Recruiter says salary is non-negotiable: BS?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’m in the process of interviewing for a job that was listed through a recruiter. The recruiter essentially says that the salary is X and that is non-negotiable. X being about 10% below what my market value. There is enough travel where I would likely make up the difference, and maybe then some, due to having my food and other expenses covered. It’s a pretty generic entry level position, so X is not a number I am pulling out of my arse. I definitely would be paid less than my peers.

Obviously, everything is negotiable, and I plan to at least put some pressure to get the salary up. Do you guys think that this is a tactic by the recruiter to simply get the job filled so he can get his commission, or do you think that the company really views the salary as non-negotiable?

2

I used to work as a recruiter. Is your recruiter BSing you? Maybe. Keep in mind that a recruiter’s commission size depends on how much money you make. So you think they’d want to get you the highest possible salary, right? Except that extra money comes from the company, who may be willing to pay Y commission for an employee with X salary, but not Y+1 commission for an X+1 salary. Therefore they might tell you the salary is non-negotiable, because for them, it is–they’ve hit the ceiling of how much they can get from the company.

Or they may be telling the truth. Since the company is paying a recruiter, the company might be taking that money out of your salary because they’re not willing to pay full salary plus commission on top of that, especially for an entry-level position.

Is this hourly or perm? Hourly commission is a per-hour rate for a certain time period, often 3 months. Perm commission is a one-shot deal. If it’s hourly, talk to the company (once they’ve shown interest in you) and say that you know the salary is lower than your peers, but will they review you at 3 months? (or whenever the commission ends)

If there is a certain dollar amount you need to pay your bills, tell the recruiter that, very clearly. “I will not accept any position for less than X/hr.” But if it’s a great opportunity for you, it may be worth it to take a cut.

True story: I was recruited once for a great job and I told the recruiter that my absolute bottom salary was X. I told the employer it was X. I told the recruiter again after the interview it was X. She came back with an offer of salary X-1.

The reason was that X-1 was in a lower commission bracket, and X was in a higher one, and the company wouldn’t pay the higher commission. So the recruiter tried to get me to eat the cost the company wasn’t willing to pay by telling me that the salary was non-negotiable. So I said “I’m very sorry, it’s a fantastic opportunity, but I have bills to pay. I have to turn down the offer.” It really choked me up to do that, since it was a great job.

4 hours later the recruiter came back with an offer of salary X. They were willing to lower their commission to close the deal, which they wouldn’t have done unless they were in danger of losing the deal altogether.

My best advice: know exactly what you want, say clearly what you want, and be willing to walk if you don’t get it.

3

This is the only advice you need.

4

Advice for job hunting. Advice for shopping. Advice for dating. Advice for life. Bravo. :slight_smile:

5

Perfect.

As someone who does a fair bit of hiring, I’ll say that the more initiative you show the higher opinion I will have for you. I have people ask me all the time if the salary is negotiable, and I throw it back at them and ask them what they think this position is worth.

So I ask you treis - how do you know what your market value is? And how do you create your own personal value to sell to me as the hiring guy?

6

fuffle, thanks your response was very helpful.

As I said before, I’m not pulling X out of my ass. I know what X is, and I know that what the recruiter is saying is 10% below X. I plan to have my ducks in a row and will be able to articulate exactly why I am worth X. That’s not really what the issue is. The issue, to me, is what exactly is the deal with this “non-negotiable” business.

7

If it’s a big company, non-negotiable may mean “The position that was approved by divisional HR, divisional Finance, corporate HR, corporate Finance, is for a non-tech L5, second quartile salary level”, and the offer range maxes out at what they’re offering you. If it was a high level position that they were having trouble filling, the hiring manager might be willing to go back through the annoying long and convoluted approval process to get more money. If as you say it’s an entry level position, they’re far more likely to just grab another resume from the pool they got.

8

If a Government job, the pay is non-negotiable, period.

9

If you are talking about private industry, the salary is always negotiable.
First rule of salesmanship If you don’t ask, you don’t get

10

The issue is, sometimes the salary is truly non-negotiable - meaning they will not give you any more even if you are worth it. It happens.
I highly respect your verve, and if there is any wiggle room you are more than likely to get what you ask for…

Then to follow what Rick said, a close tie for the first rule of salesmanship is it’s distant cousin: Never take NO for an answer.

11

Of course, that doesn’t mean that everything else isn’t negotiable. You might be able to get them to schedule a review at 6 months rather than a year. There are some companies, like mine, which start the pay off fairly low, but will quickly reevaluate that after 6 months. In fact, I had 2 unscheduled pay raises last year.

12

Here’s my story.

I interviewed for a job via a recruiter. Company made an offer (to be honest, it was a really, really good offer. But I always always always counter. They’re never going to want you more than when they make the offer.). Recruiter says, “This is as high as they will go.” I told her I always always always counter. She insists they won’t go higher. I told her, well, if they don’t then I can decide what to do then, but… well you get it.

She reluctantly agreed. She called back two hours later with a 10% higher salary. Honestly, I think she made have been afraid she was going to lose the deal.

Now, I don’t know why your particular recruiter would say it’s non-negotiable. But I can tell you that there is no way I’d even consider taking the job under the circumstances you’ve described.

13

I think there really may be no way of knowing. At my current large, international, recently-sold-so-who-knows-what-policy-will-be-now, muldoonthief is right – for many positions, the person doing the hiring simply doesn’t have the authority to offer more than the predetermined amount. You’d have to go several layers up the ladder to get that authority, and you’d be risking your own reputation to even ask. In the past, though, my company has been proud of never offering less than market value for the area, which they research diligently, so they’ve had some moral authority not to budge.

On the other hand, at a job I had in the 90s with a semi-large company, salary was open to negotiation – up to about a third above the base rate – if you realized it and took it up with HR. My immediate boss worked hard to make sure I never realized it (I found out a few years later from a former co-worker).

Also in the 90s, I worked for a headhunter. Applicants for some jobs in high demand could ask for more and not be snickered at, but not all.

14

Hey, if you’re going to be paid less than your peers, you have a right to know why. Ask the recruiter why you’re being offered this salary, and be ready to walk if the answer is bad.

15

The first rule of dealing with salesmen, let their calls go to voicemail and - when necessary - threaten them with a restraining order.

16

As long as you’re free to get up and walk away, the salary is negotiable.

17

<Checks “Bucket List”>
<unchecks “cracker in the desert”>
</Checks “Bucket List”>

18

Not in many union positions, entry pay is often very strictly scaled.