Salary and benefits
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Anonymous
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I recently went through a series of interviews and am expecting an offer soon. Looking forward to leaving my current job for many reasons. This will only be my second job out of college, have been at my job for several years and am unfamiliar with the salary/benefits negotiation part of the process. I am wondering what benefits, apart from standard health/vision/dental/life insurance, 401k, can be expected and if parking/transportation costs can be part of a benefits package because I sure would like to avoid paying ~$300/mo to park downtown (pls don't say metro, I've done the math and it's more $$ and more time commuting from my location, plus I currently pay $240/mo and my current employer contributes $0 to that although pays for some other employees' parking (don't get me started)). Is it common for employers to pay for, or contribute to these costs or would that be completely out of line to ask for? This didn't happen to get brought up in my conversations w/ HR and I'm also curious about how to fairly bring it up.
Another question I have would be, what if they come in with an offer that is a little lower than what I would like? Should I ask for exactly the number I want, or ask for higher so that we can hopefully reach a middle ground (but I also don't want to seem greedy)? Thanks in advance! |
Anonymous
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Parking is rarely a benefit you can negotiate. It's an administrative hassle for companies, just ask for the after tax equivalent.
What else you can negotiate depends heavily on what kind of job we are dealing with. Finance jobs can reasonably ask for a sign on bonus; some IT gig at a non profit cannot. My usual advice is to only leave your current job for at least 10%. |
Anonymous
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CCs pay like shi*t.
Do you have enough money already and not care about it anymore? |
Anonymous
OP here. What is a CC? And no, I do not have a lot and very much need more money. |
Anonymous
To some degree, benefit programs are pretty standard by rank and are not really negotiable. You could ask the employer if it has a pre-tax commuter benefit (which works like a flexible spending account) but I don't think you'll get anywhere asking them to create one just for you (later, after hired, you could suggest one be started for everyone). Honestly if you're hung up about $3,600 a year for parking, just build that into your salary ask. Vacation may be more negotiable. And you should definitely take time to examine the total value of the benefit package. It's part of your compensation, after all. |
Anonymous
| Why not ask for more money upfront. I hate when employees try to get in additional money after the offer. It makes you fine a bad impression. |
Anonymous
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OP again. The reason that I ask is because my current job offered a flexible spending account that I did utilize for parking expenses, but cancelled it as of Jan. 1 of this year (budget issues, also cut vision insurance plus pay/raise freeze, among other reasons why I am leaving). I just didn't know if an FSA was something that is commonly offered.
Any suggestions on how to negotiate salary? Thanks! |
Anonymous
This is naive advice. You are in a much better position to negotiate after you get an offer. "About 54% of men don’t accept the first offer without a discussion, compared to 49% of women. Fifty-five percent of workers age 35 or older negotiate the job offer, while just 45% of those age 18 to 34 do the same." http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacquelynsmith/2013/08/21/half-of-u-s-workers-dont-negotiate-job-offers-survey-finds/ |
Anonymous
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Most downtown employers don't pay for parking, except for law firms (and there it may be 50-50, not a given.) Flex spending accounts are common, but not negotiable - either company has them or they do not.
Depending on type of firm, signing bonuses and guaranteed mid-year or year-end bonuses may be negotiable. |
Anonymous
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OP, ask for more money than you want, they will either say yes(not likely) or lower it to something reasonable, to meet you in the middle.
Most companies will not pay for your transportation to and from work, that is a thing of the past. So I would count on eating that cost each time. The one thing that you should ask about that I think many companies do is a commuter benefit account that lets the employer deduct their transportation costs from their paycheck pre-tax. It's not much but it's helpful. Ask for their health insurance packet and calculate how much you will be contributing out of pocket each month for whatever plan you choose to go with. You need to factor that into your salary. E.g, if you are being paid 50k/year and your health insurance premiums is 300/month, that's $3600/year out of that 50K. 401K- ask if the company matches or at least contributes a token. FSA- if they provide this benefit. What you are able to negotiate in most cases is salary, vacation days, telecommuting and a signing bonus. The other benefits are usually fixed. What I keep my eye on before accepting any offer is my take home pay. After you've deducted health insurance premiums, transportation costs and other insurance premiums, etc. How much will your paycheck each month be? |
Anonymous
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OP again. HR did ask my current salary including asked on their paper application but did not ask what my desired salary is. I am just uncertain of the etiquette/back and forth in salary negotations.
It is indeed a law firm and I am hoping they have an FSA, as my current job used to, and ~$3,500+ a year for parking is no small chunk of change IMHO. |
Anonymous
| They will come back with an offer. That's when you tell them that you need a few days to think it over and then you go back and ask for an increase. |
Anonymous
This. Take a good look at the total value of the benefits package and do all the math. You will get nowhere with your parking discussion, so I wouldn't ask about anything other than the commuter account. A telecommuting option would cut down on your parking costs. Other than that, I think you need to make sure that the salary will compensate you for this cost. You can also deduct parking as a work expense if you itemize your taxes. |
Anonymous
OP again. Thanks everyone for steering me away from the parking discussion, which is why I wanted to ask! Didn't know about industry standards, etc. so will avoid that convo but will ask if they have an FSA and leave it at that if they do not. I will not be using their health insurance and am not really worried about telecommuting, as I tend to get distracted at home and would prefer to be in the office most of the time, especially since I will be paying monthly parking so I might as well use it! But it would be nice to have the telecommuting option for bad weather, so I will ask about that. I am not familiar with signing bonuses as I have never received or been offered one - how much are they usually if I am not making in excess of $50k? Also, HR said standard is 2 weeks vacation + 1 sick day/month + 3 personal days/year. That's a tad better than my vacation time now, should I ask for anything in addition? Maybe a few extra personal days? I am not really concerned about this either and would prefer to negotiate a higher base salary or signing bonus. |
Anonymous
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People sometimes ask for a signing bonus if the company can't meet your desired salary. 10K is not too much to ask for especially because it's a one time payment and taxes will be deducted from it.
Once again, remember that they can only say no but it never hurts to ask. |