Starting a new job, salary issues

[Anonymous]

I may have dug my own grave already, but I am hoping there can be some solution to my problem. I am in the process of accepting a new position and am having issues with the pay offer. During my initial phone interview, MB mentioned what they are looking to pay, and I had said we would need to talk further about that. A week later...they have offered me the job, with a slight mention of the pay in my formal interview, but no real time for discussion. I have just received the "contract" email and the hourly is in there. I am just not comfortable with what they are offering, it is on the very low end, and would mean a drastic change in lifestyle for me. There are other perks to this job and I don't want to disappoint the family at this point. How do I negotiate pay this late in the game? Or do I just suck it up? Any help would be great!

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't suck it up. Be clear with her what your expectations are. If you take the job for a lower wage, you eventually will end up resenting the family.

Let her know you received the contract but there are some issues you would like to tweak. Be honest and upfront. If you can't communicate effectively now, this job isn't going to work for you.

Signed,

A nanny who was in your shoes once

[Anonymous]

Don't suck it up. If you haven't accepted the offer then you can and should negotiate.

You could say something like "I mentioned when you told me what you were planning to pay that I would want to talk further about that. I am very interested in this position, and appreciate your offer, but the hourly rate you are offering is lower than I can comfortably accept. Can we talk?"

And then you need to be able to be upfront and clear about what you're willing to accept. Graciously of course.

Good luck.

[Anonymous]

Do not suck it up. This is the time to negotiate, and you have the upper hand. They want to hire you.

[Anonymous]

This is exactly the time for negotiating, you shouldn't feel self conscious about countering with an alternative offer.

[Anonymous]

Have you actually accepted the position already? Or are you still in the negotiating phase? If you've already accepted why would you have done so without finalizing pay? That just seems a bit odd.

At this point I would approach them the same way 15:05 suggested. You were up front with them earlier in the interview process about wanting to discuss the pay so it shouldn't come as a surprise to them.

Don't suck this up. Try to negotiate their offer, and if they aren't willing to come up you can at that point decide whether to begin the position or move on. Don't focus on disappointing them if it doesn't work out. Your frustration over low pay if you were to accept the position would last longer than their disappointment if you were to move on.

Good luck.

[Anonymous]

This is the time to be honest. Be an adult and just make a counter offer. They will either accept, decline, or give you something in the middle. You will have your answer and there is no sense in wishing that the offer was more or that you have other offers. It is what it is and you decide to accept or decline.

If you accept and sign the contract but the pay still isn't what you hoped to get, you then need to suck it up and do the absolute best job you can even if you weren't happy with the offer. No one is taking advantage of you because you accepted the offer.

Do not be one of the stupid nannies who accept a job and then try to manipulate their salaries several months into the job. This will only lead to you loosing respect from your employer and probably let go without a reference. Do not take the take with the attitude that if I didn't get as much as I wanted then I'll just do the bare minimum. This is also stupid. You will get let go and will not get a good reference making it even harder for you to get a better job in the future.

Each job you take is part of your work history and valid, glowing references are he key to better offers down the road.

[Anonymous]

NP here and an MB.

While I agree that you should NOT suck it up, I do think you made a mistake early in the process by not bringing it up earlier. Once you said "we have to discuss this further", it became your responsibility to bring it up in the interview. Obviously, she wants to pay the rate she wants to pay, so it isn't in her interest to bring it up in the interview. You wanted a different rate, and as such, you need to advocate for yourself as soon as possible in the process so you work this out, or both move onto other opportunities.

If you tried to negotiate with me at this, after not bringing it up in the interview, I'd be annoyed and wonder why you bothered to continue to interview when you knew our terms didn't match. On the other hand, if you had brought it up in the interview, I'd probably be more open to salary negotiations.

I'm not saying that she *should* refuse to negotiate with you now. I'm just saying that you need to advocate for yourself early, as she already is by asserting the rate she wants to pay, and not expect her to bring up a topic that will cost her money.

That said, good luck and I hope it all works out for you.

[Anonymous]

I have never negotiated salary or benefits prior to an offer being made, but I have given clear indication of what my general expected range/perks are. So while I agree with PP that clarifying your expectations sooner would have been ideal, I disagree about negotiating at the interview.

[Anonymous]

Yeah OP, definitely bring it up. They're hoping they can just get you to agree. Don't be passive and don't sell yourself short.

[Anonymous]

OP, I really think it depends on how far apart your expectations and the offer are. Assuming you haven't already accepted the offer, it isn't too late to negotiate. But if I was the MB and you came to me at this point asking for a significantly higher rate than I was offering, I would be more than a little put off. When we hired, we told nannies our proposed rate during the phone interview. I did expect that there would be some negotiation once we were ready to make an offer, but I also expected that if our rate wasn't even in the ballpark of nanny's rates that she would let us know that and not waste everyone's time by proceeding.

[Anonymous]

it should have been raised earlier but agree with 15:05 at this point in terms of how to handle it.

[Anonymous]

I think saying you would need to revisit the rate was sufficient for the interview.

The contract they sent you is their official offer. Now is the time to negotiate. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Are they lawyers?

[Anonymous]

Don't suck it up you WILL resent them. I took a job where they initially offered an amount on a phone interview, during the actual interview they still said they were going to pay x amount but wanted to start let in case it didn't work out 3 years later i still didn't reach x amount after raises. I ended up leaving that job hating them for that reason only.

I only continued with then for so long because i like to keep my commitments but i will never do that again