An Extra $5,000 a Year

 
 
 

 

Vocabulary

hire	applicant	lower-end
focus	negotiate	present (3)
salary	issue (2)	couple (2)
raise	payback	pocket (2)
offer	request	practice (2)
accept	arrogant	survey (2)
scared	strategy	employer
tactic	probably	figure out
initial	awkward	respondent
revoke	pretend	change (2)
recruit	separate	consultant
base	flexible	prevailing
tactic	full-time	job description
perks	standard	come along
greedy	case (2)	responsibility
prove	field (2)	put feelers out
rate (2)	candidate	salary cap
pay off	grand (2)	express (2)

 

 

 

 

By M L

Good and Bad News

I have some good news and some bad news for you.

The bad news: You probably aren’t making as much money as you should be, right?

The good news? It’s possible for anyone to pocket an extra $5,000 every year.

And all you have to do is one simple thing.

ASK.

Willingness

According to a survey of 2,369 full-time employers and 3,462 full-time workers by CareerBuilder, more than half of employers say that, as standard practice, they always offer a lower-end base salary to try to reduce company costs.

But they are open to raising it — if applicants presents a good case.

And the payback from negotiating is no small change. About 26 percent of those employers said they would be willing to pay an extra $5,000 or more per year.

Fear

However there’s one “problem”: candidates are often too scared to ask. Only 44 percent of recruits said they negotiate salary when starting a new position

A separate GlassDoor survey found that 59 percent of employees didn’t negotiate the last time they got hired. Women were less likely to ask for more money, with 68 percent accepting the initial offer from their employer.

Naturally, asking for more money can be awkward. More than half of the CareerBuilder survey respondents who didn’t negotiate said it made them uncomfortable, while 47 percent feared the job offer would be revoked, and 36 percent thought they would look greedy and arrogant.

Strategy

How you ask might make a difference, too. Only 10 percent of employees negotiated and successfully upped their salary for their most recent job, reports GlassDoor.

The best tactic of getting a company to raise their offer, wrote career management consultant Ellis Chase in a Forbes article, is to do your research on the company and other people with your position to figure out the prevailing pay rate in the labor market. Of course you will want go aim lower than those with years of experience in your field.

Negotiate

When the interview focuses on the job position, ask a couple safe questions about the responsibilities and its benefits before bringing up salary. Once it comes up, pretend you still need to prove yourself, even though the company has already expressed its interest in hiring you.

With some negotiating (and luck), the employer will give you a couple grand more. If the initial offer really is a salary cap, see if you can get different perks, like more vacation time or flexible hours, suggests Moneyish. The worst they can do is say no, but that simple question could significantly pay off.

Questions

1. According to the text, only good business people and skilled technical workers can significantly boost their salaries. Is this correct or incorrect?

2. Did the writer base her findings on anecdotal evidence?

3. Salary offers are always set from the beginning; they are pre-determined and not subject to negotiation. Yes or no?

4. Are differences in pay rates significant or minor?

5. Most applicants do not request a higher salary or negotiation. True or false? Why don’t the request a higher salary or negotiate for a higher one?

6. There is no difference between men and women’s wages. Is this entirely true, mostly true, in the middle, in between, largely false or completely false?

7. Should job candidates simply and directly say, “I would like a higher salary than what you are offering?”

 

A. In your experience, do companies offer set-salaries to new employees or is it “open”? What do job ads say?

B. When you and your friends are accepted for a position do you negotiate for a salary or accept what is offered?

C. What do salary offers depend on (i.e. labor market, skills, economy)?

D. What will happen in the future?

E. How can someone increase their earnings?