Getting Paid More
Offers, negotiation, raises and the full value of a package. The action half.
Most of what determines your pay over a career is decided in a handful of conversations: an offer, a negotiation, a raise request, and the decision to move. This guide is about those conversations — what actually works, what the evidence says about asking, and how to price the parts of a package that are not base salary.
Knowing what a job pays is only useful if you do something with it. This guide is the doing.
Four things move an individual's pay: what you accept when you are offered a job, what you ask for afterwards, what you do when the answer is no, and whether you are prepared to leave. Almost everything else is noise around those four.
Why the offer conversation matters most
Because everything downstream is calculated from it. Your next raise is a percentage of it. An internal promotion starts from it. Even the next employer's offer is anchored by it where asking is still lawful. A difference at the point of hire does not stay the size it started at — it compounds for as long as you stay.
The part that is not salary
Employer contributions to health coverage, retirement matching, equity, bonus and paid leave are a substantial share of a typical package, and none of them appears in a salary figure. Two offers with the same base can differ by a quarter once they are all priced, which is why comparing bases is comparing the least informative number available.
What the evidence actually supports about asking
That most people do not, that the downside they fear is rarer than they expect, and that the size of the gain is bounded by the band the employer has already set. Knowing where that boundary is changes which arguments work — and there is a real difference between a request your manager can grant and one that requires a policy decision made elsewhere.
And when to leave
Changing employer resets your pay against the market in one step, which is why it routinely produces a larger increase than several years of internal raises combined. That is not a moral fact about loyalty. It is arithmetic, and this guide treats it as such.
In this guide
Moving for Money
10 articles →Negotiating a Salary Offer
10 articles →Raises in the Job You Already Have
10 articles →Reading and Comparing an Offer
10 articles →Total Compensation
10 articles →Common questions
Does negotiating actually work?
More often than people expect, and the gain is bounded by the band the employer has already set. Knowing where that boundary is matters more than any particular script.
Can an offer be withdrawn if I negotiate?
It happens, and it is rare. Far more common is a firm no, which costs you nothing. The asymmetry is why not asking is usually the more expensive choice.
What should I negotiate on?
Base first, because everything else is calculated from it u2014 the bonus at target, the retirement match, the next raise. After that, whatever is genuinely conditional and can be made less so.
How much is the non-salary part of a package worth?
Enough that two offers with identical base pay can differ by a quarter once health coverage, retirement matching, equity, bonus and paid leave are priced.
Is changing employer really the fastest way to more money?
On cash, usually. It resets your pay against the market in one step rather than compounding percentages off an old number.
When should I stop negotiating?
When you are near the top of the band, because further movement requires a policy decision your hiring manager cannot make. Asking to see where in the band an offer sits settles this quickly.
Pay Rules and Your Rights
Some of what you are owed is not negotiable at all u2014 it is required.
Read it →