Retail
I am expecting to receive an offer for a management position in retail in the next week, but have two questions regarding negotiations. First, I know what the person who was in the position prior to me was making. I know that they were able to get a very good salary due to their college degree - which I have. I know that every negotiation is different, but I seem to have the same skill set he had - I am stronger in the operational/business aspect while he was stronger in team building/staffing. Is there a good way I can say that my starting salary should be $X if I get offered a lower amount? Can I even refer to knowing that the guy before me made $X? I know I can increase measurables more and from what I can figure, the hiring manager plans to fast-track me into upper levels of management immediately. (He wants me to train for 3 weeks at other stores who are leaders in the district, while my friend with the company only went through 6 days at other stores.) Also, I live in Illinois. In a few months, minimum wage is going to increase from 6.50 to 7.50 an hour. (EDIT: The following three years it will increase by a quarter, making it $8.25 by 2010.) From what I can assume, this has no direct bearing on salaried employees in that no company is going to blanket a raise to the non-hourlies if they don't have to. However, I do know that it will change the pay rate scale for future management hired after that day (not by much as was my experience with the last wage increase). Is the 15% increase in a few months something that I can use to leverage a starting salary ABOVE $X (since by the time I would possibly start training it would be so close to the increase date)? Or even use it to take something around $X but then try to ask for a preset raise to over $X in 3 months assumming my performance is great? I also know that in retail management positions it tends to only have a once a year salary review and not very much room for argument after hire or for reraises with competitive offers from other companies - which is why I'm trying to figure out how to secure what I know I'm worth. I can stand to not take this job and either stay where I am or take another proposal, but the company for this upcoming offer is a much better company than the other two. I guess I'm also asking for insight into any trends in salary and negotiations in the specific retail industry. Thanks! If you have a fair idea of the salary range in which you want to be, just wait and see what sort of offer is made. If it' s within your anticipated salary range or above it - take the job. If it' s lower than the bottom your anticipated range, you can politely ask if their salary offer is negotiable and, if it is, and you' re asked what salary you have in mind, you can counter with your own salary range by saying something like, "I was anticipating an offer in the $X to $Y range," and see what happens. I also think you have to be prepared to state why the job will be worth more to the employer based on your experience, training, skills, and education, but NOT in comparison to anybody else. Comparing what you can bring to the table to what somebody else brought to it would be a serious negotiating mistake, in my opinion. Furthermore, you should NOT mention the other guy or anything about what you believe he was earning - totally bad form! I also don' t think you can use any forthcoming increase in the minimum wage as leverage to increase your anticipated salary range now. Your salary range needs to be at least 10% to 15% more than you' re earning now, not based on what hourly employees will be paid sometime in the future. Hope this helps. | |
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Career Tips
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