Salary negotiation

What It Means

Salary negotiation is the conversation, usually after a job offer, in which you ask for a higher starting pay or better terms than first offered. It can cover base pay, a signing bonus, start date, vacation time or remote days. CareerOneStop, the U.S. Department of Labor's career site, points out that later raises are based on your starting pay, so the starting figure can affect your earnings for years.

How People Say It at Work

• "They came in lower than I hoped, so I countered."
• "Is the salary negotiable?"
• "I asked for a day to think it over."

The Breakdown

Worked example. Dana is offered $60,000 a year for a 40-hour week. She checks CareerOneStop's Salary Finder for her job and city, sees where the offer sits against the local median, and counters at $64,000.

What the result means. The $4,000 counter works out to about $1.92 an hour and $333 a month before taxes. Over five years that's $20,000 even with no raises, and raises figured as a percentage of a higher base would widen it. The numbers are an example; the employer may say yes, meet you partway or hold firm.

Steps, from CareerOneStop's advice

1. Research pay first. The Salary Finder shows low, median and high pay, hourly and yearly, for your area, your state and the nation.
2. Wait for the employer to raise pay, or for an offer. If asked for your requirements early, give a range.
3. When the offer comes, thank them and ask for at least 24 hours to decide.
4. Base your counter on the value, skills and experience you bring, and leave your personal need for money out of it.
5. Negotiate by phone or in person, then check that everything you agreed is in the final offer letter.

Good to Know

CareerOneStop's Salary Finder draws on the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program. BLS publishes these estimates once a year with a May reference date, and its median is the middle wage: half the workers in a job earn more and half earn less. Some states and cities have laws on salary history questions or posting pay ranges; check your state labor department's website to see what applies where you live.

Related Terms and Categories

• Asking for a raise

  Requesting higher pay from your current employer, usually backed by your results, your role's market pay and what you plan to take on next.

• Total compensation

  The full value of what an employer pays for your work in a year: base pay plus bonuses and the employer's spending on benefits such as insurance and retirement.

• Benefits package

  Everything an employer offers on top of wages, such as health insurance, paid leave and a retirement plan, which can be worth thousands of dollars a year.

• Job interview

  A conversation in which an employer asks about your experience and skills to decide whether to offer you a job, and you learn about the role.

• Take-home pay

  The money that actually reaches you from a paycheck after taxes and other deductions are taken out, also called net pay or net income.

• Gross income

  The full amount you earn before taxes and other deductions come out. For federal taxes, it's all income you receive unless a law exempts it.

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