Re-negotiate salary of your current job
A friend wants to re-negotiate his base salary to be within the range of peers in his field. We looked at a salary survey website and found that he is quite underpaid. Can a person re-negotiate their salary? Is it better to quit and then get re-hired?
Salary negotiation is not just reserved for new recruits. Anyone can negotiate their salary by asking for a raise. They must be well prepared with a deliberately planned strategy and a well developed supporting case to persuade the employer.
Of course, if you just accepted a job offer, it is not a good time to ask for more money, but once you have some time and accomplishments behind you, you should look to salary negotiation. If you just accepted the offer, you did so fair and square. That is why it is important to know your value before accepting any job offer.
There are many ways to increase your total compensation. Think about things like stock options, improved benefits, more days off, or pension plan contributions as other value adds to your compensation. Sometimes it is easier for the employer to give you what you want if you aren’t looking at the hard cash bottom line.
Before going for a pay raise, one needs to do a number of things.
1) Know your market value - do not rely on just one salary survey source. Also, make sure you trust their data. Self-reported salary surveys are far less reliable than those that are reported by the human resource departments in the industry in your area.
2) Your value-add is a very powerful salary negotiation tool. You should be aware of all the ways you add value to the business and prepare to communicate it effectively to the boss.
3) Get yourself ready to discuss this with your employer. You may need to educate them that you are below the salary range. Either way, you will let them know that you know what the market is.
4) Having done your research and having an intuition for where your performance falls within the percentile range, you will need to have a conversation with your boss and agree on the level you are performing at.
Salary negotiation is a complex art that requires both skills, knowledge and good timing. One thing is for sure, you won’t get ahead as fast as you can unless you be proactive about negotiating your salary!
If you love your career where you are working, you may need to balance the quality of the worklife with your need for an increase in pay. I recommend looking for an increase where you work first before going through the job efforts unless you’re unhappy with your job.
One tactic that can give you an upper hand is to first get yourself another job offer. With that as your back up measure, you will have more leverage in negotiating salary.