But how do you know what constitutes fair pay for you? Understanding the market will help you determine your salary value based on your skills, education and training, work experience, and geographic location. Once you know the landscape, you’ll have a sense of how and when to negotiate a job offer, promotion, or raise.
Why Research Salaries?
Conducting salary research before starting a job search or negotiating a raise ensures that your request is in line with the market. You won’t get that from asking your friends about their salary or basing your salary expectations on your current pay. The danger of not knowing your real salary value is that you might ask for too much or too little. This can mean missing out on job opportunities or locking yourself into a lower salary, potentially for years to come. Accurate salary research is based on your skill set, education and training, and prior work experience. Your salary range will also depend on your geographic location. For example, you can’t just research salaries for say, a social media manager and only look at salaries in New York state. If you live in New York City, the salary will be much higher than if you live in upstate New York, in a rural area like Plattsburgh.
How To Use Salary Surveys
Start your one-person salary research project by reviewing salary data. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is an excellent place to start. The Occupational Outlook Handbook includes national and state wage projections as well as data for seven major occupational divisions. The divisions include hundreds of occupations. In addition, you can also find a list of the fastest-growing occupations and another list of occupations that are expected to have the newest jobs. Other free salary surveys and tools include:
Indeed: Search salaries by job title, skill, certification, or other keywords and get results for your metro area. LinkedIn Salary: See salaries for job titles and employers in various locations or scroll through popular job titles for comparison. Payscale: Get a free salary report based on your job title, skills, education, and location. Salary.com: Offering another free salary report, Salary.com also lets you browse jobs by industry, income, and other factors. Glassdoor: Use this calculator to see your potential salary range by job title, location, and employer.
Should You Negotiate a Salary Offer?
More than half of professionals fail to negotiate job offers, according to a CareerBuilder survey. The main reason for not counteroffering? Fear. Fifty-one percent of those who don’t ask for more money say that they’re not comfortable asking, while 47% say that they’re afraid that employers won’t hire them if they attempt to negotiate. But because raises are calculated as a percentage of your current salary, not negotiating a salary offer can cost you over $1 million in lost wages over the course of your career. Further, you may have less to lose than you think. Over half of employers told CareerBuilder that they offered less to prospective hires than they were willing to pay—26% said that their initial offer was $5,000 less than their maximum offer.
When To Negotiate a Raise
It’s often trickier to know when it’s a good idea to negotiate a raise. But you can keep a few guidelines in mind:
In most cases, it’s best to wait until you’ve worked at the company for at least a year before you ask for a raise.The best time to negotiate is after you’ve achieved a goal, such as completing a major project ahead of schedule and budget or landing a big client. Make your request in advance of performance review time. This will give your manager time to talk to the higher-ups and make your case.
