Salary Negotiation in a Western Company

Being able to negotiate a good salary is one of the most important things you can do in your career.

Money is often a sensitive topic and it’s not easy to look your potential boss in the eye and tell him or her you need a lot more money than they initially offered. Western companies go around the world looking for cheap labor. It’s up to you to demand what you are worth. You need to stand strong and here are some useful tips.

1. Be able to explain clearly why you are worth the money you want.

Remember that this is a game where the boss is trying to save money. If you will accept a low paying job, why would he offer you more? If you can really add value to the company, you can make a lot of money. You need to be able to explain how exactly you will do this. CEO’s make a lot of money because they bring in even more money than that for the company. You need to show how you can justify your high salary.

2. Don’t accept weird excuses for low pay.

I used to work for a start up company in China and the boss always tried to pay the local workers a low wage. He said that the company wasn’t making any money yet and bigger salaries would come in the future. Everything was promised in the future. What he was saying was true, but this doesn’t mean that the employees should accept really low pay. Start up companies should plan to lose money for the first few years. There are millions of clever excuses bosses can use to offer a low salary. Demand a reasonable salary and be prepared to work hard to add value to the company. If the boss really believes you can help them earn big money, he will pay you well. It’s hard to find good talent.

3. Never sign anything the first day.

Always ask to take home the contract and look it over. Don’t be scared to make some changes and ask for more money. You won’t always get exactly what you want, but bargain hard and think about what you are really worth to the company. If you are just starting, maybe you don’t deserve a large salary yet. Always make sure you have room to grow in the company if you perform well.

Different people make hugely different salaries for similar jobs. It all comes down to being good at negotiation.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 13th, 2010 at 2:50 pm and is filed under Finding a Job, 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.