Author: jeff.zhong@payscale.com

How Does Your Pay Stack Up?

How does your pay stack up? If you’re like most people, you don’t know the answer. A few years ago, PayScale surveyed 71,000 employees to learn more about the relationship between pay and employee engagement. Unsurprisingly, our findings showed that how people feel about their pay has a big impact on how...

How to Set Your Salary Expectations

If you’re heading into a job interview soon, you probably have a whole list of things that are causing you anxiety. One of them may be how to answer the question, “What are your salary expectations?” And the question will come up — sometimes before you’re ready to answer it. It’s not...

Should You Ever Negotiate Salary Over Email?

Twenty-eight percent of respondents to PayScale’s Salary Survey said they hadn’t negotiated salary specifically because they were uncomfortable discussing money. If you’re one of them, you might wonder whether email is a solution to your problem. After all, it’s easier to be confident in your request when you can proofread it before...

The Consequences of Not Negotiating Your Salary

Less than half of respondents to PayScale’s Salary Survey reported that they had asked for a raise in their current field — 43 percent, in fact. Most held back out of fear of negotiating, in some form, whether it was because they were uncomfortable talking about money (28 percent), unwilling to risk...

Why Am I Being Paid So Much Less Than Market Rate?

If you’ve recently taken PayScale’s Salary Survey and found that others in your industry are earning a lot more than you are, your reaction might be indignation … followed swiftly by a resigned shrug. In an era when some employers will insist on verifying a candidate’s salary history to the point of...

Outside-the-Box Benefits You Didn’t Know You Could Negotiate

If you’re negotiating a job offer in the near future, the first thing on your mind is probably getting the biggest salary you can command. That’s a solid top priority, and you should absolutely go for it. That said, more cash isn’t the only thing to ask for — and if the...

Gut Check: Why Are Women Uncomfortable Talking About Salary?

Women don’t negotiate salary as often as men. Significantly, this factor in the gender pay gap persists in groups that have self-selected for interest in salary — for instance, respondents to the PayScale Salary Survey. Forty-two percent of women who answered the survey asked for more money, compared to 44 percent of...

It’s Not in Your Head: Negotiating Tips for Women

There have been countless studies about why women don’t negotiate as often as men. Some studies show that men are up to four times as likely to negotiate as women, and that when they do, they ask for 30 percent more. The true difference between the genders when it comes to salary...

You Won’t Get What You Don’t Ask for: People Who Ask for Raises Earn More

Fifty-seven percent of respondents to PayScale’s Salary Survey have never negotiated for a higher salary, but not every non-negotiator accepts the salary status quo for the same reasons. When we dig deeper into the data, we see that tendency to negotiate varies based on factors like age, educational background, income, and geographic...

Surprise! Millennials Aren’t Asking For Raises (But Should Be)

Learn About Tableau Gen Y has a reputation for being overconfident, but only 37 percent of Millennials have ever asked for a raise, according to PayScale’s data, despite the fact that 43 percent of those who asked received the pay increase they were looking for — a similar rate to Baby Boomers...

It’s Not in Your Head: Negotiating Tips for Women

There have been countless studies about why women don’t negotiate as often as men. Some studies show that men are up to four times as likely to negotiate as women, and that when they do, they ask for 30 percent more. The true difference between the genders when it comes to salary...

To Get a Raise, Negotiate Like a Lawyer

Learn About Tableau It might surprise you to learn that level of educational attainment doesn’t make a huge difference, in terms of who asks for a raise. Holders of bachelor’s, master’s, MBAs, and JDs all have the same rate of negotiating salary: 43 percent. The difference comes in when we look at...

How to Negotiate Without Making Your Boss Mad

Seventy-five percent of people who ask for a raise, get one – so why aren’t we all beating down the boss’s door to make our case for a higher salary? In part, it’s because of fear. Of respondents to PayScale’s survey who reported that they’d never asked for a raise in their...