The Strategy to Get the Salary You Deserve

When struggling through salary negotiation increases or simply negotiating a salary package with a new employer, there are measures an employee should take to ensure the best salary package is made available, based upon the skill set and talents presented by the employee as well as the needs of the employer. For many employees, unfortunately, the first offer given is often the offer taken with many individuals losing key opportunities to be involved in salary negotiation for an increase in pay or an increase to employee benefit packages.

One such tactic, in salary negotiation, commonly used by current and potential employers, is this perception of what is "fair". Commonly, in salary negotiations, the employer will, at some point, make a comment about the fairness of the offered salary package so as to insinuate that you, as the employee, should be pleased to agree that you are not worth any more than what they are offering. Known as a "fairness challenge", every employee should be well versed in the dynamics and methods to avert this type of situation in the salary negotiation process.

The "fairness challenge" is usually an employer's attempt to make the employee feel as if they are making, to some extent, unreasonable demands. To that same line of thinking, when the employer comments their offer is "fair" this sends a direct message to the employee that this is the most appropriate salary and benefits offer, and they expect you to receive the salary offer with open arms.

When faced with the "fairness challenge" in salary negotiations, the first question to ask of the employer is how they came to this conclusion of fair. Most often, the employer has made a comparison of your services and skill sets to that of another individual. Once this other individual can be identified, then you can begin to establish a salary negotiation strategy as to why your skill sets and productivity may exceed the level expected of the other employee. As an option, find other employees who may be providing a greater benefit to the employer and utilize their skill sets as a more "fair" comparison to that of your own.