Salary/Benefits Negotiations for New Jobs

I'm being recruited by a company. I've had 2 interviews. They told me I'm being offered the job. I've avoided salary discussion like its the plague until I knew they wanted me. Now I do.

Lessons learned about how much to ask for? When to ask? how to ask? Key benefits to consider? General advice?

thanks

 

I went into my last negotiations with the attitude that they were paying me what it was worth to leave my current situation. That had to account for my wife having a break in employment, buying and selling a house, and a salary comensurate with my new responsibilities. That amounted to a 30% increase in salary. They balked and came back with a 28% increase. :up:

I really think that first number sets the bargaining point.

 

Benefits and the like all depend on your situation. If you're married with kids you'll probably care a lot about health benefits, if you're single their insurance might or might not be the best option.

A good way to gauge what to ask for is this:

What's the minimum point at which would they absolutely NOT pay? What is the absolute minimum you'd need to leave your current situation?

Keeping in mind how marketable your skills are and how much they want you, pick a number in that range higher than what you really want, but not so high that they'll think you're crazy or delusional. They'll come back with something a little bit lower if they really want you, if it's a ridiculous lowball then it's a sign you shouldn't work there.

 

Its always easier to bargain down than up. Go for the high end of benefits / perks /what the position will pay. Not knowing what type of job makes it hard to be more specific than that.

 

Use glassdoor.com to see what they pay, or other companies pay for a similar role.

I won't leave for less than 30%, but others may go higher or lower. It's all depending upon your situation. Remember, the company doesn't care that you're moving, wife doesn't work, have a new mortgage whatever.

Name a price that's not a "fuck off" price, make sure you're willing to work for that , or a little less and go from there. It's not that hard.

 

A buddy of mine had a change of heart one time and was leaning towards staying with his existing company (aircraft maintenance industry). He threw out a ludicrously high number to the prospective employer. They agreed immediately and did not counter.

Your results may vary.

 

i always just make a number that's my minimum in my head. i tell the company 15% higher than what it is and negotiate from there. i don't take a job under what i think i'm worth because i have done it before and i end up miserable. understand your worth and dont be afraid to ask for more. companies are always going to try and give you the least amount of money to do the most amount of work.

 

Precisely.

You are also in the enviable position of being recruited for a job while currently having one. You have the added benefit of taking a little more risk in salary negotiation rather than settling for something lower to ensure you are actually hired.

Unfortunately, that is a rare case these days. I say take advantage.....

 

Also, depending on what type of company and their HR policies, they may throw out the first offer rather than requesting you to suggest a salary.

In these cases, they have almost ALWAYS left some upwards wiggle room. Knowing what your worth and what you're willing to accept may work to your favor if their initial offer is reasonable.

 

I wouldn't be able to stand going through the whole interview process without at least knowing the pay range.

I did several rounds with a consulting company about a year ago, interviewed all the way up to the CEO, and pay was never discussed beyond "We'll give you waaaay more than you're making now". But they didn't know exactly what I was making. They kept calling me back, trying to convince me, but without a number I wasn't willing to waste anymore time. Was it 10% more, or 30% more? Big difference. One number gets them a "have a nice day", the other number gets them a "when can I start".

 

I never understood this....why even talk past pleasantries unless both know the general ball park of the salary...

I've had guys come up to me and offer me jobs and try to sweet talk me and all i said was "whats the salary?"

Dont get offended, shit, that magic number plus some other benefits is 99% the only reason you step through that door 5 days a week.

Its like taking a box on dates for 2 weeks without knowing whats inside...

 

I agree with the 30% increase. Unless you're in a real shitty job and want out asap. But if I was comfy in my current situation and was just looking for a pay increase, 30% would do it.

 

Start off by inflating your quote of your current salary if they ask.

All good advice so far.

Ask about 401K matching or anything like that. Ask about the current employee cost for benefits.

You've done great by avoiding the salary discussion until you were chosen.:up:

Good luck sir.

 

Just a couple of thoughts..

1. Assuming you filled out the application, they know what you make (if you listed it on the app). HR may have not shared that with the hiring manager. Occasionally I will have a tough negotiator try and leave it off, but they don't progress without it. It just seems a bit odd that they would tell you they are offering the job to you and you have so many loose ends...

2. Did they discuss the benefit package? Bonus structure, 401K match, vacation/PTO accrual rate, etc..

3. My rule of thumb is 10% increase minimum. 13% if you are close Q4. I add 3% since most people would gain 3% based on COLA or annual merits in December/January. You may need 20 or 25%....

My suggestion is go to salary.com and do a search for the job you are applying for and search for the city you live in. The results will give a range from the 10th to 90th percentile for salary ranges plus bonus. You can also go to indeed.com or another job search engine and gauge by the posted jobs what the competition is willing to pay. That way you have the ammo when it gets down to brass tacks.

Good luck!!

 

Whoever throws out the first number loses in any negotiation.

My first question if someone is trying to recruit me is always what is the salary? I want to hear nothing else about the company, job, etc until I know what they are willing to pay me.

 

Somebody said earlier that they go for a 30% pay increase. This is a good number. You are taking a risk and that requires a premium.

I go for 20% increase in take home. For my current job, I took a 10% increase and I justified the move because my commuting costs went down significantly almost making up the other 10%. Also my commuting time went down a lot (cut by more than 75% from 1.5 hrs to 20 minutes). Plus I was going to the same place every day where my previous job had me traveling and going to job sites for weeks to months at a time.

EDIT: Also, try to negotiate time off. Nothing worse than going from 4 weeks vacation back to 2 weeks that newbies get.

 

Compensation is discussed early in the recruitment process. Also is the compensation merit based, exempt, deferred? Got to know these things up front.

 

Throwing out a high number is fine, but you also need to know timeline for increases, reviews, etc. A friend got a big increase moving to a new job, then never got another raise again.

 

They called back yesterday and offered 30% more in salary. But my current compensation is made up a bonuses, salary and car, so its not only about the salary.

They asked me on a number of occasions what it would take for me to be excited to come to work, and I just danced around it during the interviews.

Yesterday when they offered me 20-30% higher salary, I said the number I needed was 50%. He said we weren't too far off and would get back to me. Sounded optimistic. And it didn't include bonus or car.

I'm in the enviable position of being really wanted I think. I've only worked for one company out of school (8 years). Hopefully when its all said and done the end of year total compensation increase is at least 30% even though the salary increase may be as high as 50%.

My mindset going into the discussion was its easier to negotiate down from up. We'll see what happens.

We haven't even gotten into the whole benefits package. Obviously that provides a way out if I don't like what I see there.

I didn't fill out anything about salary during the interviews or HR or anything. They just know that I make more than the offer they gave me yesterday. It was a half truth.

I'm married w/ a bun in the oven

 

I understand this, but I took a risk in not talking about it and its working so far. When working with a recruiter, I would totally agree with you. This company directly reached out to me.