How To Negotiate Salary? Use These Five Tips!
Updated: June 19, 2024
Published: August 25, 2019
Knowing how to negotiate salary is a skill that will serve you throughout your entire career. Since it’s a skill, it takes time to hone and requires some preparation in advance.
In this article, we will guide you through salary negotiation tips. Keep reading for your best chance to be ready for successful discussions and outcomes during your career.
Knowing When to Negotiate Your Salary
There are key moments throughout the year when it’s appropriate to negotiate your salary.
If you’ve taken on extra tasks, perhaps because a colleague has gone on maternity leave, or you’ve been asked to manage a special project, it could be the right time to schedule a meeting with your manager and bring up the issue of salary.
Equally, if you’re 11 months into a 12-month contract and you’re being asked if you’d like to renew, this is a perfect moment to discuss salary.
However, if the company is going through bad times and has issued a profit warning or business is slow, it might be sensible to wait before trying to negotiate your salary. As with everything in business, timing is key, so try to think medium to long term when it comes to salary and don’t get panicked about the situation right here and now.
Salary Negotiation Tips
Now, let’s get to the moment we’ve all been waiting for.
1. Perform Research
This is more than just googling “salary for marketing assistants” and then thinking you’re ready for a salary meeting. It means conducting a thorough assessment of the market so you know your worth according to market value.
Start by setting up alerts with multiple recruitment companies so you get regular updates about jobs available in your sector and at your level. Once you start to see job ads on a regular basis, you’ll instinctively understand the salary bracket for jobs like yours.
You might find you’re being vastly underpaid in your current role — which may inspire you to apply for a new role in a new organization. Or, you can use this body of evidence to work out the average salary for your position in other companies and then take this data into a meeting with your HR manager.
Whatever you do, get educated first. It will really help you in the long run. It’s also a good idea to talk to recruiters over the phone. Ask them what the market is like right now. Is it a good time to be looking for a new job? They deal with the job market every day, so they are a rich source of valuable information that can really help you. Don’t be afraid to ask.
2. Aim High
When you conduct your research, you’ll probably end up with a range of salaries and not just one specific figure. While it’s possible to provide your manager with your desired range, it doesn’t work to your best benefit. This is because the employer is looking to minimize expenses, while you are looking to maximize your earnings (the two are diametrically opposed).
Instead, figure out your salary range, and provide a figure closer to the top (granted your experience aligns). The chances are high that your employer will return with a lower number if they can’t meet your ask.
When you have a range, you will also have the lowest minimum that you’re willing to accept. So, you’re killing two birds with one stone and will be able to expedite the negotiation process.
3. Get Creative with Your Negotiation
It’s fine to go into a negotiation knowing what you want out of it (a salary increase of 10%, for example, is nice and specific). But it’s also important to be ready to negotiate. We don’t always get what we want, but what would you accept? Would an 8% increase, plus gym membership and gas for your car, be acceptable?
Work out the monetary value of these other benefits before you start negotiating – they can save you thousands of dollars each year, and often companies are willing to throw in these ‘benefits’ because they are buying them at a reduced rate from the supplier. So, it costs them less to offer you an improved healthcare plan, for example, than it would cost you to buy it from your increased salary.
At the same time, providing employees with better healthcare and wellbeing resources can end up saving an employer in the long run as it can reduce employee absenteeism from sickness or poor mental health (which is a cost to the business). In this instance, your desires and the employer’s best interests are aligned.
Do your own ‘lifestyle math’ before the meeting and know what you’d be willing to accept. Any extras that aren’t money would also need to be itemized in your contract, so don’t sign anything until all the small print is in place.
4. Get Ready to Close the Deal
Don’t be afraid to say no to a first offer or ask for time to consider their offer. You can leave a meeting by saying, “Thanks very much for this, I need a few days to think it all over. I will come back to you as soon as possible.”
The same works when negotiating over email or on the phone. As long as you are polite and grateful, you can buy time. During this period, you can consider other options and make sure the new offer is in line with what you want.
Then, when you’re ready to close the deal, let them know via email because you always want to have agreements in writing. It’s a good idea to get an independent advisor or lawyer to look over contracts before you sign them. Local councils often offer this service for free – search online to see if you can find a pro bono service in your area or online.
5. Get Ready for the Future
If everything has gone according to plan, and you’re happy to sign your new deal, then work out a start date for the new salary and get set for your more lucrative future!
It’s also essential to make sure that you live up to the new deal. If the salary rise is dependent on an extra 8 hours of work per week, for example, use an online time-tracking tool to make it clear you are clocking up those extra hours. You want to leave the employer in no doubt: you deserve this pay raise, so show them this every step of the way!
If, however, the salary negotiations didn’t go your way, try to find out why. If your manager feels you lack the skills or knowledge required to move to the next salary bracket and level of responsibility within the company, consider up-skilling while you work. You could do this via an online course in something practical (pay per click, or search engine optimization, for example, if you work in marketing and want to hone a new specific skill).
Or, you could consider going back to school in your spare time by signing up for an online degree from a college like the University of the People. UoPeople is an accredited online American university that offers tuition-free bachelor’s, master’s, and associate degrees in business administration, health science, computer science, and education.
If the reason you were denied a salary increase has to do with a lack of qualifications at the higher-education level, then don’t panic. Just study while you work instead. Shortly, you’ll be well on your way to plugging that CV gap, and you’ll be ready to re-enter into negotiations with your boss – this time, from a much stronger position.
How to Ask for More Money in an Interview
If you’re applying for jobs and setting up interviews, then this also provides you with a starting point for salary negotiation. Before you go to an interview, perform research and know what your minimum amount will be. You can apply many of the above tips to your salary negotiation during an interview, but there are some nuances.
Instead of being the person to bring up salary, wait for your prospective employer to do so. If they ask you what you want to be paid for the role (after discussing the job duties), provide them with the higher number from the range you researched. If they can’t meet that, stay quiet for a few minutes to see what they say next. If they tell you they definitely won’t be able to provide that amount, give them some ideas of what other benefits would suffice instead.
If they offer you a number lower than your minimum, be prepared to walk away. That’s why it’s always best to have other interviews lined up as a backup.
The Bottom Line
Each employee’s situation is different, so knowing how to negotiate salary will depend on how long you’ve worked for the company, how comfortable you feel talking to your manager, the market value, your achievements, and the like.
But, if you take these salary negotiation tips with you the next time you ask for a pay raise, you will be more prepared and confident to negotiate for what you want (and deserve).