Salary Negotiation

The following is NOT standard interviewing advice, it is standard tactics to employ when conducting a salary negotiation ONLY…

State what you are looking for early on…
When entering a salary negotiation, always state what you are looking for early on. There are of course always exceptions to any rule – for instance, you would not reveal what salary you were looking for during the early stages of a formal interview process if you know a salary negotiation may be involved later on. In that instance, you would do your best not to reveal what your salary requirements were until as late on in the interview process as possible. Instead, you would remain non-committal unless the interviewer pressed you for a direct answer…
*Important. Usually a salary 5% -10% higher than what you were initially earning, (if you are negotiating with your existing employer) / and or/ 10-15% higher than is the industry standard, (if you are in pre-contract negotiations), is a good figure to settle on when conducting a salary negotiation

Revealing what you will accept – Salary Ranges
Information is power. Understanding what the other party is prepared to accept or prepared to offer is key in any negotiation.
While an employer shouldn’t directly ask you what you are currently earning with your present employer on an application form or during an interview, they are allowed to ask what sort of salary you are expecting to make with them. If pressed directly on what salary you are seeking in the early stages of an interview, you will have no choice but to offer this information to the interviewer. Salary requirement is a commonly asked question on many application forms and will usually come up at the initial interview, especially if the employer expects to negotiate salary later on during the process. The key here is to be as non-committal as possible. You can do this by alluding to a salary range between such and such an amount, this way you can still provide an answer without seeming evasive or mentioning a specific figure. By offering a salary range it provides plenty of wriggle room to negotiate when the time comes
*Important. Usually a salary 5% -10% higher than what you were initially earning, (if you are negotiating with your existing employer) / and or/ 10-15% higher than is the industry standard, (if you are in pre-contract negotiations), is a good figure to settle on when conducting a salary negotiation

Inflating what you ask for (Normally used in pre-employment contract negotiations)
When it comes to the start of the salary negotiation itself, a common tactic is to inflate the initial asking figure in the opening stages of the negotiation.
This is a traditional tactic used by people from many different walks of life and is found in lots of different forms of bartering, and as such, it is a very valid tactic when it comes to the field of salary negotiation too…

Asking for marginally-moderately more than the ideal salary you want can be a very useful tactic – with the aim that your prospective employer will then respond with a counteroffer of a lower amount that’s still within the ideal range of what you were prepared to initially accept – you might even get lucky and get a higher counteroffer than you would have otherwise initially settled on


Decide what you’ll accept beforehand
When putting together an initial proposal for your salary increase, it may be useful to remember that often times when you have a conversation planned out in your head it won’t always go the way you imagine it will. To this end, it is very important you go into the negotiation with a clear idea of what you will and won’t accept. The tactic here then is to mentally prepare yourself that the figure you are asking for, or are prepared to accept – may be lower than the actual figure you’ll get
*Usually a salary 5% -10% higher than what you were initially earning, (if you are negotiating with your existing employer) / and or/ 10-15% higher than is the industry standard, (if you are in pre-contract negotiations), is a good figure to settle on when conducting a salary negotiation

Presenting a counteroffer as an alternative to a salary increase (pre-contractual or pre-existing employees)
If you receive a job offer and want to accept it but some of the facets aren’t what you’d like, an alternative would be to put forth a counter proposal of your own. Where trying to renegotiate certain points of the initial job offer, remember that you should only pick 1 or 2 of the most important points to renegotiate on. For instance, if you know or suspect the firm will not renegotiate on your salary – there are other areas you can look at such as signing bonus, vacation time, or even pensions. The most important thing about this tactic is, again, you are not renegotiating the entire contract, just one or two key areas of the contract that you feel your employer might compromise on.
Aside from the natural apprehension you as an employee might feel about approaching your employer to ask for a pay raise, what many overlook is the fact that a salary negotiation is an opportunity, and that as such, it can sometimes be very helpful for your career to instigate one with your employer. For instance, even if your employer is unwilling to agree to a rise in salary, they may be willing to give you the opportunity to prove yourself by widening your area of responsibility, which might lead to a promotion further on down the line. Or they might be willing to agree a deadline with you, at which point if you’ve met a certain target or achieved a certain goal, they might accede to your request, or may be willing to make concessions in other areas – that’s why you should be making contingencies as part of your preparation to put forward other proposals like these in an instance where your employer doesn’t agree to your initial request for a salary raise


Looking for other opportunities in a salary negotiation (pre-existing employees)
Aside from the natural apprehension you as an employee might feel about approaching your employer to ask for a pay raise, what many overlook is the fact that a salary negotiation is an opportunity, and that as such, it can sometimes be very helpful for your career to conduct one with your employer. For instance, even if your employer is unwilling to agree to a rise in salary, they may be willing to give you the opportunity to prove yourself by widening your area of responsibility, which might lead to a promotion further on down the line. Or they might be willing to agree a deadline with you, at which point if you’ve met a certain target or achieved a certain goal, they might accede to your request, or may be willing to make concessions in other areas – that’s why you should be making contingencies as part of your preparation to put forward other proposals like these in an instance where your employer doesn’t agree to your initial request for a salary raise

Accepting an offer too quickly
Once you get the offer it gives you a slight degree of power because the employer has chosen you.
In some instances, it may be appropriate to wait before accepting the job offer. For instance, this may be the correct course of action to take in a situation where you need more time to consider whether you genuinely want to take the position (such as in situations where you may have applied for an opening solely to increase your options and have subsequently then been offered the position and now need to decide if it is right for you)
Stalling on accepting a job offer can also be an effective tactic if you want to negotiate a better salary before accepting an offer in certain circumstances too! Each situation is different and when negotiating a salary you will have to make decisive choices by judging your individual circumstances on their own merits


Declining an offer
Deciding whether or not to accept a job offer can often times be linked to the salary negotiation itself. If you don’t feel the conditions are right, don’t be scared to decline a job offer if you’re in a financially stable position to do so! This may well work out better in the long run rather than committing to a job where the wage or other working conditions aren’t right for you

Agreeing terms
A cardinal rule when traversing any kind of salary negotiation – always get the final offer in writing!
This way you have legal proof of what was agreed upon, and it gives the employer a contractual obligation to honour it. If your already in employment anything you get your employer to agree to should be written into your pre-existing employment contract!

Deciding whether or not to accept an offer
Keep in mind that if they’ve interviewed all those candidates and offered you the position, then they want you!
There are a couple of different ways you can approach this situation:
In the first instance, you can take pride in the fact that you’ve done well to instigate a salary negotiation in the first place, and from there, once you’ve made your approach, take no further risks and simply settle for the offer you are given.
Or, you can take the opposite approach – in some instances you may choose to decline the initial contract offer in the hope they come back to you with a revised offer. In this way, by employing the tactics of brinkmanship, it may get you the sort of offer that you’re looking for. (The chances of this are normally much higher when applying for internal positions where you are already in employment with that company)

In each circumstance it will be down to you to weigh up all of your personal circumstances and make a decision based on them accordingly. If you cannot afford to decline the job, then it is strongly advised you do not employ any brinkmanship tactics – as there is no guarantee the employer will revise their offer