Who Needs to Know What Salary Numbers and When?
Candidates are asked about salary histories and salary requirements during four steps of the screening process. Knowing when to provide which numbers often feels like a gamble.
It’s becoming obvious that your salary history is nobody’s business. Cities and states are enacting laws prohibiting employers from asking this question. The main motivation here is to stop perpetuating gender inequality in compensation. Job seekers have numerous rights and reasons to steer conversations toward salary requirements only.
If your salary is negotiable, but you’re guessing what the employer wants to pay, it can feel like a gamble to go high, medium, or low with your target range. This is where the crap shoot comes in.
Another key consideration in your answers is how you want or expect your next salary to compare to your previous compensation. You might want a big jump in pay to reach marketplace parity. Or, you might have reasons to accept a significant cut in your base salary. These scenarios are your private matters and provide good reasons to avoid discussing your salary history.
Timing is Everything
The well-known principle for all negotiations applies to salaries—whoever says the first number loses.
There are distinct points of view about whether salary requirements should be discussed at the beginning or the end of the candidate screening process. One view is to discuss them early so nobody wastes their time if a salary match is not in the cards. The other view is to delay all compensation discussions until the employer is making an offer.
Proceed With Caution and Do Your Research
I hope discussing salary histories becomes extinct. Until then, if you must submit your current or most recent salary, decide whether including your bonus or variable compensation helps or hurts your chances of getting to the next step.
For positions you have strong interest in, it’s to your advantage to uncover the target range the employer has in mind. Sources for this information include asking your interviewers, other internal sources at the employer, people in other organizations with comparable positions, and salary surveys and websites.
Let’s look at how to navigate compensation questions at each stage of the process.
1. Writing Cover Letters and Emails
Applicants are often asked (“required”) to provide salary histories and salary requirements in cover letters and emails. Some job descriptions say the employers won’t consider applicants who don’t include this information.
I agree with the common view that this is too soon to ask or provide this information. When I submitted letters or emails for job posts that requested/required these salary numbers, my response was along these lines: “My salary requirement is flexible and I look forward to discussing this further along in your screening process.” I acknowledged the question without answering it. If I was screened out for this reason, it was probably not a place I wanted to work.
2. Completing Online and Paper Applications
Online applications can be tricky when required fields must be filled in with the correct numerical format. Here are ways to try to avoid providing salary history and requirement numbers before you want to:
- If an application requires salary history numbers, Liz Ryan’s brilliant suggestion is to insert your target salary to answer all salary questions. Attest to your honesty with a note explaining what you did and your desire to discuss your target salary later in the process.
- Try skipping or entering $0 or $1 for salary history questions
- Try skipping or entering $0 or $1, Negotiable, or ranges for desired/required salary questions
3. Answering Interview Questions
Remain cautious about salary history and requirement questions during interviews.
To avoid discussing salary requirements until receiving an offer, I heard a suggestion to respond to an early salary question by asking if the employer was making an offer. This response is too bold for my style.
When asked early, I explained that my salary requirement was flexible in order to find a great fit. For example, “Finding a great fit is most important and my salary requirements are flexible. I would prefer to discuss details further along in the screening process.” I avoided providing my target number or range as long as possible.
It’s always a good idea to see if the employer will provide a target range before you provide any numbers. If you have a firm requirement, and you want to end conversations when there is no foreseeable match, you could provide a more definitive answer sooner rather than later.
4. Negotiating Offers
Your new employer will never love you more than when they make the offer.
Now is the time to ask for everything you want in your ideal total compensation package. If you are at or above director or VP level, you might benefit from professional assistance with your negotiations. No guarantees, but things to consider asking for include:
Higher base salary. It never hurts to ask for more than the initial offer. Maximizing your starting salary is beneficial because many annual increases are small. Market data gives you negotiating power.
Higher job level and bonus opportunity. Bonus opportunities generally vary with salary grades, so the higher your salary grade, the better. It might be difficult to have this changed.
Extra vacation time. If your offer includes less vacation time than you’ve had or want, this is the time to ask for more. Ideally, the extra time would be paid. You could accept additional unpaid time if time off is more important than money.
Hiring bonus. These are more common when an employer wants to sweeten the spot to attract you away from your current position. It’s also appropriate to ask your new employer to “make you whole” if they want you to start before you are eligible to receive a year-end bonus at your previous company.
Relocation allowance. These tend to be for higher-level positions that often involve a retained executive recruiter who is conducting a national search. Specific aspects of such allowances can be negotiated in your favor.
Health benefit eligibility or cash. If a standard waiting period exists before health benefits kick in, you might be able to get this waived or shortened (if their plan allows). If you plan to get your health benefits through another source, request a bump in your base salary to make up for the premium you are saving the employer.
Title. Think carefully about the job title the company has offered. Ask for changes while negotiating the offer. The title on your business cards and soon-to-be updated resume and LinkedIn profile should position you as you want to be thought of going forward.
Golden parachute. Protecting your interests if a separation occurs is probably the last thing you want to think about as you accept a new job. But, as you climb the corporate ladder, and especially if you relocate, it’s important to have an agreement that sets forth what your new employer would provide if you part ways for any reason. In these cases, it’s wise to protect your interests by consulting an attorney with expertise in employment law.
Read Losing Your Job & Finding Yourself: Memoir, Myths, and Methods for Inventive Career Transitions to learn more about the Sweet Spot Job Search Method to land a job you love.