New York CNN —
Now that more and more states are requiring companies to post salary ranges for job openings, you can assume that the range is the range and that’s all you can negotiate.
Not true.
During The new pay transparency laws mean you have more information about what an employer is willing to pay. The areas advertised are unlikely to give you an accurate picture of what you may be paid for the actual position you are applying for. So if you don’t do your own research, ask questions, and then negotiate, you could be missing out on yourself.
“I’ve seen people put off negotiating because they were thinking [the advertised pay range] is set in stone. We’ve found that’s not the case,” said Brandon Bramley, founder of The Salary Negotiator, which provides one-on-one counseling for people looking to improve their pay packages and online courses in salary negotiation.
Here are three reasons why a published salary range is hardly the whole truth:
1. The range may not be the “full” range: Some employers only post ranges between, say, the 25th and 75th percentile of what they pay for a particular position, said Lulu Seikaly, lead attorney and pay transparency expert at Payscale. “Many organizations do not publish the entire range. It need only be a good faith estimate.”
In addition, Seikaly added, the law allows employers to pay the right candidate more even if an employer posts the entire offer for a job.
“There’s always the flexibility to offer more than top-of-the-line,” she said.
2. The published range can be very wide: It’s not hard to find advertised salary ranges that are wide enough to drive a truck through. Think of gaping gaps of $100,000 or more between the minimum and the maximum.
Some employers may do this because they are using a vacancy to attract applicants for a few roles in the same general function — software developer, for example. But each role is appropriate for people of different levels of experience (e.g., a junior engineer, an intermediate engineer, or a senior), Seikaly noted.
Likewise, an employer can publish the same broad offer for each of several positions with different responsibilities.
And sometimes it’s not clear what an employer is thinking. Organizations are in the trial and error phase of compliance as pay transparency laws are fairly new and vary from place to place. The oldest on the books, in Colorado, has only been around for two years. Pay transparency laws in California and Washington state went into effect on January 1st. And employers in New York City only started advertising salaries three months ago, while employers in the rest of New York state won’t have to do so until September.
When a range is ridiculously wide — Seikaly cited a post that ranged from $90,000 to $900,000 — she believes the company is making “a very big branding mistake” because it seems like it’s not following an estimate Offers in good faith and potential applicants may do so be careful. “It’s a big red flag that they don’t value employees,” she said.
3. The range usually reflects only the base salary: Your compensation includes much more than your regular paycheck.
The published range for an open position usually only reflects your base salary, not bonuses, equity and annual increases.
And all of those parts are often negotiable for the candidate a company wants most, even if a hiring manager or recruiter claims they’re not, Bramley said.
In addition, there are other negotiable compensation components that can complement your pay package, such as: These include tuition reimbursement, a home office grant, and additional paid time off.
Don’t take advertised reach as gospel. Instead of this:
Conduct your own compensation research: Bramley recommends getting salary averages from three salary data aggregators, such as Payscale and Comparably.
This allows you to assess whether the employer’s published offer is appropriate for the job you are looking for.
Find out about the employer’s published offer: If you’re considering applying for a position with a broad salary range, ask the recruiter what specific role the employer wants you to be in and what the specific salary range is for that role. Then ask what skills and experience justify offering a candidate top pay.
Some companies typically offer to pay candidates in the middle of the spectrum unless the candidate is younger or older, talent hiring executive Rachel Levine said.
An employer may choose to pay a candidate above the upper end of the advertised range if someone brings added value or exceptional skills to the role than current employees have in that role, Levine said.
Avoid being too hasty in sharing your salary expectations: Many states and localities prohibit organizations from asking applicants what they are currently earning. Instead, recruiters will ask you about your salary expectations at an early stage.
“You get a lot of pressure to share,” Bramley said. The risk is that you are offering a figure below what an employer is actually willing to pay the right candidate, thereby limiting what you could end up getting.
“Flip the script when asked about your salary,” Bramley suggested. “Ask what reach they had in mind for those who are most qualified.” Or, he added, you could say, “To be honest, my expectation might be pretty high [of the advertised range]. But that’s hard to say right now because I want to learn more about the company, the role and its pay structure.”
It’s worth asking for more: Once you have an offer in hand, you’re in the strongest position to negotiate more because you know they want you, and more often than not you can secure something extra, Bramley said. But even if you can’t, he’s never seen an offer withdrawn because someone tried. “The worst case scenario is that they say ‘no,'” Bramley said.