Get the Pay You Deserve by Avoiding 7 Salary Negotiation Mistakes

Making good money in the sports industry early in your career can be challenging, given the typically high volume of applicants for each open position. Another challenge for job seekers is a lack of comfort in negotiating salary, which can lead to you earning less than you otherwise could have.

On today’s episode of the WorkInSports Podcast, VP of Content and Engaged Learning Brian Clapp discusses salary negotiation. For job seekers and employees who don’t know how to negotiate salary, here are seven mistakes to avoid:

1. Accepting the first offer: Bypassing salary negotiation entirely potentially starts you off at a below-market wage. According to a 2022 Fidelity study, 85% of people who countered an offer got at least some of what they asked for.
2. Revealing how much you would accept: Try to keep your minimum acceptable salary to yourself. If asked to provide your salary requirement on the application, leave the answer blank or state it’s negotiable based on the total compensation package.
3. Ignoring data: Whether you are countering an offer or asking for a raise, you must know what your job is worth on the market to gauge what to ask for (iHire’s Salary Research Tool can help).
4. Picking a bad time: Knowing when to negotiate salary is as important as knowing how. For a new position, you should wait until you get the official offer before countering. If you are seeking a raise, don’t bring it up if the company isn’t performing well, they laid people off, or you missed performance goals.
5. Blindsiding your supervisor: Salary negotiation is best done in person and with some advance notice. Avoid emailing your supervisor out of the blue to start a negotiation and opt instead to set up a meeting in person (or on camera if working remotely) to broach the topic.
6. Letting emotions/personal feelings take over: Discuss why you should make more based on market factors and your skills/accomplishments, not individual issues such as financial hardship or believing it’s “your turn” to get a raise.
7. Not considering other factors: If your request for a raise or higher offer is rejected, consider other benefits that can satisfy you (more PTO, flexible hours, remote/hybrid work, title change, etc.).

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Listen to the full episode of the WorkInSports Podcast to gain more confidence negotiating salary. Also, subscribe to the WorkInSports Podcast for more sports career advice, and catch additional content on our YouTube Channel!