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	<title>Comments on: Get That Raise</title>
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		<title>By: Philip (flip) Kromer</title>
		<link>http://juixe.com/techknow/index.php/2008/06/01/get-that-raise/comment-page-1/#comment-614</link>
		<dc:creator>Philip (flip) Kromer</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 03 Jun 2008 20:15:07 +0000</pubDate>
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		<description>On my &quot;Five books every person should read&quot; shelf is the Harvard Negotiation Project book &quot;Getting to Yes&quot;, by Fisher &amp; Ury:
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getting_to_Yes
Your advice is excellent and quite in line with what I think they&#039;d recommend.

The one place where I think they&#039;d disagree is the &#039;positional&#039; strategy of &quot;If you want a 10% raise ask for 15%&quot;.  It&#039;s more powerful to simply state a fair resolution, solid evidence to why that&#039;s fair, and your priorities to guide compromise. (As you mentioned, &#039;priorities&#039; isn&#039;t only money: perhaps you&#039;d accept further training, vacation days, or twice-yearly spot in the company&#039;s box seats at Fenway as part of the raise.)  When they try to negotiate positionally, insist the discussion center around what&#039;s fair and what&#039;s important to them.  Perhaps money is tight now but will not be later: increased options, more-rapid vesting or a deferred bonus might meet both their needs (reduced immediate cost) and yours (increased overall compensation).

Fisher&amp;Ury advise carefully considering both parties&#039; &quot;Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement&quot;.  If you don&#039;t get the raise, will you Quit? Start Job-Hunting? Drag ass at work? Stop wearing pants?  And what are the consequences to the company if you can&#039;t find a fair resolution?  Less obviously, they explain when, whether and how to disclose your best-alternative -- without coming across as making threats, and without disclosing weakness, but strategically making clear the outcome if negotiations fail.

Try to reasonably estimate your past and future marginal-value-above-salary: &quot;I&#039;ve delivered these two projects on time and within budget, bringing in $(100&#039;s)k dollars for the firm; and I&#039;m currently working on a project twice as big: It&#039;s fair to return some of that value to me.&quot;  Look up salary comparables from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and/or Salary.com for a person with your experience and job title. These numbers can powerfully bolster the case that your offer is fair.  (Also: the taboo against discussing salaries with your coworkers is foolish and groundless -- find others willing to break it.  You wouldn&#039;t use that info in negotiation, but it will help nail down the company&#039;s best-alternative.)

One final point -- with the advice of an accountant, explore things like transportation reimbursement (yearly metro pass, company gas card, straight reimbursement for your travel from work to home) or a higher travel per-mile/per-diem.  Anything legitimately classified as a &#039;reimbursement&#039; comes through tax-free (no double-taxation), so $1400 of reimbursement from the company is effectively $2000 of salary to you.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>On my &#8220;Five books every person should read&#8221; shelf is the Harvard Negotiation Project book &#8220;Getting to Yes&#8221;, by Fisher &amp; Ury:<br />
  <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getting_to_Yes" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getting_to_Yes</a><br />
Your advice is excellent and quite in line with what I think they&#8217;d recommend.</p>
<p>The one place where I think they&#8217;d disagree is the &#8216;positional&#8217; strategy of &#8220;If you want a 10% raise ask for 15%&#8221;.  It&#8217;s more powerful to simply state a fair resolution, solid evidence to why that&#8217;s fair, and your priorities to guide compromise. (As you mentioned, &#8216;priorities&#8217; isn&#8217;t only money: perhaps you&#8217;d accept further training, vacation days, or twice-yearly spot in the company&#8217;s box seats at Fenway as part of the raise.)  When they try to negotiate positionally, insist the discussion center around what&#8217;s fair and what&#8217;s important to them.  Perhaps money is tight now but will not be later: increased options, more-rapid vesting or a deferred bonus might meet both their needs (reduced immediate cost) and yours (increased overall compensation).</p>
<p>Fisher&amp;Ury advise carefully considering both parties&#8217; &#8220;Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement&#8221;.  If you don&#8217;t get the raise, will you Quit? Start Job-Hunting? Drag ass at work? Stop wearing pants?  And what are the consequences to the company if you can&#8217;t find a fair resolution?  Less obviously, they explain when, whether and how to disclose your best-alternative &#8212; without coming across as making threats, and without disclosing weakness, but strategically making clear the outcome if negotiations fail.</p>
<p>Try to reasonably estimate your past and future marginal-value-above-salary: &#8220;I&#8217;ve delivered these two projects on time and within budget, bringing in $(100&#8242;s)k dollars for the firm; and I&#8217;m currently working on a project twice as big: It&#8217;s fair to return some of that value to me.&#8221;  Look up salary comparables from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and/or Salary.com for a person with your experience and job title. These numbers can powerfully bolster the case that your offer is fair.  (Also: the taboo against discussing salaries with your coworkers is foolish and groundless &#8212; find others willing to break it.  You wouldn&#8217;t use that info in negotiation, but it will help nail down the company&#8217;s best-alternative.)</p>
<p>One final point &#8212; with the advice of an accountant, explore things like transportation reimbursement (yearly metro pass, company gas card, straight reimbursement for your travel from work to home) or a higher travel per-mile/per-diem.  Anything legitimately classified as a &#8216;reimbursement&#8217; comes through tax-free (no double-taxation), so $1400 of reimbursement from the company is effectively $2000 of salary to you.</p>
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