If you have absolutely no problem with anything they offer, why is telling them your ex-pay is a problem? At the very least in this case, it should strengthen your increment since you can ask for 20-40% from your current pay, and you can back it up that you did indeed earn as such.

It depends on how much you trust the company. We absolutely are not allowed to share the current / past pay of a candidate to anyone expect the hiring manager, and that is only to judge how much can we afford to offer based on the headcount budget and expectation. It is not shared with anyone else, not to your co-worker, your ex-boss, your wife, family, friends, etc...

While pay is a sensitive issue in a social setting, this is a business setting and any figures would only be treated as such.

It depends on the situation. I can only speak from the organisations I've worked with, all of them MNCs / GLCs.

Firstly, every job, every role have a range of salary the company is willing to pay. Sure it might be beneficial to get someone at 2k when the market is paying 3k, but eventually the internal equity will be addressed so unless the figure is huge, it is unlikely to be a massive impact on the overall negotiation.

Secondly, how certain are you that the job is yours? If it is just the initial discussion, you can always just say you are not ready to discuss about pay package until much later on. Everyone eventually comes down to pay discussion so it will come out one way or another.

Thirdly, you should decide your own price. I will make an exception fresh graduates that might not be certain of their starting pay, but if one is a seasoned professional, you must know what it takes to be your pull factor. If you think from what have been communicated as your job responsibility to be worth 50% of your current salary, that should be communicated as such. Whether you give or refuse to provide your salary slip is not in the equation here.

A company can either afford you or they can't. If the price you name cannot be matched, they will come back with another offer. If they think that a 50% jump from your prior salary is ridiculous, you do not want to work for that company. Or, if you really want to, you just have to suck it up the lower offer.

Salary negotiation can be intense, but it is not a stupid war. You have your price that you believe it is fair, it might be more or it might be less than others, that should not be the argument here. The point to ponder is, are they willing to pay your expected worth?

Define slight increase. I've never had an issue showing my payslip, and have never shied away from asking for 20-40% whenever I do a jump.

Executive search do ask for your current pay, not payslips because they are not processing your payroll. They ask because every client will tell them a range of salary they can afford for that role, and the agent gets a certain % of the salary, so it is in their interest to know your pay and fight for the best.

If you are talking about C levels, they do not ask for payslips because senior management packages tend to be on contract basis and is negotiated per total compensation which can differ year on year.

The so-called offering higher than market is a total con. We currently pay slightly above market because we are based regionally so our 'market' is skewed towards the high side, but even so there are competitors around us that is willing to fight and pay for the same talent pool, thus we end up paying very similar across the board.

Consultants like Hay, Mercer, Towers and McLagan publishes salary surveys yearly that informs one of the current median market and you establish your pay position from there. When you say market, market relative to what?

That doesn't even make sense.

A petroleum engineer earning 10k but only gets a 1% salary jump moving from company A to company B is better than a arts student earning 2k but gets a 40% jump?

If you want to know the context of my statement, you'll have to ask much much better questions than just listing them down in point forms.

If I said I am earning 30K a month, suddenly my point is more valid than if I told you I earn 3K a month?

Well, shouldn't the question then be, how much of an increase will motivate you to jump? If you think you want a 30% to make the trip worthwhile, ask for that and stand your ground. If they are not willing to offer that, don't go.

I had a 30% jump going into one of the top FI's middle of last year and about 25% jump 6 months after going into my current role, again in another top FI. I don't think my case is anything out of the ordinary nor have I found that brand name mattered much especially when you are skillset and expertise that they need rather the other way around.

I'd kill to join a 'cool' company like say, Google, but if they offer me a 10% jump I'd say screw them.

I work in compensation, and I work as and with hiring managers. There are no such thing a different rules. What you might have is different pay philosophy but that applies generally across grades, not pay.

I have union workers earning 12k a month and gets their 4% increase year on year, I have managers earning 12k asking for a 32% jump. You don't look as salary as the end all be all.

If you are talking about small companies then I'll admit the process might be different, but this does not happen in the large organisations. The talents we need are consistently poached and be poached by international firms so underpaying people is detrimental to us rather than helping us. The cost of a bad hire is far worse than that meagre 1k I save when I offer your 3k instead of 4k.

If you want 50%, just ask for 50%. If they are not willing to pay that, don't go. If they are ready to offer you 50% increase without knowing your current pay, they should be ready to offer you 50% even knowing your current pay. If they give you a bunch of excuses, you will have to evaluate if it is really worth your time.

Yes. I work in compensation. I know how much people in my role is getting paid. I'm not shortchanged nor am I unhappy. I asked for what I felt I deserved and I got it. If you think you deserve 50-60%, ask for that 50%. You said, pay is a negotiation, so negotiate. Is is not company offer this, you take.



A variety of reasons, I wouldn't act as if it is not being used to anchor an offer to the candidate. You will find if you refuse to disclose it, it should not be an issue though it might annoy the hiring manager but otherwise, there should be no repercussions from thethe company practice point of view.

Perhaps my take is wrong, but I'd rather have my pay decision in my hands, thus I look at what I'd have to do in the new role, the skill I'm bringing to the table and hardship I face moving across company and decide on the salary I want. If they can't match it, there is no point in furthering anything.

That is my view of things, which might (or does) clash with many others.

Perhaps by asking for say, 30% jump, you might miss out on that 15% more that the company would have been willing to offer, but should that bother you? You got a 30% jump, exactly what you wanted.

It is like going to Genting, planning to win RM200 and won RM200 but then complain because if you stayed a little bit longer, you could have won RM500 instead.

RM15k. Although there is nothing to prevent him from getting 20k.

There is nothing black and white about a job / position that must be offered such and such. You will find in general a range that a manager have to offer for that position. There are also concerns such as their headcount budget and allocation.

You have the right to play that game with that approach.




Because one rarely moves laterally. I get a 25% jump because I took on a bigger role that I felt deserved that and a 30% jump again because they need my skillset more than I need their job.




I disagree. That is not the rule of negotiation, that is such a archaic notion that a win in negotiation is how cheap I can get something. There are plenty of people who would love to do what you are doing at half of your price, does that worry you into lowering your offer if you know what your worth is?

I work in compensation which is why I'm clarifying that you should have full power on your own valuation and not let it go to the company. If you think it is much better off letting it be evaluated by the other party, it is fine as well.



Yea, so just go and name what you want from the new job. There is pretty much not a lot of differentiation to be have if you are highly specialised and the field is mature. If the new role requires you to perform at a pay level 50% above what you currently earns, ask for that. It is what you are worth. Whether they think you worth more or less does not really matter.

I'd love to hear stories from people who refuse to disclose their pay and somehow got offered anything above 60% of their current salary.