15 Tactics To Boost Your Current Salary and Future Earning Potential

Most of us will look at our current salary and be disappointed;  only a few will look and be genuinely satisfied. The truth is, while there are other factors at play our current salary level is a product of the salary negotiation strategy that we have adopted to this point in our lives. The better our salary negotiation strategy, the higher our current salary will be, and evidence proves it. Yes, a study by George Mason University found that candidates/employees who negotiate salary increased their starting pay by $5,000.

So, how do you know if you have a good negotiation strategy or whether it needs significant improvement? Below you will find six signs that you need to change your salary negotiation strategy for a more lucrative career.

6 Signs You Need to Change Your Salary Negotiation Strategy

1.Do you accept the first salary offer that is made to you for a job without question? If the answer is yes, this is a sure sign you need to change your strategy. Always, take time to consider an offer and assess the offer against the market value for the role before accepting an offer as you could sell yourself short.

2.Have you ever asked an employer to reconsider their offer and provide a higher starting salary? If the answer is no or not often, this is another sign you need to change your negotiation strategy? A study by Career-Builder shows that 70% of firms will leave some negotiating room when making initial offers, so on most occasion employers are expecting you to negotiate and, so you should, if you feel the offer is below your worth.

3.Do you start new positions and find that people around you, carrying out similar roles and with similar qualifications/experience are on a higher salary than you? If the answer is yes, this is a sure sign that you could be under selling yourself during salary negotiations and that you need to bargain harder during contract negotiations.

4.Do you disclose your salary expectations on your Resume/CV and Cover letter? If yes, then this is usually a sign you need to change your salary negotiation. If you show your hand to early and its too high you may put yourself out of contention before being able to justify your worth. But, if you salary expectations are too low, you may find you are limiting yourself to a salary below what was available. Like poker, avoid playing your hand until the last minute. If you are asked to provide salary expectations when you apply, write a broad range and add that you are ‘negotiable’.

5.When asking for a higher rate, do you you present a well formed business case? If the answer to this is no, then this a sure sign that you need to change your salary negotiation strategy. You must at the very least present market evidence to show what the going rate for the role is, (salary surveys or job clippings), and you must also outline your key achievements in your career and outline the benefits you can bring to the business?

6.Do you have a plan for if the employer says no? If the answer is no, then this is a sure sign you need to change your strategy. You have the right to ask for a higher starting salary and the employer has the right to say no. But, if they do say no, you can still make some positive steps to negotiate for a future pay rise. For, example, ask them, “how often salaries are reviewed”, and ask them, “what would you need to do”, and, “what goals would you need to complete to qualify for a higher salary”. This shows you are ambitious and gives you some goals to work towards to achieve a higher starting salary.

We know that we are approaching one of the busiest periods of the year for the job seeking and recruiting community. Yes, January is when we traditionally see a surge in job-seeking activity, as job seekers, now fuelled by new year career resolutions and a December dearth of job opportunities, are bursting out of the traps to find a new job. And this year is set to be no different as a Glassdoor survey of over 2,000 workers (US workers) has revealed that getting a raise was the most popular  work-related, new year’s resolution, and getting a new job was the second most popular work-related new year resolution.

So, with so many of you having a combined focus to get a raise and find a new job in January 2013 and beyond, it seems that many of you may be finding yourself in job offer situations and facing salary offers which fall below your expectations. This can be an awkward situation for many candidates and many may duck the challenge, and I therefore thought this would be a good time to give some guidance on why you should consider asking for a higher starting as well as on how to do it.

4 Reasons To Ask For Higher Starting Salary

1. Clearly, the most compelling reason to request a higher starting salary is that the offer is below your expectations and also below market rate for someone with your skills. You deserve to be paid a salary that is commensurate with your skills and experience.

2. Research from careerbuilder shows that just over two thirds of employers do actually leave some negotiating room when making initial job offers to candidate, so it seems there is a good chance that your potential employer may be open to raising your starting salary, if you approach the situation correctly.

3. Remarkably, the same careerbuilder research found that 10% of employers would actually think less of a candidate who didn’t try to negotiate a better deal, [in a professional manner]. So, for some managers, attempting to negotiate a higher salary is a sign that you are assertive and brave and that you know how to negotiate effectively – all of which are good skills to have in business.

4. A George Mason University study found that new hires who attempted to negotiate their starting salaries increased their eventual starting rate of pay by an average of $5,000.

So, as you can see, there are 4 very compelling reasons for you to attempt to negotiate a higher starting salary for any offers your receive in the new year jobs rush or beyond, but it is vital that you negotiate professionally to secure the best results ,and below I have set out four tips to do this effectively

Do you know how to negotiate a higher salary?

1. Build an economic case; conduct market research using salary checkers and find the market rate for roles similar to yours. Make sure they are a similar location and industry sector for a reliable comparison. If you find the salary offered is below market-rate, then you have reasonable justification to open a negotiation.

2. Build a performance related case; list down your key career achievements to date with an emphasis on the past year. List down the tangible and positive impacts that you have made in your last role in terms of productivity, sales, efficiency, customer satisfaction etc… Support your arguments with numbers, case studies and examples for greater effect.

3. Make your case; you may be asked to present your case in writing or you may need to do it face to face. Either way, best to prepare it in writing and then, if it is a meeting, you can loosely follow it as a script and hand the prospective employer the letter afterwards to make sure everything is clear.

4. Etiquette; be polite, professional and remember the employer does not have to give you a rise, so be prepared to take no for answer. If you do receive a positive response then great, but if not, ensure to thank the potential employer for considering your request and then you will need to decide for yourself if the company and package are right for you.

Does It Pay To Be Awkward In Salary Negotiations?

Have you ever had that feeling the the people who are pushy and awkward during salary negotiations or just in general often get the best terms and conditions at work, and that these who are reasonable and accommodating end up with less money and worse terms and conditions. Do nice guys and girls finish last in your world and Does It Pay to Be An Awkward In Salary Negotiations?

Well, a joint study by the University of Notre Dame, Cornell University and the University of Western Ontario sought to answer this question in their study titled, ‘Do Nice Guys – and Gals – Really Finish Last? The Joint Effects of Sex and Agreeableness on Income?

So, what did they discover?

They found that agreeableness was related to income which means that less agreeable individuals earned more than their agreeable counterparts. But, they also found that men had more to gain from being disagreeable and they earned more from being disagreeable  relative to women who adopted a disagreeable communication and negotiation style

In another experiment where they were looking to expand on their initial findings they also found that agreeable candidates were less likely to be recommended to advance to management and women were less likely to be recommended than men.

So, as you can see it does pay at least financially to be more disagreeable in the workplace particularly around salary negotiations. So, what did the study define as disagreeable? To assess agreeableness/awkwardness, they asked candidates to rate themselves in three areas

1. Quarrelsome versus agreeable
2. Difficult versus cooperative
3. Stubborn versus flexible

Just to be clear that doesn’t mean going around being deliberately awkward and obtuse, but it does mean not settling necessarily for what’s offered to you (or for the status quo), for fear of rocking the boat,.

So, it is clear that it pays to be disagreeable in the workplace, but men tend to benefit more from an awkward person strategy than women. But, just because it pays to be awkward, should you be awkward?

Not necessarily, because this study by George Mason University confirms that more aggressive negotiation strategies did raise a person’s starting salary, but they felt less satisfied than those who had used a more collaborative strategy. It does not pay to be too passive as the study showed that those who were too accommodating were the least satisfied of all and didn’t feel fairly treated.

So, in my opinion it does not pay at all to be passive (in either a financial or personal satisfaction sense), and the best negotiating and career advancement strategies require some degree of pushiness , awkwardness and sticking to your guns.

Does Sleep Enhance Your Earning Potential?

A recent US study conducted by Matthew Gibson and Jeffrey Shrader, found that in areas where the sun sets at an earlier time, people generally sleep longer each night and therefore earn a higher salary at work. To put it simply, their research finds that one hour extra of sleep each week, can result in a wage increase of up to 4.9%. This comes down to the correlation between employee satisfaction and employee performance, which ultimately leads to increased wages.