Fair pay remains a significant concern for many workers, with only a small fraction feeling adequately compensated for their efforts. Research reveals that nearly half of job seekers make a move primarily to secure a better salary. What’s striking is that many of these individuals would rather stay with their current employer if their pay met their expectations. This underscores how essential fair compensation is—not just to retain talent but also to motivate and value employees for the work they do.
Whether you're on the hunt for your first job or thinking about switching roles, becoming skilled in salary negotiation is vital. This guide offers strategies and key tips to help you understand the job market and build the confidence to negotiate effectively for yourself.
Don’t Let Your Salary Requirements Limit Your Job Search
One of the biggest mistakes you can make when you’re searching for a job is limiting your options based on your minimum starting salary. Of course, if you’re looking for a six-figure position, you should probably filter out jobs that pay hourly. Otherwise, though, you should keep an open mind when you are wading through the job market. Use these tools to find opportunities that meet your expectations.
Filter Job Results with Salary Ranges
When you’re looking for your next position, you will probably start your search online and use keywords that align with the kind of job you want. Most job search sites offer tools that allow you to filter results according to your criteria. Some sites even let you save these preferences and set up alerts when new job matches are posted.
This might seem like an easy way to ensure that you weed out jobs with a starting salary that’s too low, but you should be careful. When you’re setting your salary range filter, don’t set the bottom range to your minimum salary. Instead, set it slightly below so that you can see positions that are close to your desired wage, too.
Establish Realistic Expectations
Once you’ve filtered your job results to include postings with lower wages, you need to look at the listings and develop realistic expectations. In most cases, a candidate with limited work experience won't earn wages that are dramatically above the average salary in their industry. Look at the positions to see what the average salary is and compare the job’s requirements to your own qualifications.
If a position requires that a candidate possesses a business school degree, for example, it may be ambitious to apply for this position and expect a high salary offer if you do not meet this requirement. Take the time to look at similar positions, too, and weigh their wages and minimum criteria against your expectations. Focus your attention on jobs with requirements that match your experience.
Start Applying and Get Ready to Negotiate
At this point, you should have arrived at a sweet spot of job listings that align with your interests, offer salaries close to your expectation, and match your professional qualifications. It’s time to start applying and laying the groundwork for negotiation.
Demonstrate Your Value in Interviews
When you think about negotiating your salary, you probably assume that this starts when you receive a salary offer. On the contrary, you can start subtly negotiating your salary before you even get a job offer. You can do this by using your interview to showcase your skills and illustrate your qualifications to potential employers. Most importantly, though, you need to demonstrate your value.
Demonstrating value means that you can provide clear, explicit examples of ways that you can boost an employer’s bottom line. If you are uniquely skilled in graphic design, for example, you can demonstrate your value by describing how your skills can revolutionize a company’s marketing campaigns — and how a refreshed marketing campaign can multiply their revenue.
Always Receive a Salary Offer Graciously
If you successfully demonstrate your value and make a great impression on a hiring manager, you might find yourself getting a salary offer sooner rather than later. Remember the jobs you applied to that were a little below your target salary? You can now put your negotiation skills to work and ask for the wages you want.
Before you get into the nitty gritty of negotiating, though, it’s important to remember that you should always receive a salary offer graciously. Even if the offer does not meet your minimum requirements, you should stay positive and thank a potential employer for offering you the position. Responding negatively will only jeopardize the job offer.
Consider the Compensation Package as a Whole
If you’ve received a job offer that doesn’t offer the salary you seek, your first instinct may be to resume your job search and look for greener pastures. You should never dismiss a salary offer, though, without first considering the compensation package as a whole. When you see a dollar amount, it’s easy to zoom in on this one detail, but it’s really only part of the picture.
Take a closer look and see whether the offer includes any vacation time, for example. If so, this could be worth several hundred or even several thousand dollars. Consider, too, whether the position offers the flexibility to work from home. If so, think about the enormous amount you could save by eliminating your commute and other travel-related expenses.
Put Your Negotiation Skill to the Test
If you’ve carefully considered the salary offer and you still want to pursue higher pay, there are a few important steps you should follow in order to improve your negotiation skills. It’s a good idea to follow these tips when you ask for a higher salary.
1. Cultivate Your Confidence Before You Begin
One of the most important parts of a successful negotiation is developing and displaying a confident disposition. Rather than meekly asking a prospective employer if they would reconsider their salary offer, you should be straightforward and tell them that you are looking for a job that meets certain criteria. You must feel comfortable enough to present this information confidently. If you do so, and if the hiring manager truly believes that you’re the right candidate, they should entertain your counteroffer.
2. Establish the Justification for Your Request
Of course, simply telling a hiring manager that you want a higher wage is unlikely to be sufficient. You’ll need to negotiate by providing a justification for this request. If you went to business school and earned an advanced degree, for example, you may have expertise that other candidates do not — and you are therefore worth a higher wage than the initial salary offer. In order to justify your counteroffer, you’ll need to highlight your unique qualifications succinctly and persuasively.
3. Back Up Your Argument with Data From Similar Positions
In addition to showcasing your qualifications, your negotiations should include supporting data from similar positions. If you are applying for a Customer Service Specialist position, you should look for job postings with this title and collect information about the wages and requirements. If the requirements are similar to those for the position you’re pursuing, but the wages are substantially higher, this can be a very effective tool to gain leverage when you are negotiating.
4. Display Flexibility When You’re Negotiating
It’s essential to demonstrate flexibility when you’re entering negotiations. Even the most highly-qualified, persuasive job candidate will ultimately be confined to a prospective employer’s budget constraints. You don't want to walk away from a job offer that could be the start of a promising career, so it’s best to be patient when you are entering salary negotiations.
5. Decide When It’s Time to End Your Job Search
Negotiating a salary might feel like you’re playing a game of chicken. Do you want the job enough to settle for a subpar salary, or does an employer want you enough to pay you what you’re worth? The answer comes down to your commitment to your desired wage and your willingness to continue your job search. If you follow these tips, though, you have a better chance of getting the wages you want — even if you’re a new job seeker.
Your Job Search Can Have a Happy Ending
There are few experiences more stressful than a grueling job search. It’s even more stressful if you’re struggling to find positions that meet your minimum salary expectations. If you widen your search and maintain realistic expectations, though, you can find opportunities that align with your career goals. If you don’t receive the salary offer that you want, make a case for your qualifications and negotiate with your potential employer. These salary negotiation tips will help you build confidence and earn what you’re worth.
