Salary negotiations

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’ve been told we’re talking about this tomorrow, so if anyone’s got some advice, I’d love to hear it. Up to now I’ve never had a job where I felt like I was being compensated fairly, and I really don’t want to get stuck like that again. On the other hand, I just spent 11 months unemployed, and I’m not exactly keen on going back there, either.

Background: I was hired as a “Marketing Specialist” for a market research company on a two-month contract-to-hire agreement. The original agreement was $25 an hour, at least 30 hours a week (I’ve averaged around 32-33), no other benefits, with either party having the option to terminate on one week’s notice. Obviously no one has terminated the agreement, and since I’m still here I’m guessing they want to keep me around, although I don’t have a real solid impression of how much they want to keep me. The job entails mostly keeping track of when market research directories are coming out so we can buy listings and display ads, designing ads, brochures, websites, etc. advertising my company, and running reports from the client database.

What I want:
[ul]
[li]I’d like to stay at 30 hours per week. I don’t think it’s caused any problems as far as getting stuff done, and since this is the “day job” I like the idea of having the extra time to pursue other things.[/li][li]Medical insurance. This is not really negotiable, since I’ve already been turned down for individual coverage. They only way I can get medical again is to get on a group plan. (Luckily it seems that the minimum requirement for most plans is to work 30 hours a week – some, I’ve heard, do 20.)[/li][li]Somewhere around 34-36K a year, preferably salaried rather than hourly so I can have sick days and such. This is somewhat more negotiable, if necessary, though I can’t live on less than 30K.[/li][/ul]

There are a couple ways I can see to approach this. One is to ask for a salary that is 3/4 of the going rate for my work, according to what I found on salary.com. This would actually give me a much lower salary than I want, though – right around 30K. The other is to base it off of what I’m already being paid – e.g. $25 an hour, 30 hours a week works out to around 39K, give back say 4K to cover medical benefits, end up with 35K in salary, plus medical.

Thoughts, ideas? I’d really like suggestions on how to get close to what I want without being so pushy that he’d rather just get rid of me altogether. I’m never sure how far I can push things, so I think I generally end up not pushing hard enough.

Thanks.

2

My only suggestion is to let him make the first offer. It might be more than you think.

3

The last time I had to do this, for my present job, I gave them a range. I arrived at the range by polling several people I knew with similar experience, and the surprising consistency made me feel like I knew my true market value.

You don’t have to do the poll part, because you already know what you’ll be happy with. When I did this, the range I gave them was not terribly wide, and the bottom end was my what-I’d-be-happy-with figure.

As expected, they came back with the bottom end of my range. You already realize that your employee salary will be less than a contractor rate. Might I suggest that, if you want $35K, you suggest $35-37K?

Good luck!

4

What sucks is that they often want the seeker to pick a salary.

Monster.com has salary calculators that may be helpful - at least seems to provide an independent , uninterested 3rd party type of range - may appear to be a fair range more than a “wish” range

Good Luck!

5

You don’t mention if you’re an independent contractor or a temporary employee. Are they paying an employment company for the privilege of having you work there? If you’re an independent and they bring you one as an employee then they’ll also have other costs such as 1/2 social security, unemployment comp, workman’s comp, etc. Sometimes they don’t have to pay all the usual expenses for temps and sometimes they do, depends on the state/city.
Definitely try to get them to offer an amount first. If you’re in the position of having to go first, definitely do not lowball yourself. A lot of company folks believe if you’re asking for too little that you’re either too dumb to know your value, or you do know your value but aren’t worth much. Either way, you’ve tanked.

If they make an offer that’s too low, don’t say anything immediately. Let them fill a silence gap or if it is too long a gap, state something like, “Based on my experience, skills, and education that would not be the usual scale. Is there a reason that this position is worth such a low figure?”

Once you’ve accepted a salary you won’t be able to go back and re-negotiate. And don’t accept a salary based on the idea there will be raises, lots of companies are giving miniscule raises, or none at all.

6

If you know how to do this, I’d like to know the secret. No matter what I’ve tried, being coy, cagy, non-committal, or seemingly not inclined to ever name a figure, no matter how I play it they Always want a number from me. And of course both high and low are wrong and strain things, and I’m sure being exactly spot on would also strain things. The result is that I fear most interviews for that reason alone.

7

When we get to the end of the interview, they usually ask if you have any questions. Yes, I have a few: What does the position pay? What are the benefits? Is that salary negotiable (I don’t say this, but the look on my face says, well, its a little low…)?

Also, another tip I’ve learned is to ask “What concerns did you have about me as a candidate?” That gives me the opportunity to address any issues where they think I’m lacking and sell myself one more time.

8

I suppose you could call me a contractor. More specifically, I’m on a “probationary period” where I’m paid X per hour, expected at least 30 hours per week, with no other benefits. So in a sense I’m sort of halfway to employee, because they’re already paying me directly, as well as their half of my income/etc. taxes. The negotiations are to figure out if I want to stay, and if he wants me to stay as a “permanent” (like any job is permanent these days) employee, with benefits (at least there better be benefits).

That’s a fabulous comeback, thanks. I’m writing that down.

ANYway.

We did have a very long “discussion” about my position, and the long and short of it is that he is absolutely resistant to the idea of keeping things more or less as they are – i.e. 30 hours per week with a similarly valued salary/benefits package. He apparently feels that commitment to the company must necessarily equal 40+ hours a week, and even better, he wouldn’t increase the pay scale to reflect the 10 additional hours since, as he quite bluntly put it, he could find any number of other people willing to work for 35-40K at 40 hours per week. (At least he let slip what kind of salary range he’s looking for?)

So pardon me while I slam my head into my keyboard. While I could certainly understand not wanting to keep me at an equivalent salary AND adding benefits (which I wasn’t asking for, or wouldn’t have, since he never even let me get that far), but why set the precedent if you didn’t want me badly enough to keep it up? HE was the one who originally suggested the 30 hour week, I just happened to discover that I quite like it and would prefer to keep it.

I did ask him if he’d thought there were time problems with my meeting deadlines etc. because I was only here 30 hours a week (I haven’t missed any deadlines, btw) and he gave me a convoluted non-answer that I couldn’t even understand well enough to replicate. In fact the only projects we’re behind on, are behind because he wouldn’t sit still long enough to give me decisions/feedback when I asked – which is apparently also my fault, for “asking” for his time instead of “demanding” it (silly me for thinking it was a bit presumptuous for me to babysit my boss, but whatever, now that I know, I can do that).

Ugh.

So he ended up deciding to extend the “contract” for another month, ending April 20. I have been looking around again, but quite frankly there’s not a whole lot of options out there. Mum seems to think I could still press my case for 30 hours per week as long as I’m more insistent about “demanding” his time in the interim. (He did at one point say he might consider the reduced hours, then took it back two seconds later.) It sort of puts me in a precarious position, however. This job is the ONLY option I have short of unemployment at this point, and I haven’t recovered financially from my last unemployment period, so I can’t afford to turn it down no matter how much he screws me. He’s probably aware of this, which is why my position of “we’ve already set the precedent” turned out to be a lot weaker than I thought it was. So I’m worried that if I press too hard, he’ll just say screw it, you clearly wouldn’t be happy here, so we’ll find someone else and have a nice life.

It seems unlikely that anything else will turn up before April 20, so I will take any advice you’ve got. I HAD wanted to make this a job I could feel good about getting up in the morning for, but I guess I’ll take what I can get.

sigh… :rolleyes:

9

The sad fact is that he can get someone else quickly; it’s a tough market out there as you’ve experienced.

Also, to give you his point of view, he sees you as a good worker, but not an “owner”. The “not pushing him for a decision”, the reference to “not enough commitment to the company”, and the 30 hour work week kinda indicate that. What he wants is for you to make the job happen, and push obstacles (including his lack of time) out of the way to make it happen. That’s his big need. The cash isn’t as big a need. Which means you probably could up the cash if you wanted.

So… I suggest you think about whether you want the job (I assume the answer is yes), and accept that 40 hours+ is required. If you don’t, that’s fine, but if you do come to the conclusion that you will work 40+ hours there, then don’t show resistance; act as if you want to be part of the team (and part of the team means 40+ hours). Go back to him and say you want to have more of an ownership role, that you’re excited to be a committed part of his team, but that you need $43k, as that’s what you were making last job, etc.

If he says “no”, and you can’t get around it, say “look, I’m good and you’ll see that. how about if you give me a review after 30 days with the understanding that if I do as well as you expect, I’ll be set at $43k?” If he says “yes,” get some specific things he’ll want you to accomplish in that time, so it’s not vague. Then see him each week, and ask him how you’re doing. Keep a good record of how you’re actually tracking along to his expectations, and show him how you’ve met them or beat them.

The key thing is that you want to show him is that you understand what he (and the company) are looking for, and that you fit the bill perfectly. What he’s looking for is a full-time owner of a problem in his group. If you come across as not wanting to be an owner, saying “I’ll work 40 hours if I have to, but I’m not happy about it,” he’ll just put up with it until another prospect comes along and replace you.