One of the major employment challenges you may face is how to negotiate a salary during a recession. How do you negotiate a job offer when you have no job, no income, no alternative options? When you negotiate, the person who is in a position of strength has all the cards, and it’s now an employers market, as there will be more people than jobs.

As we have just lived through a few years of a solid job market with record-low unemployment levels, this might feel like a shock. If you are lucky enough to be in the position of negotiating a job offer then I take my hat off to you. If you are still job searching, then I would recommend my previous post outlining how to get a job in a recession, with 5 critical actions you need to take.

If you are not even at the point of job hunting and you just feel overwhelmed by all the uncertainty then check out my post What To Do When It Seems Like The End Of The F***ing World: 5 Steps To Cope With The Uncertainty.

My Experience Of Job Searching In A Recession

I have just landed a job in Australia, in a new country, in a frozen job market. Not only did I do this, but I increased the initial salary offer by $18,0000 and I want to give you a script and guidance for how you can do this too.

Full disclosure: I managed to get an offer of nearly $100,000 + visa costs. This was a relief considering I had just quit my job and started travelling just a couple of months before one of the worst potential recessions since 1929.

Therefore I wanted to share the steps I took to negotiate a salary, whilst maintaining a low risk of the job offer being revoked. It’s easy for people out there to simply suggest asking for 25-30% more than you are willing to accept. It’s much more difficult to follow through with this in practice.

What To Expect When Negotiating A Salary

To prepare you for the situation, here are a few things you can potentially expect to hear at any point between the initial conversation to the salary offer:

  • Downplaying of your skills or experience
  • That one skill you lack to get to reach the top of the salary range (I fell for this last time)
  • How good the compensation package is
  • How generous the salary is for the position
  • That the get a higher salary that would be for a more senior role
  • That there are potential promotions available in the future.

You may have also heard that you should never speak first when it comes to providing a salary range of price point. Whilst I agree this is true, coming up with a reasonable salary expectation can be useful for getting your foot in the door. If pushed for an answer you don’t want to feel like you are being obtuse (especially when you may have limited job options).

The recruiter may also want to simply understand your salary range expectations and understanding of the job market. Therefore if you do give the game away with a number don’t feel like you have to give in to the first offer if you have already provided a salary. This is exactly what happened to me but you can pivot from this by saying:

  • “I have come to understand the complexities of the role since the initial conversation”
  • “I’ve come to understand the skills and experience necessary to be successful in the role since the initial conversation”
  • “Since then I have used some salary benchmarking tools such as payscale and Indeed and these indicate that”.

How To Negotiate Using Salary Tools

It’s important to remember that you do not need to set ultimatums or a specific salary that you want to achieve. The following statements I remember making are:

  • “I used a tool called payscale and this highlighted that a salary of (the initial offer) would put me in the bottom 10% of earners for this job title”
  • “The median salary for this job title is … X. (You can also type in job titles in Indeed to get figures for this).

Using these tools gives you a strong empirical basis for your salary expectations. It’s very difficult for the recruiter to dismiss these findings. They will have to think hard to justify why you do not meet these standard salary expectations of the same role. Using numerical concepts such as averages and lower quartiles demonstrates that you have done your research, and you understand the job market.

How To Keep Negotiating A Salary After Making Your Argument

This is the point where they may downplay the seniority of this position or why this position is different. For example, or that you lack certain skills or experience. They may attempt to guilt you into backing down by making you feel greedy. It’s important to:

  1. Not to back down, be firm but respectful
  2. Don’t talk yourself out of the negotiation. Let them do this instead.
  3. Explain you are not making ultimatums but you want to find an equitable figure.
  4. Offer them some time to think about it.
  5. Remember that they’ve put a lot of time and effort in and you are one of the few people they think can be successful in the role.
  6. Also remember that this is just economics and about balancing out an equation. You can say things like “I would like to take money off the table by reaching an equitable figure that we are both happy with”.

They may over the course of this conversation mention that there is a budget, or that there is a likelihood of increasing the salary, and that they will get an offer out to you. I received an offer 2-3 days later with the increased salary, more than I was actually expecting. I essentially benchmarked at the median but ended up going beyond that to pay me more than the average.

Simple Strategies On How To Negotiate A Salary Offer

Ask Them To Put Something On The Table

If you are at the start of the conversation and salary haven’t been mentioned yet, then ask them to put an offer on the table. They may push back, to which you can reply: “I don’t really have an understanding of your budget for the role”. In a situation where you can’t get away with not giving them a salary, based on your research, make it a high figure (20% above what you want for example”).

It’s possible you will have received a job offer without having discussed salary. If this is the case, you can get a person on the other side of the negotiating table to negotiate against themselves. At this point, giving in first may be a critical error, as this could be the final price point you end up with.

In which case it can be pretty essential that you do not give a number first. “Ask them, what are you willing to offer”, or “what is the salary for the role”. Having interviewed you, it’s reasonable to expect they have a number in mind, so you can be direct.

Option A: The Flinch Tactic

If you can push the recruiter to give a figure first, you can implement ‘the flinch’. This doesn’t have to be a dramatic expression of emotion or shock, but you say “hmm” or “that’s a little lower than I was expecting”

Option B: The Pause and Wait Strategy

Silence can be deafening and simply saying nothing can give you a psychological edge. You can apply this step independently or in-conjunction with the flinch. This silence will force the person you are negotiating to come up with a better offer.

It’s important to remember at this stage, that you have passed all their tests, beaten the other candidates and they will be determined to get you to sign-on with them. So it’s now up to them to convince you to join.

Is that the best you can do?

At this stage, you might want to consider asking them is that their best offer? Is their flexibility in their budget? They might sound resistant, but their offer will likely be only mid-way up the salary range for the role, and it’s likely that their offer was a low-ball offer or a starting point with the negotiation.

Ask them if they “need time to go away and think about this”. Demonstrating that you are willing to slow down the process or not accept straightway to get the right offer. By contrast, they may try to speed up this part of the recruitment process to get you to sign a contract ASAP.

They won’t want to waste their time getting you to sign-on and start the start. I was even asked to sign a contract with 2-3 hours of getting it, for some possibly fabricated reason of being able to get a work laptop on time.

How To Negotiate A Salary With Walk-away Power

He who cares the least wins and you may want to understand what it would mean for you to walk away. What situations or factors could you implement into the discussion? Even if you have to invent them to give you at least a perceived walk-way power.

At the time I was negotiating Miss MSU had been offered a role in another part of Australia. However, there were a number of benefits to this job offer such as staying in Melbourne and being able to stay here long term.

I put this into the conversation to demonstrate that we didn’t need to take the offer and that this wasn’t the only option we were considering. This may be difficult if you do not have a job, so you may need to invent another job offer or situation that would allow you to turn down the job offer.

If you have a job, staying in your current role might be enough leverage, so ensure that you speak positively about your current role through the process. However, if you are going with either of these strategies remember to remind the recruiter or hiring manager about your enthusiasm for the new role at the same time.

Final Thoughts On How To Negotiate A Job Offer In A Recession

Being offered a job is great and you may be inclined to accept straight-away if your options are limited or you don’t have a job. Remembering to slow things down and take a few extra steps can make a massive difference in pay for doing exactly the same job.

Negotiating a salary can also feel stressful, especially if you don’t like feelings of confrontation. You don’t want to lose the job offer after all. However, if approached logically and respectfully it can actually be a very smooth process and it isn’t something you need to worry about.

Therefore I hope my learnings from my most recent experience help you to boost your pay if you are searching for a new job in a challenging climate. Remember that taking the above steps can increase your annual salary by thousands of dollars or pounds, which if you stay in that job could seriously compound up over time.

I don’t claim to be an expert at this, but this is what worked for me, so I hope it works for you too. If you have any successes with job hunting or salary negotiation, please feel free to share them in the comments.