When I got my very first offer letter, I really didn’t care what the number on the page said. I just wanted a damn job. I was a few weeks post graduation. The hangover from the celebrations had worn off. I felt stuck. There I was with all this debt and not one job offer.
I had been on a wild goose chase to find a job. I had driven to countless interviews. Worn a nice suit. Perfected my resume. I was feeling a reality no one tells you in college: there’s no such thing as beginners luck when it comes to finding your first “big kid job,” aka the one with benefits, investments, and paperwork to sign.
The day the email hit my inbox, I called everyone I knew. I got a job! I was moving to Washington, DC! Then the reality sunk in. I had seen a pay range at some point - probably on the job posting - but the number I got was really close to the bottom. I didn’t say a word. I had a job. I wanted that more than anything.
Negotiating The Salary Range
That was a rookie mistake. I should have negotiated. If you learn nothing else from this blog, let it be this. Share it. Tell your children, cousins, anyone who’s approaching the job market: you have to at least try to negotiate your salary. You always need to ask what the salary range is and then use this script verbatim: What skills or experience would put me at the top of the salary range?
Not negotiating your salary doesn’t just impact your first job. It impacts every job after that. Failing to negotiate can cost thousands of dollars over your careers. Research from a PayScale survey suggests that those who negotiated their salary increased their pay by an average of 7.4%. Over time, the difference compounds. Someone starting at a $50,000 salary who negotiates effectively could earn over $600,000 over a 40-year career compared to someone who doesn't negotiate.
$600,000. *blinks for emphasis* That’s a lot of money.
The thing I didn’t realize is that I had nothing to lose. If it worked, I got more money. If it didn’t, I still had a job. In my head, I had everything to lose. What if they took back the offer altogether? I know we’ve all heard the horror stories. The reality is that those stories are few and far between. If they’ve invested enough energy to get you to an offer letter, they want you to take the job and they’ll do what they can to make it work within the range.
How A Salary Range Should Work On Job Posts
Now, there has been a lot more debate about pay ranges than ever before now that more cities and states are requiring pay transparency. But mostly, I’ve watched people complain on the internet about those wild $0 - $400k ranges. There’s so much irony in the fact that there’s no transparency in how those ranges are calculated in the first place. Instead of telling people what skills would put them at the top of the pay range, most companies just pay the best negotiators instead of the best talent. That’s an easy formula for losing talented people when they figure out they’re undervalued.
For those of you writing the salary ranges on job posts, that means you actually have to know what puts someone at the top or bottom of the pay range or you’re just perpetuating pay inequities. Even better? I’d love to see you actually explain it in the job post itself. You know the variables that would influence the pay range. Often, that includes location, industry specific experience, and skills that people can’t just learn anywhere like a new code language. It means you have to get specific and know what dimensions will influence the pay.
If you really want a best in class approach? You can even explain the variables in the range on the job post. It could be something as simple as this: “If you meet all minimum requirements, that qualifies you for the base pay. Location, relevant (NAME) industry experience, and expert technical skills doing (example) may qualify you for additional pay. Please discuss these skills and your pay with your recruiter."
Pay Range Red Flags
If a recruiter can’t tell you what variables influence pay, that’s a red flag to any candidate. It should be. My assumption at that point is that you don’t actually fairly calculate compensation and there are a lot of people not getting the money they deserve in your business.
So next time you get that offer letter, be brave. Ask questions. Challenge the range. Show them the qualifications you have that make you a candidate at the top of the range.
But most of all, don’t take a bullshit offer at the bottom of some wild range on a job post.
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