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Everything's Negotiable

May 14, 2001

With any luck, after a period of shopping yourself around to potential Employers you'll be offered a Job. With a combination of luck and effort on your part, it will be the Job you want. The only question left, really, is "How much will I get paid?"

Don't let your Interviewer fool you into thinking that they can only pay you the first amount they offer. HR Managers almost always have a salary range to work with in filling your new position, and they are under pressure from their boss to minimize labor costs - so the first salary offer they make is not likely to be the highest amount they can give you.

However, they may say that this is all they can offer you. Without calling them a liar (which can ruin the moment, and tends to be impolitic), what do you do?

Remember that everything's negotiable. While the power to walk away from the deal is your strongest bargaining chip, exercising it takes some serious chutzpah when your rent is due and you are beginning to tire of your daily repast of beans and rice. If you're having trouble getting the salary offer moving in the right direction, work on some of the other portions of the benefits package, like vacation and sick pay, signing bonus, reimbursement for moving costs, and reducing the time before you are reviewed for your first raise.

A recent survey by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) sheds some light on negotiations from the HR Managers viewpoint. Over 90% believe that salaries are negotiable. And generally half of the HR Managers polled included the following items as 'Negotiable':

Vacation

Signing Bonus

Moving Costs

Early Reviews for Raises Whereas most HR Managers are comfortable negotiating salary (even while they are saying that the salary is fixed!), most Jobseekers have difficulty in this area. Which makes sense, because negotiating pay is part of the day to day duties of being a HR Manager, but only occurs sporadically every few years for the average worker.

The trick is to understand the nature of the person on the other side of the negotiating table, and push for what is a fair deal based on your research and gut feeling about this company.

-Mark Poppen