How to Negotiate Salary After Receiving an Offer

Diplomacy, Timing, and Research Key to Negotiating Annual Pay

Oct 16, 2009 Daniel Gansle

Many job seekers are hesitant about negotiating annual pay after an employer offers them a job. However, some can increase starting salary by asking for more. Here's how.

Annual pay is one of those tricky aspects of the job search that many candidates don’t know how to handle upon an employment offer. Should the person simply accept the position and be quiet about it, or should he or she try to negotiate a higher salary? Here’s what to do when the offer seems a bit too low.

Calculate Average Salary

Before beginning the job search, take a look at what others are being paid in the same occupational field. Salary.com, PayScale, and HomeFair are highly useful websites for determining median compensation using data derived from corporate surveys. The sites factor in such criteria as experience, location, and specific job title to come up with the estimate.

However, the accuracy of these compensation tools is debated. According the Resume-Help.org article, “Using Salary Calculators,” some employment experts believe the calculators often display results that are higher than what the market actually reflects. “Most salary calculators do not provide information about the size of the sample used in determining the figures, nor how the sample was chosen,” quotes the website.

Companies calculate salary in a variety of ways. It’s not uncommon for compensation within just one department to vary widely. Thus when the job seeker sees the words “median pay,” it doesn’t necessarily mean the company should be paying this exact amount on the bi-weekly paycheck. Other factors such as a lower cost of living location and an exceptional benefits package could set the actual compensation to a lower amount.

Assess the Salary Offer

Typically an employer will ask the job seeker his or her salary requirements during the initial phone screening or the face-to-face interview. If the person approaches the request properly, he or she would have given the company a compensation range rather than a set amount. For example, between $45K-$55K/yr.

If the employer comes back with a job offer and the pay is on the lower end of the scale, assess the offer factoring in not just salary, but perks that may make up for the lower compensation. A great health plan, 401(k) profit sharing plan, free meals, or free gym membership may compensate for what at first appears as a lowball offer.

How to Negotiate

If after taking a good hard look at what the employer has presented the candidate still feels like the offer is simply too low, he or she can contact the hiring manager and negotiate a bump up in pay. This can be done by telephone or email (telephone preferred), and the conversation could go something like this:

“Hi, this is Pete Smith. You offered me a job for the position of web designer, and I have one quick question. I had originally requested a salary range of $45K-$55K per year; however I was offered $46K. I’d like to see if we could bump the compensation up a bit closer to the middle.”

In the negotiations, never allude to the median pay determined by compensation calculators. Do not try to threaten the employer with pulling out. Do not attempt to bluff the company by citing fictitious competing job opportunities with higher pay. And while a few have reported that rejecting a new opportunity has resulted in callbacks and increased compensation, this tactic is not recommended unless the candidate has already received multiple offers.

Many people are hesitant to request more money upon a job offer. However, by using a salary calculator to get a rough estimate of the candidate’s worth, assessing perks and benefits as well as compensation, and diplomatically negotiating, the person can indeed garner a higher paycheck while at the same time starting a new and exciting career.

The copyright of the article How to Negotiate Salary After Receiving an Offer in Career Advice is owned by Daniel Gansle. Permission to republish How to Negotiate Salary After Receiving an Offer in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Salary Negotiation

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