a similar salary"
The whole point of this part of the negotiation is to allow you to get to the offer, while making it clear that you regard salary as something you will be up for negotiation rather than something you accept as given.
What happens if they say that you had previously given the impression of being happy to accept a much lower salary. Now is another opportunity to sell yourself. Show them how you have found out more about the responsibilities of the position and that you think the lower figure in the range you discussed is no longer appropriate.
And remember, be polite but be persistent. You don't want to find yourself in the position that you love the job so don't want to leave, but you wish you were being paid a few thousand more each year. Don't leave the suitcase of hundred dollar bills on the sidewalk!!
© 2005, Jonathan Lewis. All rights reserved. Jonathan Lewis is the founder and CEO of the Careerfriend website (http://www.careerfriend.com), committed to helping people succeed in their dream careers. The site provides a wealth of free articles and resources covering career and employer selection, through resume and cover letter writing, to interviewing, salary negotiation and ongoing career development.
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ReplyDeleteYou've nice blog. Many men and women nowadays do not know whether they're acquiring appropriate salary for their profession. To be clear one can check on the web salary comparison websites to know what other firms provide for the same position. For instance to compare salary of an analyst one can just type analyst salary in a salary comparison website like Whatsalary.com