Is there a formula for this? Current plus 10%? 20%?
I never liked this question. My *desired *salary is $1000/hr and a pony, but I don’t think they want an honest answer.
I would say that for any role there is a range of salaries from X - Y. Your job is to research what this range is for a given industry/job and give good reasons why you should get closer to Y than X
As I recall, Dilbert once put $1,000,000. in one of the cartoons. I subsequently used that on some applications, but don’t know if it had any effect one way or another. Nobody has stepped up to the plate, but I still have hope.
What exactly are you asking about here? Are you currently employed but interviewing at a new job and want to know what to request as a starting salary? Are you negotiating the terms of your raise at your current job? Your OP doesn’t exactly make it clear.
Since it appears that the OP is seeking advice, this is better suited to IMHO than GQ.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
I always ask candidates this question, but when people ask my advice I tell them to avoid it. You should leave it blank. If asked, you should say that you would like a salary consistent with market conditions and are open to negotiation.
If your answer is low, then the employer may take unfair advantage of you when making an offer. (I have not worked for a company that would do this but I know they’re out there.) If it is too high then one of two things will happen: They will think you’re unrealistic, laugh at you behind your back, and may make you an offer anyway, or they will think that you are priced out of their range and they won’t bother to “insult” you with a lower offer. (I have worked for companies that have done both.)
Most employers also ask for a salary history, and some will determine your offer based on some arbitrary increase from your current salary. The objective is to make the lowest offer that you will actually accept.
I have been in the IT industry for 31 years and have been a hiring manager for 22.
Take a chance and come in high. They may negotiate you down but better that than start low.
At one place I worked, I was present for interviews and I also knew the salaries that people were then subsequently offered.
In virtually all cases, people got what they asked for. And aside promotions, salary imbalances were never corrected, so within a particular level pay had little to do with performance.
(I tried to be more specific than this on a first draft of this post, but I don’t think I can be. I think you should look at the pay range, look at how experienced you are, work out what you think is a “fair” salary and then add about 15-20% ;))
I have never answered this question on any job application. When asked similar questions in interviews, I have generally said something like “I will consider a reasonable offer” or something like that. Make them give the first number.
This is true, but as you said, it’s mostly a tool for weeding out unqualified candidates. If I’m hiring for a position that’s budgeted at $65 k, and an applicant says he’s looking for $90 k, he’s probably not going to be interested. If a guy says he’s looking for $70,000 (or $60,000), there’s room to negotiate. And if the person is way low (say, $30,000), then it’s a red flag that lets me know they either haven’t really done this sort of work before, or they have baggage that makes them feel like they need to be an attractive cost option.
While there is almost always room for negotiation, that’s usually not what’s happening with this question on the application. If you say $50k and they offer you $50k, you can still negotiate up.
It’s also worth mentioning that people get too fixated on salary when negotiating at the expense of other benefits, which are often more flexible and much harder to change later. Raises are scheduled, but getting benefits to vest immediately or getting extra vacation days is something with you have no leverage after day one.
And honestly, if you’re an experienced worker, I advise against leaving the salary question blank or saying “commensurate with experience.” This isn’t like buying a used car or making an offer on a house. If it’s a professional organization (as opposed to a Mom and Pop business), they already have a firm number in mind, and I think you’re more likely to be well paid if you give a high but reasonable number up front. If you make them give the first number, they’re going to low ball you. if you start high you make them stretch up from the middle, rather than up towards the middle.
Just my $0.02. Have been on both sides of the table.
Sorry if this is a hijack, but this thread gives me a question: Does whether or not you are currently employed have an effect on salary negotiations? Seems to that in this terrible job market, employers are going to negotiate lower if you don’t have a job since you’ll probably take whatever they give you. Is this true?
Excellent post from a slightly different point of view.
If you already have a job and are interviewing for another one: 10% higher is generally normal in my opinion, unless you are close enough to a nice round figure, in which case I would round up. That is, if you hypothetically make $90,000 now, I would go ahead and ask for $100,000 rather than $99,000. I would never let great benefits sway that figure, though I might ask for just a bit more in salary if the benefits sucked, or if there was some other mitigating factor such as a weird work shift, long commute, etc.
If you are unemployed and have chosen to state that on your resume, I would go with the same salary as your last job or no more than 5% higher in this dreary economy. Of course, no one has to know you are obviously unemployed and got laid off in January because you can say ‘2001 - 2010’ as the years of your last job and hopefully they’ll think you’re still at a job. I might even say ‘2001 - Present’ if it had only been a month or two since having the last job. If someone calls you on it, you can say “well, I wrote the resume before the layoffs that we knew were coming occurred, and I forgot to update it afterwards”.
If you are switching industries, I’d do some research on what others in that industry are making in the junior to mid range (assuming it’s not management) and target that figure, unless you have some truly specialized skill that transfers to this new industry.
I have seen salaries in my field, the hotel business, fall dramatically. In Chicago I just went for an accountant job in a hotel. One person in the accounting office who reports to an offsite controller. I would be the only accountant at a 410 room hotel, with meeting space, and a resturaunt, and it’s a full service hotel. The salary $15/hr. I was making more than that at a temp agency as an admin in 2003.
I worked for one hotel company where the salaries were all over the board. I kid you not we had employees doing the SAME JOB with $30,000/year difference in their salaries, because one could negotiate and one couldn’t
The thing to remember if you’re out of work is it’s easier to get a job if you have one. Like that last job I mentioned, I need a job like six months ago, if they offered me minimum wage I’d take it at this point.
But I’d keep looking. I say if you’re unemployed go in low and get the job then keep looking for a fair offer
This is the worst advice I’ve heard on this board. Great way to lose the opportunity.
If a man says he wants x dollars and they say ok here’s x dollars and he says Well, hold on now…he’s a douche.
Hehe, this is a good point, and certainly I would agree that it’s harder to negotiate up than down.
But in fairness to anson2995, I think the OP is implying a time separation between salary expectations and being given an offer. So, you could always say something like “That’s a great offer. But I have since been offered <1.1x> by another company. I would much rather work here, but I have to weigh up how much of a factor the salary is for me…”
If you really have come in with a modest figure, they’ll likely take the hint here and offer more.
(I think this would work better than the truth, because the truth makes you look sloppy for not working out what was a fair salary for you in the first place.)
I like $1000 a hour and a pony. I’ve been asking my boss for a pony for years.
Does your current position have a comp ratio? Mine is 1.2% - so I’m paid about 20% higher than average for my job title in my region. And I’d agree that I’m pretty well paid (I’m also pretty good at what I do). I’m not looking for work right now, but if I were looking for something with the same responsibilities, I’d make my salary requirements no more than I’m getting paid now - I’d have myself priced out of the market really quick - and maybe even less if I needed to get out (or was unemployed). Now, if I was applying for a position that would be at a higher level, I’d start looking for more.
Without a raise for two years, my comp ratio has increased - salaries are falling in my field.
I always looked at Salary.com or similar sites. I’d ask for something above the mid-range but lower than the top end. I’d usually get it, too.
I know, I know, it sounds like a trick question. Like when a waiter asks what you’d like to have, you aren’t actually supposed to answer “all the desserts”, you’re supposed to pick something reasonable. Your current plus 10 or 20 is probably a fine guess. If you are more interested in the opportunity for learning or challenge or growth or a change in career than you are the money, say so - and if you are more interested in the money than anything else and would do anything they asked to get more of it, say that, too. In the most constructive terms, of course. Discussing the money is just one more way the two of you can figure out whether to work together.
Really based on research from various web sites like Salary.com, Glassdoor.com, Vault.com, and other web sites related to colleges and industry and compensation, you should have a pretty good idea what you are worth.
A lot of it will also depend on the size and reputation of the company, state of the industry and a host of other factors.
If you know what you are worth, don’t be afraid to negotiate for it or turn down a job that is significantly lower (assuming your financial situation justifies it).
Here’s my advice once you get to the point of salary discussions. Just say “I assume you already have a salary range in mind for this position?” What are they going to say? “No, we just thought we would see who would take the job for the least amount of money.”
I would also ask that question right from the start along with the description of the position itself. You don’t want to go through 4 rounds of interviews only to find out the job pays half of what you are expecting.
That’s right. The mistake that cubsfan is making is to presume that stating your desired salary on a job application is the beginning of the negotiation process. It is not. It is the beginning of the screening process.
You are not bidding on the job… you are helping the employer to know if you are a candidate they should talk to. If you don’t answer the question or if you put in a figure that is ridiculously high, there’s a good chance you won’t get called for an interview. Put a range if you fear being locked into a single number. But if you mistake this for a negotiating question, you’ll always lose.