Negotiating Your Salary
What if I told you that the first offer is often not the best or last offer? Well, it’s true. Employers often have a salary range permissible for each position on their jobs site, but they usually start at the low end of that range in their initial offers. Now, what if I tell you that most people of color don’t negotiate their salaries at all. While there are certainly a ton of historical and psychological reasons for why, we urge people to ask themselves what is the harm in asking? If you’re open to negotiating your salary or even curious about what that process may look like, then Book of Melanin encourages you to read our below tips and tricks for salary negotiations.
1. Know Your Value.
The whole purpose of negotiating your salary is because you know your value. You must be confident in the argument that the work you have or will provide is far better than the salary you’ve currently been presented with. This requires you to know your brand and know your track record. You will use both as fuel to remain steadfast in your pursuit of an appropriate salary for the work you deliver.
2. Do Your Homework.
The key to a successful salary negotiation is the evidence you provide to support your ask. Evidence should be heavily based on facts and less on opinions. To submit a fact-based counter offer we recommend knowing the market rate for your role and industry. Popular sites that may provide you with the research you’re looking for are Glassdoor.com, Indeed.com, and Salary.com. Your industry may also have consulting companies that complete this research for you and publicize the data. You could even contact job recruiters for advice on what they are currently seeing in the marketplace today.
After you’ve gathered your fact-based evidence to support your specific counteroffer, you must also collect fact-based evidence to support why you deserve the counteroffer. To do so, you’ll want to call on specific examples and accomplishments that more than qualify you for the job and the negotiated salary. For example, you can call on the certifications you’ve achieved that qualify you for a raise or you could even call on your consistent success rate when it comes to certain tasks/projects in your current role. Don’t be afraid to share that you’ve interviewed elsewhere and have received higher offers with competitive companies. Whatever your reason may be, make sure that is clear to the company that you have done your research and are prepared to participate in a negotiating dance with them, if need be.
3. Strategy. Strategy. Strategy.
Another key element to a successful salary negotiation is your strategy.
My first strategical move is to thank them for their offer but tell them that I need time to process and get back to them. This shows them that I’m taking the offer seriously, I don’t like to make rash decisions, and that I’m not desperate for the job (even if I am). Then right before my deadline to give them their “final” answer is when I butter them up before I go in for the kill. I start by telling them that I greatly appreciate their offer and I tell them a few intangible reasons why I’d love to work for them (i.e., enjoyed my conversations with their employees, appreciate what they are doing for the community, etc.). Then I follow that up with “I’d love to accept the offer but there is a matter of compensation I’d like to discuss first”.
At this point, I would include the fact-based evidence from my homework that supports why I deserve the counteroffer. After including a few bullets on the why is when I really go in for the kill with my specific salary request. That could look something like this, “As such, I am requesting a base salary of $62K, which is in line with industry standards.” But how did I decide on what my specific salary request was going to be?
As you complete your homework you may notice that you’re left with a range. You want to be sure not to make an insulting counteroffer that turns them off from even wanting to do this negotiation dance with you, but you also want to be sure that you are receiving what you are worth. To keep a safe balance, we recommend countering with a salary above your bottom number but below the top end of the range you’ve researched.
For example, let’s say you’ve been offered a salary of $62K for the position you’ve applied for, and your research tells you that the salary range for the position is $62K to $79K. Your bottom-line number may be $70K. In this situation, I would recommend countering with $75K. One of five options may occur. 1) They could say we accept and now you’re starting $13K over the initial offer. 2) They could counter above your ask, such as $72K, which is still $10K above the initial offer. 3) They could meet you at your bottom line of $70K. 4) Maybe they counter below your ask, such as $66K, which is still higher than the initial offer. Or 5) They could say that they are standing strong at $62K. In all but one scenario, you walk away with more than the initial offer, which is a win that gets you closer to being compensated for your worth.
A common misconception about negotiating salaries is that they will take your offer away or lower their initial offer. We are here to tell you that absolutely does not happen! So please do not feel fearful for asking companies to pay you what you think you are worth. You may be surprised with the response you get!
Also note that negotiation is not limited to just your base salary. You can also negotiate you paid-time-off, bonus, moving expenses, health insurance, etc.
4. Keep A Paper Trail.
Throughout the negotiation process we recommend communicating via email throughout. You may notice that the recruiter will call you after each email, which is totally fine and normal. However, you want to keep an accurate documentation of the negotiation process just in case things get miscommunicated or incase certain asks get lost in the process. For example, pulling from the scenario above, the following email would have been sent to the recruiter/manager.
Good Afternoon Jane,
Thank you again for extending an offer to serve as Data Analyst for Company XYZ. I truly enjoyed my conversations with your employees and greatly believe that the work you all are doing is truly making a difference in the lives of many. While I would love to accept your offer, I would like to discuss the compensation first. As mentioned in our previous conversations, I have recently obtained by ABC Certification and have over 5 years in the data analytics industry. Additionally, my experience includes exposure to executive leadership, client-facing projects, and senior leadership presentations. As a result, I am requesting a base salary of $70,000, which is inline with industry standards and the competitive offers that I have received.
I am confident that Company XYZ will benefit from the value that I bring to the company, and I do hope that you will consider my request. Look forward to hearing from you soon.
Thank you for your time,
Kimberly Suarez
Once you and the employer have reached an agreement ask for written documentation that details the salary amount, bonuses, job description, and any special arrangements that were agreed upon during the negotiation process, such as paid-time-off, moving expenses, etc. The written agreement will serve as a legally binding contract that the employer will not want to break.
5. Know When to Move On.
As we alluded to above, salary negotiations are like a dance. Be prepared for a little back and forth between you and the employer. But like all dances, there will be an end. Hopefully the end is everything you dreamed of, but that’s not always the case. If the end is not as preferred, take a deep breath, pat yourself on the back for standing up for what you believe in, and re-strategize.
If their counter, or lack thereof, is far off from the value you’ve determined for yourself then it may be time to move on. Especially, if you know you will find a company to compensate you for your worth elsewhere. If their counter isn’t as sweet as you imagined, but you think there is room to grow and develop into the person you wish to be under their employment, then perhaps you accept their offer. You can always do this dance again when you’ve addressed their “concerns” and accomplished more things.
In the words of my career successful aunt, “you’ll never know unless you ask and the worst, they can say is no.”
For more sample salary negotiation letters, check out the following site.
