The Biggest Salary Negotiation Mistake Is Not Doing It

The Biggest Salary Negotiation Mistake Is Not Doing It

When it comes to negotiating your salary there are plenty of strategies you can try and pitfalls to avoid. However, the biggest mistake is not doing it at all which, according to Salary.com, a full 18% of people never do.

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As we’ve discussed before, failing to negotiate your salary can be very costly in the long run, to the tune of half a million dollars over a lifetime. This would seem like reason enough to get over the anxiety of having an awkward conversation with a boss or interviewer, yet many people still don’t do it.

Not only do 18% of people fail to negotiate during the interview, Salary.com says that 44% of employees also don’t bring up raises during annual performance reviews either. As personal finance blog Money Ning explains, this is the first big mistake when it comes to negotiating salary. Not just because it’s money on the table, but because the employer expects you to do it:

Most are hesitant to do so or just fearful that asking for more will make them look bad. But the interesting thing is that hiring managers almost always expect a candidate to negotiate. No matter where you are in your career, you always have room to ask for more, and hiring managers almost always have extra leeway to accommodate those requests.

Regardless of how you feel about your chances of negotiating a higher salary, it’s almost always worth trying. At worst, you may discover your employer is resistant to paying higher salaries, which can tell you something about your long-term prospects with a company.

Negotiate a Higher Salary By Avoiding These 5 Mistakes [Money Ning]


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