3 arguments companies use to pay you less - and how to respond


Hi Reader,

This week, we wanted to share with you three common (but poor) arguments companies use during salary negotiations 👇

1️⃣ “If we give you the max salary available now, we won’t have room to increase it later”

▶ Translation: “We don’t have a sustainable way to reward employees other than pay below market now so we can pay a bit more later.”

▶Your move: Ask for the max salary now, stating that it will keep you more motivated than making less money now but more later (and hence less money overall).

Waiting on compensation with the hope of future raises rarely pays off. If the company values you, they should provide a competitive salary now—one that reflects your skills and contributions right from the start.

2️⃣ “The hiring manager [or the recruiter or someone else involved with the job offer] is on vacation”

▶Translation: We hope that you will take that as a reason to not negotiate so as not to bother the decision makers.

▶Your move: Negotiate without factoring it in at all that someone is out of office. It’s the company’s responsibility to manage your job application in a timely manner and not lose you to a competing offer.

Companies who value strong candidates don’t risk losing them over internal delays. If they’re serious about hiring you, they’ll prioritize your offer over temporary scheduling conflicts.

3️⃣ “We can’t give you more money because we aim to pay equitably across the team”

▶Translation: We care about equitability when it means paying everyone below market. But if you negotiate strategically and/or have another job offer, we will set aside equitability and do everything we can to win you over.

▶Your move: Acknowledge and applaud their equitability strategy but keep negotiating regardless.

Market dynamics take precedence over a company’s compensation philosophy (assuming they’re not just saying it to begin with) - i.e. if you have a better offer, they’ll pay more to attract the right talent.

If they need to pay you more to win you over, they could then pay everyone else in the team a bit more too then to maintain equitability, no?

🧳 Ready to get the money left on the table?

If you're job searching or expecting an upcoming negotiation, schedule a free consultation call with us here and get real-time support on how to deal with situations exactly like these.

Best,
Gerta & Alex
Co-founders of YourNegotiations.com

Hi, we’re Gerta & Alex. 👫
We’re Harvard, MIT, LinkedIn, and Instagram alums and we share negotiation tips to help you
negotiate job offers or business deals. Have an upcoming negotiation? Book a call with Alex
here!

548 Market St, No. 922375, San Francisco, CA 94104
Unsubscribe · Preferences

YourNegotiations.com Newsletter

Gerta & Alex are the cofounders of YourNegotiations.com, where they help executives, mid-career professionals, founders, and companies negotiate job offers and business deals. Their backgrounds span tech (LinkedIn, Meta / Instagram, Salary.com), biotech (Sanofi), the US Air Force, venture capital (South Park Commons), and building venture-backed companies. They're Harvard, MIT, and Wharton alums and have helped hundreds of clients add on average $100K and up to $1.7M to their compensation packages. They also advise founders, teams, and companies to negotiate with vendors, business partners, and customers, and navigate complexities around negotiating business deals, cofounder splits, and more.

Read more from YourNegotiations.com Newsletter

Hey Reader, We love PhD dropouts and we love decision making science, so, naturally, we had to have Sam Liu on the podcast (Episode: YouTube | Spotify | Apple). Sam is the founder of an AI company called Fergana Labs. Before that, he was doing a PhD at Stanford studying decision making. We were curious what someone who studied decision making at that level actually learned, how they apply it to their negotiations, and how they apply it to their personal lives. The surprising part was that...

Hey Reader, We get the following questions a lot: “Have you trained an AI on your negotiation framework?” “Can I just follow a template?” This week on the Gentle Power Podcast (YouTube | Spotify | Apple), Gerta and I recorded a solo episode where we dove deep into why negotiations is not as straightforward as memorizing scripts on how to push back or ask for more. We get the appeal. Clean template language would be easier for everyone involved, more scalable for us, and probably more...

Hey Reader, Not sure if you've seen this too, but we keep getting this ad on Instagram (screenshot below), probably because we post a lot about negotiations. Don't fall for this ad It's tempting to go down this rabbit hole, but don't let curiosity waste valuable time you could spend elsewhere. Here's why, but first: FREE Negotiations Q&A on Thursday, March 5th Quick PSA: we're hosting a live Q&A this week! Join us Thursday, March 5th at 3pm PT / 6pm ET to get live input and real-time feedback...