By now, most people know that interviewing for a new job will involve negotiating salary. And most people also hear that in order to negotiate salary, you have to know your market value. But what exactly does that mean, and how do you figure it out?
Employers have a long way to go to become transparent about their pay practices, so until then, it's up to employees to talk to each other and advocate for themselves. The good news is that there are a growing number of state and local policies,>Check local job listings
Your market value will depend>See if HR is required to tell you
Checking job openings for pay ranges isn't always foolproof — employers could advertise a role that falls between $50,000 and $150,000. A more direct approach would be to ask the hiring manager outright or go to your own company's HR, Yu says. Again, you might be entitled to know the salary range for a new job, transfer opportunity or promotion if your state or city requires it by law.
The laws vary a lot: In Nevada, employers must provide the salary range to applicants after an initial interview automatically, even if the applicant hasn't asked for it. But in Washington, employers are>Research>Talk to your colleagues
Online searches can take you pretty far, but nothing is as accurate or localized as talking with your peers. Gotchy stresses that it's perfectly legal and protected for most private-sector employees to discuss pay with co-workers under the National Labor Relations Act.
Of course, how you broach the topic will depend a lot>Tap your extended network
If you don't go the peer route, you could try your network and ask someone more senior than you, says author and career coach Octavia Goredema. Ask them for their perspective>Ask your future co-workers
If you're going for a new job, remember that you're interviewing the company just as much as they're interviewing you, Yu says. It's not uncommon to get in touch with a connection at the company for an informational to get their perspective of working there. You could bring up pay during one of these meetings — say you've researched what you think the target salary ranges should be, are you on track or off base?
That's what Nishant Parepalli did when he was negotiating his offer for a software engineering job. When he got HR's offer, the first thing he did was email a few of the people at the company who would be his future colleagues. "These were people I had just interviewed with, who said if I had any questions I could reach out to them."
He had questions about how much he should negotiate for and figured they'd have a good idea: "I asked them the average pay I could expect. That helped me come with a counter offer."
