My wife will be negotiating her salary for her new job tomorrow. She’s never done this before and is nerves. What are some things she should know before hand that will help her get a good deal. It’s a job in the banking sector.
Research as much as possible what similar positions and similar experience actually are actually paid. It’s a common thought that you should perhaps avoid being the first to mention a number. When offered my present job, they asked me for a salary figure. I told them I’d research it and get back to them.
After contacting six people of similar experience and just asking*, and after also researching salary surveys on the 'net, I gave my employer a narrow range, the bottom end of which was what I wanted. And explained how I’d arrived at that number. They gave me that bottom number.
Good luck!
*I’d been running my own company for many years and had lost touch with how corporate salaries were running.
First she should reassure her employer that she enjoys working there and is intrested in staying and growing with the company. (This is great if she really is sincere.) She should cite her concerns and compliments about how the company is run. ( To demonstrate her understanding of the company and her understanding of company long term goals.)
Then to start the dialogue she should start on the high end. She should stress that she wants to be a long term player.
In short, she needs convey to the employer that they need to offer her the incentive to stay.
As a starting point she needs to figure what she MUST have in order for the job to be worthwhile for her. This includes all the debts that need taking care of (car payments, mortgage, credit cards, etc.). Add in some reasonable amount for savings and fun money and so on and that number will be her base to start from. Realize that taxes, social security, health benefit payments and so on will take anywhere from 20-33% out of her gross pay (depending on her tax bracket, health plan chose if there are options, voluntary payments to a 401k, etc.). Err closer to the 33% if you don’t know for certain so there are no surprises. So, if she gets a $60,000/year job she’ll walk home with around $40,000/year.
If she takes anything less then the job is not really worthwhile and she’ll be unhappy since her and her family’s needs aren’t being met. She either needs to demand more, find a different job or find ways to reduce her lifestyle so it’ll fit with the salary she gets.
After that go with the advice given above.
One other thing to consider is that compensation can come in more ways than actual salary. A generous benefits package can be valuable (good medical, generous co-payments to a 401k, etc.). Comp-time plans, paid vacation, tuition re-imbursement and so on all count. It’s up to her and you to decide what is valuable to you (i.e. one person might like tiotion reimbursement while another couldn’t care less). Just be sure she looks at the fine print on these things. I got burned at my last company as while they had a nice benefits package I couldn’t participate in the health benefits for six months, the 401k for two years, no vacation AT ALL for one year and so on. Tuition reimbursement will sometimes let you take nearly any class you like, others will only pay for continuing education in your current field and many companies will make you pay back the tuition if you leave before a certain amount of time has passed. Short answer is be careful of the fine print on some benefits.