A newsletter subscriber inquired whether or not it was possible to negotiate salary at a job your are already working at. After some investigating the local job market, they realized that they were quite underpaid and wanted to level set with their coworkers. Someone had advised them to quit their job and try to negotiate a higher salary elsewhere.

Salary negotiation is not just reserved for new recruits. Anyone can negotiate their salary by asking for a raise. They must be well prepared with a deliberately planned strategy and a well developed supporting case to persuade the employer.

Of course, if you just accepted a job offer, it is not a good time to ask for more money, but once you have some time and accomplishments behind you, you should look to salary negotiation. If you just accepted the offer, you did so fair and square. That is why it is important to know your value before accepting any job offer.

Salary is not the only means of increasing your compensation package. You can also consider things like extra vacation, time off in lieu of overtime worked, and stock options as extra ways to add value to your compensation, and make it more easy for the employer to accept.

Before going for a pay raise, one needs to do a number of things.

1) Know your market value – do not rely on just one salary survey source. Also, make sure you trust their data. Self-reported salary surveys are far less reliable than those that are reported by the human resource departments in the industry in your area.

2) Your value-add is a very powerful salary negotiation tool. You should be aware of all the ways you add value to the business and prepare to communicate it effectively to the boss.

3) Prepare yourself to discuss this with the boss, and mention that you would like an increase to be in line with the current job market salary range.

4) Having done your research and having an intuition for where your performance falls within the percentile range, you will need to have a conversation with your boss and agree on the level you are performing at.

There are so many facets to salary negotiation. You should be prepared to do your research and know your facts. I highly recommend learning more about the art of salary negotiating and turn your career into high gear.

My preference would be to negotiate salary in a job that I was happy with rather than go through the effort of finding a new job in hopes of a higher salary.

One tactic that can give you an upper hand is to first get yourself another job offer. With that as your back up measure, you will have more leverage in negotiating salary.

Trevor Davide Grant is a project manager in the IT field and has extensive experience in salary negotiation. Trevor has worked for large telecom, power utililties, software consulting, and a prevalent web 2.0 site. He has learned how to negotiate a salary in the most effective way. Learn great tips on the topic of negotiating salary at www.HowToNegotiateASalary.com.

Similar Posts:

Share