What About Salary Boxes?

From: Jack Chapman

Sometimes you’ll be negotiating with a company that has compensation all figured out ahead of time.  Perhaps it has implemented the Hay system, or the ranges have been set by law—public-sector positions are often confined so—and you fit into a category.  Teaching positions are systematically boxed into academic degrees and years of experience.  Each box has its own salary attached.  The federal government has grades and steps within grades; positions are assigned a rating of G.S. 8, G.S. 9, etc., and a standard salary.

You can negotiate these, though it’s harder.  If you can’t change the salary attached to the box, perhaps you can change the box.  Doesn’t your volunteer work with Great Books and your adult-education class work really add up to another year of teaching experience?  Perhaps your two years in that inner-city school is equivalent to three or four years of normal teaching.  (It took several years off your life, that’s for sure!)

The other strategy to use is reassigning the grade itself.  The earlier in the formation stages a job is, the easier it is to do that.  If the job has been classified as G.S. 5 for years and years, it’s unlikely you can make a case for upgrading it, unless you can negotiate some added responsibilities to it.  But if it’s a new position, you might be able to show how it really should be upgraded.

A client of mine was told in the interviewing process that a particular company’s policy was to give all the information about degree, experience, project assignment, and so forth to the personnel department, and it would come up with an offer.  That was it!  He could only take it or leave it once it was figured out!  Sound nonnegotiable?  Well, we found a way for him to make the right noises to the right ears about his value and about the importance of getting the compensation figured out attractively.  Although we couldn’t change the final number, we influenced beforehand the people who chose that number.  When the offer came in, it was a 100-percent salary increase over his present job.

Phil’s Salary-Boxes Story

Another client, Phil, interviewed to teach at a public high school.  Three times during the interview the principal said, “You understand that this is an eight-tenths position, don’t you?”  (That meant it was a four-day-a-week job, so drew 80 percent of full-time salary.)

“Well,” my client replied, “I understand that it’s an eight-tenths position, and if I’m the one you want I’m sure we can find a way to work out fair compensation.”

Turns out my client was the one they wanted, but eight-tenths of the salary box was too low for him to accept.  So first he tried to get eight-tenths of a different box.  Would the principal consider his master’s degree the equivalent of “master’s plus fifteen hours”?  After all, it had required thirty more credit hours than other teachers’ master’s degrees.

“Sorry, no,” the principal responded.

Then how about credit for an extra year of experience, since his master’s internship had been a very demanding full-time position for six months with delinquent kids?

“No, any exceptions would bring on grievances from other teachers in the union.”

Well, how about special assignments like debating coach, or computer & audio-visual equipment coordinator?

“Aha!  We could explore that, yes!  Ms. Smith, the chemistry teacher has just had a baby and might be interested in handing the equipment off to someone else.”

Result: eight-tenths position plus a few hours’ coordinating school equipment, equaling a total salary 10 percent higher than a full-time position in that box.  Of further interest is that six people had interviewed for and rejected the position when they learned it was only eight-tenths.  Phil scored!

The moral is that, when interviewers say “inflexible” or “nonnegotiable,” they’re still in the budget stage.  So wait for judgit, and look for ways to change the box you fit in, the box the job fits in, or the box-makers’ minds!

Jack Chapman is a nationally know job coach and seminar speaker specializing for the last 20 years in salary negotiations and job interviews.

For more information on Salary Negotiations, please visit: http://www.breakthrough-salaries.com/

Site map