Salary negotiation: 5 tips to help you succeed

Do you negotiate your salary when you’re offered a job?

Seventy percent of employers expect candidates to negotiate.

According to Mia Smith, Interim Vice President of Fellowships and Programs at AAUW, many women do not negotiate when accepting roles because they are scared to look pushy. Women also worry that the employer will rescind the offer.

In fact, there’s almost always a range of possible salaries for a given position, depending on a candidate’s skills and experience.

Since most employers expect you to negotiate, you can assume that their budget has some ‘give’ if you can make a convincing case. A recent Devex survey of jobs posted on their boards found that 20% of employers are posting salary ranges already, making this process much more transparent.

If your research shows you that your background is worth more than an employer is offering, you can help the hiring team understand the value you bring through negotiation.

If you do, the results can be significant and compounding.

A lucrative conversation

Just a few well-timed words could make thousands of dollars of difference over the course of your career.

Let’s say a company offers you a salary of $95,000. You do your research and learn that that is on the low side; a salary in the 75th percentile in your market for a job using similar skills and experience is closer to $110,000. You add up all you bring and decide you’re in the 75th percentile and merit the bump.

If you negotiate and the company increases the offer to $105,000, that brief conversation netted you $10,000. You’re still going to do the exact same job you would have done if you hadn’t negotiated. In fact, you might do it better, because you feel more valued and more confident thanks to the negotiation process.

Now let’s imagine you earn a 5% pay raise the following year – 5% of $105,000 is $500 higher than 5% of $95,000. The money you earned from that negotiation conversation will compound and reward you for years to come.

If you didn’t negotiate, that loss will haunt you for just as long. AAUW estimates that over a 40-year career, the pay gap between a white man and a woman of color can deprive the woman of over $1 million of lost earnings compared to the white man.

“You can’t negotiate around bias and discrimination,” Smith says. The power of negotiation comes from your being prepared, demonstrating your value, and knowing when to walk away if an offer isn’t right for you.

Here’s how to do it

In order to be successful in salary negotiation, you’ve got to be confident and easy to talk with. Here are five salary negotiation tips Ms. Smith recently gave at the WISE 2022 conference.

1. Prepare – research comparable salaries, including location
   1. Thank the person who is making you the offer, and ask for a few days to make a decision. They will likely give you a deadline by which you must respond. Take some time to reflect on this decision. Do not accept immediately.
   2. Research similar titles and salaries. Ms. Smith recommends salary.com and payscale.com for salary information. Both use employer-reported data and show you the range of salaries possible for titles similar to yours. Despite the prevalence of remote work, location does impact salary.
   3. Bring notes to your meeting. Referring to and taking notes shows that you are prepared and that you pay attention to detail. This applies to all meetings, including job interviews!
2. Know your worth and where you fit in the percentiles
   1. Think about your years of experience and your track record. Consider your transferable skills, like Excel prowess, project management ability, writing, coordination, or staff management.
   2. Are you in the middle of the candidate pool, or do you stand out as being more experienced or accomplished than most folks in your field?
3. Use value statements to show results
   1. If you determine that you’re in the 75th percentile skill-wise and should be paid as such, briefly discuss the impact you’ve had in previous roles and the value you bring to the organization when you negotiate.
   2. Be results-oriented – be able to quantify your results with statements such as “I created and executed a social media strategy that attracted 4,000 new customers in one month” or “I grew the unit to five analysts in one year and trained and managed them as they joined the team.”
4. Give a range and know your walk-away number
   1. If a salary range isn’t posted for the job, discern a minimum number that’s fair, based on the research you’ve done. Ms. Smith suggests you add 20% to that number, and that’s your range. If a range is posted, do your research to determine where you fit into that range and briefly make your case.
   2. Know your walk-away point: calculate your budget to determine the minimum salary you can accept, given your background and what the market is paying. If you accept a salary that you know is unfair, you will resent it. This client of mine walked away several times until she got the right offer.
5. Negotiate benefits, too
   1. Consider the menu of benefits the company offers: flex time, remote work, paid time off, or a coveted parking spot might add value for you as long as the offer meets your financial bottom line.
   1. Choose the benefits that are important to you – don’t negotiate every single thing. You don’t want the hiring manager to feel like negotiating with you is “death by a thousand paper cuts.”

When should you negotiate your salary and benefits?

You should negotiate when an employer makes you a job offer. You can also do so during your annual performance review or if you’ve earned a promotion. Do your research and make a brief case focused on pay equity.

Do *not* negotiate simply because you want to be paid more (say, you want to buy a house and need to make more money). Your reason has to be grounded in pay equity.

If you’d like to learn more, AAUW offers a free, online salary negotiation course.

For more information about equity laws, AAUW has compiled a comprehensive list of equity laws by state on their web site: www.aauw.org.