Negotiating the Best Starting Salary for Your New Job

When you start a new job, you have a “starting salary” — what you are paid at the start of your tenure in that position. The right starting salary is very important. Negotiating it can be challenging and a little scary, but the techniques and information in this article should help you understand your options.

The size of that starting salary for your new job depends on many things, including:

• The location.
• The industry (banking, retail, education, etc.).
• The function (accounting, marketing, information technology, administration, etc.).
• The amount of education and experience required to do the job you want.
• The number of local people who can do the job (your competition).
• The amount of money the employer can afford (or has budgeted) to pay.
• How the employer wants to be perceived in the local labor market (as an employer who pays well and is a place people want to work or not).
• How well-qualified and experienced you are.

Your starting salary also is impacted by your interest in the job/employer, your negotiation skills, and your willingness to try to negotiate as well as by the employer’s interest in hiring you.

If the employer isn’t very interested (or has many other people they could hire), they probably won’t do much negotiation. If they are very interested in you, they will negotiate. Many employers expect to negotiate starting salaries. However, some do not want to negotiation and may even withdraw a job offer if pressed for a higher starting salary.