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If you are like the majority of wage-earning Americans, you are not making what you’re worth. This may be due to the fact that you lack credentials, are inexperienced, or happen to have been born female (yes, most women still make only seventy cents to every dollar a man earns). But more likely than any of the reasons listed above is that you don’t know how to negotiate for the salary you deserve. So read on to find some of the best tactics to get your employer to cough up that raise!

Whether you’re getting a new job or seeking a raise, it’s important to know what you’re worth. It’s difficult to negotiate a higher salary if you don’t first know what competitive positions are paying, so it’s time to buckle down and do some research. If you can, find out what others in your position make at your company, or what the pay structure is for your position, and use that as leverage. If you find it difficult to obtain this information (since HR departments are notoriously tight-lipped and employees are generally discouraged from discussing salary information with co-workers), at least check out competitive companies to see what they pay (try talking to their recruiting department).

Negotiating means going back and forth, so be prepared meet in the middle. Unless you are sought out through recruitment, chances are that you won’t be offered the top of a salary range. But you don’t want to settle for a low-ball offer, either. You’ll have to consider if the job has other benefits besides salary (like opportunities for advancement, employee stock options, or a company name that looks great on a resumé), but generally speaking, if the offer is too low, tell them you’ll think about it, then come back with a counter-offer. You can also decline, but you run the risk of losing out to another candidate.

If an increase in salary is not forthcoming, for whatever reason, then it pays to know your role. Many employers base pay increases on your performance. If you don’t know what the benchmarks are for your position, you have very little leverage to negotiate. So if you find yourself getting passed up annually for raises, or you receive the smallest percentage, speak with your HR department. Request a list of requirements for your position so when it comes time to ask for a raise, you can enter negotiations armed with proof that you are meeting or exceeding performance standards for your position (often, the best documents to bring are past performance reviews and, if you can get them, testimonials from clients, co-workers, or your superiors).

Of course, none of this guarantees that you are going to get the salary you want, and if you are too aggressive, you may be asked to find the door instead. But if you practice a little patience and come to negotiations confident and prepared, you are likely to get a lot closer to the salary or raise you seek.
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Guest post by Sarah Harris, of Zen College Life, the premier directory for Online Degrees. Find out more information about a Psychology Degree.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 4th, 2010 at 8:57 am and is filed under Career, Career Coaching, Salary Negotiation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.