A salary negotiation is decided by information, not by nerve, and the information that matters is narrower than most advice suggests: the band for the level being offered, what the employer already pays people doing that job, and what you will accept in writing. Everything else, the scripts, the deliberate silences, the anchoring tricks, moves the outcome by a small amount compared with those three, and a candidate who knows the band can negotiate badly and still land well while one who does not can negotiate beautifully and land below the bottom of the range. This guide sets out what to establish before the conversation opens, which lines besides base pay actually move and why they are cheaper for an employer to concede, the two moments at which a number should be named, and what the written offer has to say before it is signed. It applies both to an offer for a new job and to a raise in the one you already have, with the one structural difference between them noted towards the end.
Establish the Band Before You Name a Number
Every occupation has a band, and the median is the least useful point on it, because nobody is offered the median: they are offered a point in the band for a level. Before any conversation, find three figures: the entry, mid and senior levels for the role, the geographic adjustment for the location, and the employer's own position relative to the market. Published salary ranges in job advertisements, now mandatory in several states, give the first. The occupation pages on this site give the second. The third comes from people who work there.
The practical consequence is that a candidate who says a number without the band is negotiating against themselves in both directions: too low costs the difference for the whole tenure, since raises compound off the starting base, and too high ends the conversation before it starts.
Let the Employer Name the First Number, Unless You Know the Band
The standard advice to let the employer go first is sound when you do not know the band, and unnecessary when you do. If asked for expectations before an offer, a range whose bottom is a figure you would accept works better than a single number, because a single number becomes a ceiling. Where a state requires the range to be published, the useful answer is to reference it: it moves the discussion to the level being hired rather than to your previous salary.
One question deserves a firm answer: what you currently earn is not the employer's business, and in a growing number of states asking is unlawful. A prior salary anchors the offer to your last employer's pay scale, which has nothing to do with the value of the work being offered.
Base Pay Is Not the Only Line, and Some Lines Move More Easily
Base pay is the hardest line to move because it sets a precedent inside a salary band and affects everyone at that level. Several other lines cost the employer less and are therefore easier to obtain: a signing bonus, which is one-off and does not disturb the band; a higher share of equity or a shorter cliff; a title that positions the next move; a start date that preserves a bonus at the current employer; additional paid leave; a professional development budget; or a written commitment to review the level at six months rather than twelve.
Benefits are worth quantifying rather than describing. Employer retirement matching, health insurance quality, and paid leave commonly add fifteen to thirty per cent on top of base pay, and the difference between two offers often sits there rather than in the salary. A match of six per cent against three is worth more than a two per cent higher base on most salaries.
The Raise Conversation Is a Different Negotiation
Asking for a raise inside a job lacks the one lever an external offer has, which is the alternative. What replaces it is evidence: what you did that was not in the job description, what it was worth, and where you now sit in the band for your level. Bring the band, not a percentage. A request framed as moving from the bottom to the middle of a published range is answerable; a request for fifteen per cent is a negotiation about fifteen per cent.
Timing matters more here than in an external negotiation, because budgets are set on a cycle. The conversation that changes a salary happens before the budget is allocated, not at the review that announces it. Asking what would have to be true to reach the next level, and agreeing it in writing, converts a refusal into a plan with a date.
Get It in Writing, and Read What Arrives
Nothing agreed verbally survives a change of manager. The written offer should state base pay, bonus terms including whether it is discretionary, equity with its vesting schedule and strike price where applicable, the start date, and any commitment made during the conversation. A bonus described as target rather than guaranteed is a forecast, and a signing bonus is frequently repayable if you leave within a year, a clause worth finding before signing rather than after resigning.