How to negotiate salary with a new employer
It breaks my heart that no matter how many female clients I talk to, none of them are prepared when it comes to negotiating their salary with potential employers. The inevitable response when I ask them about salary expectations is that they will just cross their fingers and hope for the best.
So many of us have no real salary negotiation strategy. But I get it. It’s hard to know how you stack up against the competition. Or perhaps you’ve been out of work for a while, or you are making a slight career change, so you are just thankful that you’re being considered at all.
Let me ask you, do you think your male counterparts have these same doubts and feelings? No, in my experience I usually find that they don’t. And they’re usually much better at knowing what they are worth and asking for it without batting an eyelid.
So here we are in 2023, still fighting for gender parity, and yet we haven’t done a great job for ourselves in knowing what we should be paid, asking for fair pay, or sharing the strategies and techniques to do it.
Therefore, it is my personal mission to arm women with the tools and information they need so they can:
respond when a recruiter asks about salary expectations before the interview
respond when asked about salary during an interview (this is weird by the way)
negotiate salary when a recruiter calls with a job offer
If there was one post that I would choose to go viral, it would be this one. So here’s my top tips to make sure you get paid the salary you deserve.
Do your research to find out what the industry and role pays
In today’s day and age it’s easy to find out what the average salaries are for most positions. You can find it by browsing ads for similar jobs on Seek or LinkedIn.
To make it even easier, global recruitment company Hays have for years conducted annual research to compare salaries across the country for most job titles. Based on this research they produce a handy salary guide that gives you accurate information about current rates of pay across of range of industries and role titles. Job seekers can use this guide to work out what salary is appropriate to ask for based on your experience. A good rule of thumb when using the Hays Salary Guide guide is if you have 5 years or less experience in the role you should be negotiating salary somewhere in the bottom half of the pay range, if you have more than 5 years of experience you should be negotiating salary in the top half of the range.
Know your worth
Now you need to build your confidence by gathering evidence of the skills and experience that you bring to the role. Make a list of your proudest work achievements and don’t limit yourself to your most recent job. List ALL of your significant accomplishments from ALL of the jobs you’ve done. Think about the types of things that hopefully have been listed in some of your workplace performance reviews including:
promotions
time spent acting in other roles
projects you proactively initiated or took on
new staff you trained
problems you solved for the company
clients you landed, or tricky ones you turned around
projects or tasks you worked on that saved the company money
If you really want to be blown away, make a list of all the times someone told you that you couldn’t do something, but you did it in spite of them. This is so empowering!
Now it’s time to negotiate your salary
Now you know what the industry pays and the value you bring, it’s time to negotiate. What many people don’t know, is that often the recruiter or hiring manager has been pre-authorised to negotiate within a certain salary range. When they call you, they have this specific range in mind, but of course they start with a lower offer.
Here’s how to negotiate salary when an employer or recruiter calls you and makes a job offer:
The HR person calls and says “Congratulations! I’m calling to offer you the job with a salary of $X. Does that work for you?”.
If this offer is below what you are seeking, all you need to do is pause. Yes, WAIT 6 seconds. You need to be comfortable with SILENCE. This short pause often prompts the caller to fill in the awkward silence with more words, and sometimes they will go on to say “…but I’m authorised to offer more”.
Now you need to negotiate. Ask for $5-$10k more than you are ideally seeking. This gives you room to move and you can let them meet you in the middle of the initial salary they put on the table, and the amount you requested.
If they are still not in the ball park of the salary you are seeking, respond by saying, “Based on salary benchmarking data and my skills and experience, I was expecting $X”. Now pause again. Yes, again WAIT a few seconds. Take your time and breathe.
Often they will say “Let me get back to you,” and you can thank them for their time. Hopefully they will call you back with a better offer because often they will not want to start the recruitment process from the beginning over $5k or $10k!
Another scenario that sometimes arises is where a recruiter or hiring manager asks you what salary you were on in your current or previous role. This is actually illegal in some countries by the way! But if they do, the best way to respond to this question is to say “Based on my salary benchmarking research, I would expect the salary range to be between $X and $X. Is that correct?”. This avoids answering the question all together, shows them that you’ve done your research and puts the impetus back on them to negotiate.Stick to the facts, this is not an emotional conversation
Salary negotiations should always be factual, and non-emotional. A good way to think about it is to use the same attitude that you would have if you were buying or selling goods on eBay. It’s not personal, and your aim is to come to a figure that works for both parties. The potential new employer will be working within their budget and you need to just calmly do the same.
Stick to your guns and remember to back yourself! Like any relationship, if they try any shady tactics or try to make you feel guilty, then they don’t deserve you!
If you decide to turn the job offer down because the employer can’t meet your salary expectations, take a moment to be grateful for the offer and the learning opportunity then get back to your plan to find the right job with the right salary.
Good luck and go get ‘em.