Knowing how to ask for more money is more important than ever. With inflation running rampant, you don’t want to get paid less than what you deserve. You want to get paid more than what you deserve, at the very least what you deserve. Too many people are afraid to ask for more money.
It is better for a deal to fall through because you asked for too much than for you to accept a deal where you get paid too little. There’s no point in playing the “I’ll add 20% to the number that I really want and call it a day”. That’s not right. That’s the wrong way to negotiate.
You ALWAYS make the other side say the number first. If they won’t, you walk away if you’re not really all that desperate for a job. When I was interviewing in 2021, the company wanted me to tell them what I wanted for compensation. Given that I was 5 years out of college, I thought $180k was fair.
However, I actually held out and didn’t say anything. I threw the question back onto them. “Do you have an idea on what the budget is?” They began to get cagey and said, “Uh.. uh… no we don’t”. Then I countered back and said that I don’t want to say the first number because I don’t want to go too low nor too high.
Then to my surprise, the recruiter just straight up told me how much the company paid. Guess my surprise when they said the compensation is $100 – $125k base plus a $100 – $125k bonus. That was eye opening. I learned a valuable lesson that day. Never leave money on the table.
How to Ask for More Money
One way to know how to ask for more money is to SMASH that social share button and post to your favorite social media! It really helps me out to bring more helpful content like this to my readers.
So with that said, let’s get into the how to ask for more money! The first thing to remember is that you deserve more money. The company chose YOU out of any other candidate on Earth they could choose from. Even if the job isn’t that challenging or if there isn’t a lot of work to do, you deserve to be paid.
You’re not getting paid because it takes you 10 minutes to finish a task. You’re getting paid because it took you 10 years to figure out how to do the task in 10 minutes. Don’t ever sell yourself short and think you don’t deserve more than what you’re getting.
Don’t make that mistake. It feels so bad when you find out you’re getting underpaid. Then you’re stuck being miserable at a bad job.
1) Ask Questions That Doesn’t Involve Money
You don’t want to broach the subject of money up without getting the other side talking about a mundane, but related topic first. Ask about the benefits. It doesn’t have to be about money, but it can be about PTO, HSA matching, and anything else of the kind.
The thing to do on how to ask for more money is to ask a mundane but unrelated topic to get the conversation of interest started. A negotiation trick in how to ask for more money is to open up the conversation with a topic that you’re not necessarily interested in getting a yes to.
Then when you do ask for money, the conversation flows much more naturally. After the company says no, they’re more likely to say yes to another request. Negotiation is NOT an event, it’s a process. You’re not supposed to say yes or no after one meeting because you don’t have all of the information yet.
Most of my friends’ negotiations lasted over 3 weeks. Be prepared for a drawn out conversation process.
2) Educate Yourself
You don’t have to know the exact budget for the role. However, you do have to know a general idea and sense of what the budget range for a role is. I interviewed for an “analyst” role in early 2021. The CEO wanted me and the recruiter reached out to me about the job in the first place.
I hadn’t sought them out, they sought me out. Then when it came time to the offer stage, they dropped the ball. It turns out, they couldn’t even afford me. I just let them know what I was getting paid and they immediately yelled, “WOULD YOU TAKE A PAY CUT?” And I remained silent because I thought they were joking.
Nope, they continued and kept going! “And I don’t mean like a 20% pay cut, just a 5% pay cut will do!”. It was a waste of time for me and the company, I just had to politely decline.
Educate yourself on what the budget range is. Glassdoor is a good starting point. However, most salaries on Glassdoor is lower than what you should be asking for. Whatever is on Glassdoor, shoot for extra 10 – 25% more. That’s one way on how to ask for more money.
3) Think About Future Promotion Opportunities
Your salary doesn’t just have to be about what they’re going to pay you upfront. It can be about the upside as well. You can always ask about the possible promotional paths going forward. Some people get promoted after one year to a year and a half.
Versus another job that has no upside for the first two years? There’s a clear winner and a better choice and option. How to ask for more money isn’t about the present situation. It can be about the upside that can be a better choice than any other alternatives that you have.
The current company that I signed with actually takes care of their employees. The employees have opportunities for career advancement, development, and they actually pay their employees well. A job isn’t necessarily about the present money right now, it’s about the future potential as well.
4) Think About What You’re Giving Up
In knowing how to ask for more money, you have to know what you’re giving up. If you have an upcoming promotion that you think you’re going to get, you can’t leave that money on the table. Bring it up. Then ask to get compensated for that and then some.
You might be giving up stock payments as well. Unvested 401k accounts, HSA accounts, and more. You’re giving up a lot by switching jobs. Even if you’re not giving up any of those things, you’re giving up the relationships that you’ve built. The relationships are meaningful, more than you know.
There’s no point in switching jobs for a $5,000 raise. It just doesn’t make any sense. You should be moving jobs for a 30 – 50% raise. However trivial of what you think you’re giving up, it matters more than you think or know. The other side should make you whole. That’s what the negotiation is about.
5) Don’t Forget About Relocation, Signing, and Equity Bonus
When you’re switching cities, you shouldn’t pay the relocation expenses out of pocket. The company wants YOU to work for them. Don’t forget about the signing bonuses and/or equity payouts as well. Too many people think in terms of “salary plus bonus”. That’s not the right way to think about it.
There’s other forms of compensation that you can ask for. Not the least of which is equity, if the company is a public company. There’s more than one thing to ask for rather than the mundane salary plus bonus compensation structure. They might not even offer it by the end.
However, you won’t know if you don’t ask. If you don’t ask, you don’t get. Don’t be afraid to ask for these things, either. You should be comfortable talking about money. Not because for the sake of having more money. But for the sake of being motivated when you start the new job.
6) Ask For More Money by Making Sure It’s an Increase
You don’t switch jobs just for the money. Sometimes, it’s more than that. It’s about the work, the coworkers. Heck, some people are more than willing to take a pay cut because their current working conditions are so bad. However, if you’re not desperate and/or that motivated to leave, don’t take a pay cut.
If you’re generally happy with where you are right now, there’s no need to take a pay cut. You want to move towards something, you don’t want to escape from something. Life comes at you fast and you just have no idea what things can happen that puts you in a corner where you need more money.
The bear market of 2022 hit many investors harder than they know. Maybe you didn’t follow my how much should I spend on rent? guide and have a long term lease that you can’t get out of. Or maybe you stretched yourself way too thin in your budget. Whatever it is, you want to move towards a better opportunity.
7) Never Get Emotional
At the end of the money, when you’re figuring out how to ask for more money, don’t get emotional. It’s just business. Companies are trying to protect their bottom line and you’re trying to protect your bottom line. State what you bring to the table and how it would be a mistake for the company to not hire you.
It’s just business. If the deal doesn’t work for you, don’t get emotional and say yes because you think it’ll damage the relationship or not. Firmly say no and move on. It’s just business, it’s nothing personal. There’s no need to get emotional over business.
High emotions at the wrong time will destroy your career faster than anything else can. Control your emotions because life is going to test you and put you in situations you never thought were possible. Business is about putting emotions aside and just taking care of business.
8) When All Else Fails, Just Ask
When everything else fails and the company is refusing every attempt to get them to increase the offer, ask again. And again. Squeak and squeak that the deal they’re offering doesn’t work for you. Talk about how it’s in their best interest to pay you more because you’re not going to be motivated otherwise.
The company WILL complain if you don’t perform when you say yes to join the company. Therefore, align the interests together and ask to get paid more. It’s not because you’re greedy or because you want more money. It’s because you’re not going to be motivated to work for them otherwise.
You need a reason to get out of bed every morning and go to a job. In many cases, a job’s motivation comes from the compensation piece of the job. The work itself can be challenging and worthwhile. However, the biggest reason why employees go to work is for the money.
Know how to ask for more money and then ask away. You deserve every penny that you get paid.
Learn How to Ask For More Money
You will be surprised at how much you’re going to be negotiating in your life. It’s not going to be once, it’s going to be multiple times over decades and decades. The people whose negotiation skills are up to snuff will be the ones who come out on top and make more money.
it’s not the smartest, it’s the person who knows how to get what they want by knowing how to negotiate. Don’t be left behind in the dust. All you have to do is say some words and then you’ll be on your way. Learn how to ask for more money because it feels so horrible to know you’re getting underpaid.
It’s not even about the money, it’s about the fact that the counter party doesn’t value you as you know you should be valued. There’s nothing more hurtful to know that you’re getting underpaid. Every two weeks will feel like a slap in the face. And you could even be stuck there.
There was a popular LinkedIn post from an HR lady who proudly declared that she offered a candidate $85k when she had a budget of $135k. Imagine being getting underpaid by fifty thousand dollars per year. Not just in one year, but PER year! Over 5 years, that’s a quarter of a million dollars, that’s insane.
Learn how to ask for more money because it’s going to make a significant difference in your life. More than you know. You don’t feel it until you actually go through with knowing just how underpaid you are. You don’t want to be me, who found out he was getting paid 30% less than his coworkers.
How to Ask for More Money Shortlist:
- Ask questions that doesn’t involve money
- Educate yourself
- Think about future promotion opportunities
- Think about what you’re giving up
- Don’t forget about relocation, signing, and equity bonus
- Ask for more money by making sure it’s an increase
- Never get emotional
- When all else fails, just ask
