RE: Salary, Negotiation, and Salary Requirement/Total Compensation

[Andrew Warren <awarren -at- synaptics -dot- com>]

TECHWR-L Administrator [admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com] wrote:

> When you are interviewing for a job, and someone asks you how much
> you are looking for, do you give them a salary requirement or a total
> compensation?

    Short answer: Salary requirement, of course.

    Longer answer: After asking for every detail about all the benefits,
    smiling and nodding and looking pleasantly surprised, then appearing
    to do some mental calculations figuring the value of those benefits...
    And THEN I'd give my salary requirement.

> When you are interviewing a candidate FOR a job, and you ask them
> how much they are looking for, are you expecting a salary requirement
> or a total compensation?

    Salary, of course.

> If $20,000 extra per year is going to be that major a concern,
> should I just start running now?

    You're anonymous, so I don't know where you are and I only have a
    small clue as to the industry you're in... But even if you're here in
    Silicon Valley where techwriters can make $100K, $20K is a lot of
    money.

    If I advised you to run, it wouldn't be because of the importance
    the company places on saving $20K.  Rather, it'd be because your
    interviewer was so dishonest as to pretend that he thought you
    were giving your "total compensation" requirements when he knew
    perfectly well that you were talking only about the salary.  I'd
    expect someone like that to be unpleasant to work for.

> Do you have any suggestions for handling this?

    If you don't run, I'd suggest doing some math: Figure out exactly
    what this employer's benefits are worth to you.  Don't forget about
    the portion of your self-employment tax that they'll be covering,
    and try to realistically calculate the value of their health insurance;
    if you're young and healthy, it'll be worth a lot less to you than if
    you're not.

    If I understand correctly, the company's willing to pay $20K per year
    for those benefits.  If the benefits are worth less than that to you,
    the company would save money by keeping you on as a contractor
    at a rate equivalent to your desired salary plus the value to you of
    their benefits.

    If the benefits are actually worth more than $20K to you, the
    employment offer is better than it first seemed; even though the
    salary is lower than you thought you needed, you could end up
    ahead of the game if you accepted the offer...

    But seriously, you don't want to work for this weasel.

    -Andrew
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