Like, how low are you willing to go?
Salary negotiation is weird
This is observation and experimentation only and should not be considered advice nor recommendation.
This has been one of the more interesting rounds of me working toward my next gigs; particularly when it comes to salary negotiations. To make life easy for myself and the folks helping me I decided on $100 per hour for contract work. It’s a nice round number and is substantially less than some of my peers, which makes sense given the factors at play. I can be a bit of a smart ass when it comes to certain questions when I don’t know all the variables and possible implications. Here’s a sampling of conversations that got me there.
“What are your salary expectations?” the agent asked.
“I try not to have expectations when it comes to things I can’t control; so, I expect I’ll have one?”
A different agent asked a similar question, to which I replied, “How about you tell me what you can afford and I’ll tell you if that’s okay?”
“We can do about $70 per hour,” another agent said. “Will that work for you?”
“I don’t know,” I replied. “I’ve never lived in Unknown City. I don’t own a car, do they have good infrastructure for bussing? If not, gonna have to buy a car. What percentage of medical are they covering (not really for contract gigs)?” And so on.
After speaking with my mentors I decided one flat rate instead of a range was better. “$100 per hour negotiable,” is what I say as of this writing. (Give someone a range and they will usually take the lower. Except I have had two gentlemen negotiate themselves from the lower they asked for to the higher without me doing a thing.)
One recruiter I was speaking with asked, “You said ‘negotiable’. Like, how low are you willing to go?”
“Well, I could probably do $20 an hour, but I’d probably have to be homeless again depending on the city,” I replied.
There are a lot of factors that go into hiring someone or accepting a salary. That’s one of the reasons working on contracts I govern makes life easy; I have to pay for everything. From vacation to travel, I’m paying.
Consider a W2 scenario though.
“I made $100k per year at my last job. That’s negotiable (so is the $100).”
“Ooooooh. I don’t know. They would be willing to give you benefits, can we get that figure lower?”
“Sure. Depends on the benefits as they fluctuate between employers.”
“Medical, dental, you know, benefits.”
“Let me try again. I see that average rent in Unknown City is $2,000 a month. If they give me the benefit of housing, we can drop the salary by $24k per year. I see Unknown City doesn’t have much infrastructure for bussing, cabs, ride share, or carshare; so, if they give me the benefit of a company car, we can drop the salary by $5k per year. I currently pay $400 a month for medical through the Marketplace; so, if they give the benefit of paying 100% of the medical premium, we can drop the salary by about $5k per year (most employers do not pay 100%). I try to give myself a training and growth budget of about $5k per year; so, if they’re willing to give me the same benefit, then we might be able to drop the salary by another $5k per year. If they’re willing to give me the benefit of a food allowance (or free cafeteria on premises) to cover what I normally eat in a month, we can drop the salary another $4k per year. I think you get the idea. It’s negotiable contingent on having more information and would probably require the person who makes the decision,” I might respond. “Without that information, asking me to negotiate salary on the first phone call is like thanking me for a wonderful evening before asking me on a date in the first place. Too high, I don’t get that first conversation. Too low, I’m committed and taking more of the risk with little-to-no information.”
To consolidate the math:
- $100k base
- $24k housing
- $5k commuter
- $5k medical
- $5k training
- $4k food
- $43k remaining to cover the value I bring to the organization and cost of any personal debts I may have accrued, specifically as a college student.
Oh! And if the company car is a conversion van modified for human occupancy and there’s a fresh water hookup nearby then the $24k for housing can just go away entirely.
So, yeah, I could totally work for $43k a year; possibly less. The perceived value I deliver is the negotiable part. Paying debts, living, and improving myself, not so much. Further, that’s only because the money entering my account is less, the money leaving the corporate account might be the same or less. Finally, there are tax implications and whatnot as the business but from an end-user’s perspective, it’s all the same.
To better earn trust, the person in the position of power or authority typically has to start showing their vulnerable side first. In the case of salary negotiation, that’s the company or the recruiter.
When I talk with certain clients, one of the first questions I ask is, “What’s your budget?” Without hesitation or batting an eye, the next question is, “What are we wanting to accomplish?” And last but not least, “Does it have to be done by a certain date? And I mean have to. Like, you go out of business otherwise. Not, ‘We would prefer it be done in a week.’”
Sometimes the budget is way too high and I say, “Good news, I think we can accomplish that without eating more than half the budget. Keep the same budget though, just in case.” Other times, the budget isn’t enough and I say, “Can we modify the scope a bit? Or, shorten iterations and increase the amount of feedback?”
Notice the client is in control but they have to become vulnerable first for me to be willing to open up and be vulnerable as well?
A lot of people think they can’t afford me, but they may never get past the salary discussion (or even my resume, to be honest). You’d be surprised who I’m willing and able to work with. I love to work but I need to feed. Just gotta balance those two in a way that’s mutually beneficial (see Think Win-Win from Triumph over Time).
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