The Benefits of Negotiating Your Salary
So Many People Don’t Negotiate Their Salary
They either:
- Don’t know a good salary negotiation technique,
- Don’t know what they’re worth,
- Are scared they’ll say the wrong thing and jeopardize the job or,
- Assume they can’t negotiate their salary in “this economy.”
What they don’t know is that you CAN negotiate your salary – even in “this economy.”
The Obvious Benefit to Negotiating Your Salary
The obvious benefit of negotiating your salary is the money itself. The size of your paycheck affects how much you can afford to spend from day-to-day. Whether it’s at the grocery store, the gas station, the doctor’s office or on car repayments we all need money.
So selling yourself short at the outset of a job means that you will have to wait to negotiate a raise – at least until your first performance review.
But there are a number of less obvious benefits that people don’t always think about…
A Paycheck is More Than Just a Paycheck
Many people think of a salary negotiation being just about salary. But like any good negotiation, you win when you increase the size of the pie for both parties. This works when you negotiate something that is worth a lot to one party but not much to another. An example of this in salary negotiation is negotiating flexible working conditions or getting employer funded health insurance.
How Much is this Worth to You? Well consider the following examples:
- Each week of paid leave is like another 1% pay rise,
- Getting your employer to pay your health insurance or pension out of pre-tax income could end up costing the company nothing but saving you around 10% on your tax bill,
- Negotiating flexible working conditions means a better quality of life. If you have children then working from home will be a big plus and you’ll also be saving commute time.
Your Starting Salary is the Basis for Future Raises
Your take-home pay isn’t the only consideration. Your starting salary becomes the basis for all future raises throughout your career. So if you start out at a lower level because you don’t negotiate your salary, then you’ve likely set yourself up to have a smaller salary down the line. Even if all the employees in your office receive the same percentage raise.
So say you negotiate an extra 5% in year one on a salary of $100 000. 20 years later with a 5% increase every year you will have earned over $165 000 extra!
Conclusion:
Even though successful salary negotiation is a great way to increase your earnings and wealth so many people would rather avoid the negotiation process. But when you consider the hidden benefits then the reasons why should negotiate your salary become even more compelling. The Manager Foundation Guide to Negotiating Your Salary will show you a proven salary negotiation technique to get the salary you want with an offer they can’t refuse!
One of the best ways to prepare is by practicing. Use a Professional Interview Coach who can prep you by role-playing an entire interview including the salary negotiation phase. This process gives you the confidence to talk money with a potential employer without being afraid you are getting it “wrong”.
Comments:
Do you have any comments, questions or tips for successfully negotiating your salary? Please help the rest of us out by sharing in the comments below.
The interview success series
This is part of the Interview Success Series. This series covers how job seekers can get the job they want. This series contains inside information from experienced recruiters.
TOPICS INCLUDE:
Boss Camp
Are you applying for a management position? When you first get promoted to management, maybe if you’re lucky you might get leadership training. Now leadership training is great but learning about vision, values, culture etc. won’t help you to deal with the day-to-day problems that every manager has to face. That’s why WWW.BOSS.CAMP was invented. The program includes topics such as:
- How to motivate employees,
- What are bad employee motivators,
- What you must do as a manager but isn't on your job description,
- How leaders get power.