When a salary offer is made it is easy for a job candidate to eagerly take the first figure mentioned or to demand a specific salary range right off the bat. There are many strategies involved in negotiating salary but jumping the gun isn’t one of them.
In order to be sure you’re being offered a competitive wage, it is important to do your research. Knowing the average salaries in your industry based on different education and experience levels (including your own) is key when being offered or requesting a salary.
Once you’ve done some research, the next step is being offered or requesting a salary. Most resources suggest that you wait as long as possible in the hiring process until salary is discussed – you want to be sure you’ve discussed everything that is required for the position and all of your qualifications with the employer. Also, many employers use requested salaries as a way to rule out candidates. If you must give a range right off the bat, give a broad range and make sure you explicitly say it is negotiable.
If you receive an offer, most would assume the best action to take is to accept, especially if the offer is acceptable. To the contrary, many advise that you be non-committal about the offer. Express your interest and appreciation but leave the discussion open to further negotiation. If the offer is too low, express your sincere appreciation of the offer but remind the employer of your experience, that you feel you deserve more and why, or that you have received offers from competitors in a higher range. If they are serious about you and your talents, and interested in keeping you from other employers, they will accommodate your needs.
The biggest key to negotiating a salary is knowledge about salary benchmarks in your industry and being confident and not overly eager. With confidence and good negotiation skills you can rest assured you are being paid fairly.
To find pay rates in your state or region, visit the Salary Center at Compensation.BLR.com. With BLR's accurate pay rate data on hundreds of jobs in all states and regions your company will be able to retain valuable workers, attract new employees, and improve profitability. You’ll also find reliable rate ranges, salary data, performance appraisal tool, and state regulatory analysis.
The Library has more current resources on pay rates like these:
Job Pricing: What are you worth?
Non-exempt employees compensation data
State and regional compensation pay rates
Annual employee benefit survey rates