Negotiating Pay, step by step
General guidance; norms vary by country and industry.
- Research the rangePublished salary data and job adverts for the same role and region.
- Let them state a number firstWhere possible. Ask what the range for the role is.
- Anchor at the upper endWith a specific figure and a reason, not a round guess.
- Negotiate the whole packagePension, bonus, holiday, remote working, title, review date.
- Get it in writingBefore resigning from anything.
Why it compounds
- Rises are usually percentages of your current salary
- So a higher starting point compounds for years
- As do pension contributions based on it
General education. A £2,000 higher start compounds into far more than £2,000 over a career.
Questions about the Negotiating Pay poster
- What’s on the Negotiating Pay poster?
- 5 numbered steps, with a full worked run-through. General guidance; norms vary by country and industry. Research the range — Published salary data and job adverts for the same role and region.; Let them state a number first — Where possible. Ask what the range for the role is.; Anchor at the upper end — With a specific figure and a reason, not a round guess.; Negotiate the whole package — Pension, bonus, holiday, remote working, title, review…; Get it in writing — Before resigning from anything.. General education. A £2,000 higher start compounds into far more than £2,000 over a career.
- Who is the Negotiating Pay poster for?
- Negotiating Pay belongs to the Money section rather than to a school year, because money is not something one grade owns. Anyone learning basics can pin it up — a beginner, a student mid-course, or someone revising years later.
- When should you use the Negotiating Pay poster?
- The largest single increase most people ever get is at the point of accepting a job. A wall chart earns its place by being glanceable from where the work is happening, so Negotiating Pay belongs on the wall where that money work actually happens, within glancing distance, rather than filed away.
- What other posters go with Negotiating Pay?
- Structuring Accounts, The 50/30/20 Budget and How You Pay Changes What You Spend sit alongside Negotiating Pay in the Money section. Printed together they make a wall rather than a single sheet, which is how a reference set actually gets used.Structuring AccountsThe 50/30/20 BudgetHow You Pay Changes What You Spend
- Is the Negotiating Pay poster free to download and print?
- Yes. Negotiating Pay downloads as a free PDF with no account, no email and no watermark, like everything else in the Money section. Print as many copies as you like for a home, a classroom, a library or a tutoring group; reselling the file is the only thing the licence rules out.Read the licence
- What size does the Negotiating Pay poster print at?
- Negotiating Pay is a vector PDF laid out for US Letter, and prints on A4 with Fit to page — the same file, no separate download. Because every mark on it is drawn rather than photographed, it stays sharp enlarged to A3, A2 or A1 at a copy shop. Colour carries emphasis only, so a greyscale print of Negotiating Pay loses nothing.Printing guide
Related posters
Charts that sit alongside Negotiating Pay on the same wall.
Browse every Money poster, or start from the full catalogue.