Find out more about negotiation tips, how to negotiate your salary, negotiation help, salary negotiation, how to negotiate salary, negotiation strategies, salary negotiation tips, how do i negotiate my salary, asking for a raise, asking for a raise in a job interview, negotiating job offer on careerkeg.com
With a job offer in hand and your current salary on the table, the issue of compensation often arises during the job negotiation process. It’s really important that you learn how to negotiate current salary with a job offer. After all, negotiating your current salary isn’t only about avoiding earning less than your peers — it’s about being rewarded for the value you bring to an organization.
Negotiating your current salary with a new job offer is an important part of the hiring process. You want to make sure you get paid what you deserve and that you don’t end up underpaid, so it’s important to know how much money you should be asking for.
There are a few things to consider when negotiating your current salary with a new job offer:
- Your skills and experience
- The market value of your position
- Whether or not you have previous offers from other companies
- How much money they’re offering you (if they’ve offered one at all)
The first thing you’ll need to do is figure out what kind of position you’re applying for, and then look at the average salary for someone in that position. You can look at sites like Glassdoor or PayScale to find out what people in similar positions are making. After doing this research, write down what you think would be fair compensation based on what others with similar experience and skills make in their field. Once you have those numbers, go back through them again to make sure there are no mistakes, then add 10% onto each number—this will be the number that we’ll use as our starting point when negotiating
How to negotiate current salary with a job offer
Always negotiate pay, even if it’s going to be the same as your current salary.
There are a few reasons why you should always negotiate your salary, even if it’s going to be the same as your current salary.
First and foremost, if you don’t negotiate your offer, then you will never know how much more money was on the table. You may think that the salary they offered is good enough for what they’re offering in terms of benefits or perks. However, there could be an opportunity cost to not negotiating—your future performance might suffer because of it. In this scenario, negotiation won’t only benefit you but also help your employer assess whether or not giving raises is worth their resources now and in the future.
Second, employers often use “salary history” to determine salaries (i.e., if someone has been making $75k at her previous job for several years she’ll likely make around that much at her new job). By negotiating instead of accepting their initial offer without question, she might actually get paid more than what she would’ve made had she just accepted without question.”
Do your research ahead of time.
- Do your research ahead of time.
- You can use sites like Glassdoor or Payscale to get an idea of salaries in your area. Use this information to make sure they’re offering you a fair amount, but keep in mind that total compensation includes benefits, work environment, and days off as well as salary.
Negotiate with someone who can make the decision and give you a yes or no on the spot.
You want to negotiate with someone who can make the decision and give you a yes or no on the spot.
That means talking to someone who is in charge of hiring, such as the manager working on your team. The last thing anyone wants is to have an offer rescinded because of something they said during negotiations, so it’s best to avoid talking to HR unless absolutely necessary.
If you’re negotiating with a manager, use some personal references from previous colleagues. Let them know what kind of work you did and ask if they think that’s valuable enough for their company—then emphasize those points in your negotiation discussions!
Make sure you’re negotiating the base salary, not just a promotion.
- Make sure you’re negotiating the base salary, not just a promotion. The base salary is the money you will be paid for doing your job. It’s what you can expect to make every year, and it’s what your employer uses to calculate raises and bonuses.
- Know the market rate for your position. If you want to negotiate with confidence, then know how much other people in similar positions are earning in other companies in your area or industry. You can use websites like Glassdoor or Salary.com to find out how much people in similar roles at different companies are making—and then cite this information during negotiations as proof that their offer is too low by comparison (if it is).
- Be prepared with examples from past jobs where some employee asked for more than what was initially offered and got it (or at least part of it). This may help them see that asking for more isn’t always a bad thing—and might even inspire them!
Don’t use “current salary” as an argument for why you deserve more money.
What you make currently has nothing to do with your worth as a candidate.
It’s not a good idea to bring up your current salary unless they ask, and even then it should only be used as an argument if you’re going to show that it’s lower than what they’re offering, not higher. If you have an offer in hand, the employer knows what other companies have been willing to pay for your services—so there’s no reason for them not to simply match the offers they’ve received from other companies.
If a company asks about current pay, you have to tell them.
If a company asks about current pay, you have to tell them. You cannot lie. The simple reason is that if they find out later that you lied, they will rescind the offer and probably not want to work with you. There are some exceptions:
- If you were not legally authorized to work at your current job and do not have a social security number (SSN), then you should not mention it because it could cause problems for your legal status in the United States
- If the job offer is significantly lower than what you currently make and there is no way for the new employer to know how much money someone who held your previous position earned (e.g., government employee or consultant), then perhaps omission of this information would be appropriate
However, these situations are rare occurrences and generally won’t apply unless specifically stated by an employer.
If a company gives you a range, don’t accept less than the lowest number in that range. Especially if it’s lower than your current salary.
If a company gives you a range, don’t accept less than the lowest number in that range. Especially if it’s lower than your current salary.
The reason for this is simple: The range is what they are willing to pay. If they’re offering more money than the bottom of their range, it means that they think you’re worth more than what they initially thought; and why would they think that? They wouldn’t offer more money if they didn’t have some kind of compelling reason to do so (i.e., something about you). If a company doesn’t want to pay more than their bottom line, then maybe it’s not right for me!
But let’s say that I feel like I really need/want this job… What do I do next?
Think about other things besides money – remember total compensation includes benefits, work environment, days off, etc.
Remember that a job offer is not just about money. You should also consider the total compensation of the position and all its perks.
If you’re willing to accept a lower salary than what you want, then ask for other things in return like:
- Benefits like health insurance and 401k matching (higher up)
- Work environment (quieter, more open office spaces)
- Days off: how many sick days do I get per year? Is there paid vacation time? (lower down)
Even if there is nothing else in it for you besides money, never accept less than what they said they’d pay you when they told you what they were offering – negotiating is part of the game!
You’ll be negotiating for other things as well, but it’s important to remember that money is the baseline. It sets the tone for everything else that follows.
If you have other concerns regarding salary or benefits (such as vacation time), then now would be a good time to bring them up.
