Salary Confidential: Let’s Talk Money
Whether my clients are tech execs or clients at the not-for-profit Dress for Success, the question arises about salary. “How do I respond when the recruiter or hiring manager asks me about my current salary or salary expectations?” It isn’t straightforward but here’s my intel from top-notch company negotiators, research, and the LinkedIn salary range function.
Top 50 CEO pay rose by an average of 97% year-over-year from 2018 to 2019 per CG Lytics. So, you’re not a CEO like Elon Musk with total granted compensation of $2.2 billion or Patrick Smith at Axon Enterprise at $246 million.
My question is, so how much money do you currently make? What an audacious item, yet recruiters and hiring managers still inquire.
I recall an Oracle recruiter interviewing me via phone 7 years ago regarding an Enterprise Account Director position. Let me preface the discussion context by stating he reached out to me since I wasn’t in the active job market. Within 5 minutes, the conversation went to my current salary with my reply, “I’m not sharing. What’s the comp range for this position?” His diversion tactic was he couldn’t move me forward. OK by me since it wasn’t quite the grand gesture on his behalf. My belief is knowing your worth and stick to your value. Now granted, we all have received half-baked recruiting requests whereby we scratch our heads, although this seemed legitimate.
Your Legal Rights
“Washington (State) bans some salary questions in job interviews. The good news is that in a growing number of states and cities, that question is now banned.” Seattle Times
Where do you live in the US? More than 50% of the states have enacted bans against asking salary questions during a job interview, including the following:
- Alabama
- California, Colorado, Connecticut
- Delaware
- District of Columbia
- Georgia
- Hawaii
- Illinois
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri
- New Jersey, New York, North Carolina
- Ohio, Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- South Carolina
- Utah
- Vermont, Virginia
- Washington
Research Your Salary Range
What’s the best way to know your worth? Research. LinkedIn has a feature under the “job” icon available to any subscriber. Type in your desired job title plus city location and, voilà, LinkedIn has crowd-sourced a salary range. IMHO, it’s a work-in-progress but provides a baseline for your consideration. Additionally, simply Google “salary” for your title and sources will appear, including PayScale and GlassDoor offering free information by career title. Boost your confidence and savvy by bringing this intel to the next job interview, state what you uncovered, and explain your merits for desiring the upper range. Back this up with your years of experience, endorsements, academics, dragon-slaying accomplishments, certifications, and performance appraisals. The question asked and answered by showing the receipts!
Key Compensation Components
By the way, it’s complicated, but compensation is more than just a salary discussion. It would help if you considered all factors, including basics and perks:
- 401K
- Bonuses, Bringing your pet to work
- Company car usage, Corporate equity
- Daycare facilities
- Employee assistance
- Health club membership, Health insurance
- Life and disability insurance, Long-term incentives
- Office meal delivery
- Parking, Pension (yes, they still exist)
- Salary and wages, Stock options
- Telecommuting (yes, some companies will even make this arduous post-pandemic)
- Time off and flexible schedules
How to Respond to “What’s your salary expectation?”
Since interviewing isn’t a typical activity for most of us on the other side of the recruiting or hiring manager desk — or video currently — here are a couple of thoughts for your consideration.
- Compensation: Don’t talk about salary; discuss overall compensation. It’s the big picture with benefits, bonuses, sabbatical leave, 401K match, medical, pension (still exists), stock options, ownership equity, travel perks (post-pandemic), relocation, and vacation.
- Negotiate: I had a client who landed a dream job at Amazon that I consulted on interviewing skills. Upon nailing the interview gauntlet and receiving an offer, I inquired about whether she negotiated comp. Indeed she had, fabulous! She bumped her base pay and increased the sign-on bonus. The vacation time off wasn’t in her consideration set. What’s in yours? Family leave, sabbatical, tuition reimbursement, or something else?
- LinkedIn: I stumbled across this interviewing tips section on LinkedIn. Click on the top-level “Jobs” go-to “Interview Prep” and #13 “What are your salary expectations?” It offers positioning and role playing videos.
Here’s to landing your dream job, you deserve it!
