Net Worth

Net Worth

How to negotiate the right salary

Each issue, we’ll ask a trainee member to pose their career questions to an established investigator and mentor. Here, Sarah E. Baker, PhD, assistant professor of physiology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., asks about salary negotiation. APS Past President Kim E. Barrett, PhD, FAPS, professor of medicine at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, offers her tips on how much to ask for, when to ask and what to do when the offer is not where you want it to be.

Q: How do I figure out what the right salary looks like, and how do I know whether it is competitive within the institution/state/field?
A: Knowledge is power! APS publishes an annual survey that is a great place to start. The American Association of Medical Colleges also publishes salary information for medical schools.

Q: How would I determine if a wage gap exists between myself and male colleagues?
A: For gender equity, check if the institution has conducted a salary equity study and what it did about any inequities found. For public universities, faculty salaries can often be found in public databases.

Q: Once I have established what the right salary should look like, what is an appropriate way to ask for what I want? When is the best time in the interview process to bring up salary?
A: Negotiations typically begin around the time of a second visit, but you should not begin to negotiate until you have an offer in hand and have had time to review it.

Q: Do all employers negotiate salary? Oftentimes, when asking directly whether a salary is negotiable the immediate answer is no. Is there a more effective way to go about initiating these conversations?
A: In a few cases institutions may have rigid policies, but generally just about everything is negotiable. But you should think in terms of the package as a whole, not just the salary. If the salary amount is particularly important, you should counter with actual data that shows you understand the salary offered is lower than for similar positions. If it isn’t, you don’t have much room to negotiate.

Q: How should I respond when the offer—whether that is salary, benefits or other perks—is not what I was expecting or need?
A: You ask, politely, whether there is any flexibility in the offer because the conditions are not what you expected and will “inhibit your success because _______.”

Q: How do you choose the best offer when receiving job offers from more than one employer?
A: To choose the best offer, be sure to consider all elements, including your gut feelings about the place. The highest salary is often not the best offer.

Q: What are the options if I receive an offer from one employer, but really want to wait and see if I get an offer from a top-choice employer?
A: You can hold off for a while, but don’t play games for too long. It is reasonable to contact your top choice to see if they can speed up their decision-making when you have another offer in hand.

Q: For those applying to academic positions, what considerations should we make regarding space, start-up, teaching, etc.?
A: You need enough space to get your research up and running, with renovations if the space does not match the type of work you do. Ideally, you’ll be close to neighbors with common interests or with complementary expertise and equipment they might share. Your start-up needs to carry you through until you can generate outside support, but ideally you get to retain the funds for at least a while if your grants come sooner than expected. And you should try, if possible, to delay major teaching assignments for at least a year or two if you are joining a research-intensive institution.

Got a career question you’d like to submit? Email it to education@the-aps.org and we’ll consider it for an upcoming Mentoring Q&A.

This article was originally published in the July 2019 issue of The Physiologist Magazine.