How to negotiate salary.

Know your number before you open your mouth.

Everything in a salary negotiation hangs on one thing: a specific, defensible number for what your role pays in your market. Not a feeling. Not what you make now. Not what a friend told you. A real number for your role, at your level, in your city.

This is the part most people skip, and it is why most people undersell. If you walk in without a number, you will anchor on whatever the company says first, and the company has done its homework. So do yours. Pull the market range for your exact role and city, note the midpoint and the top of the band, and decide two figures in advance: your target (what you genuinely want) and your walk-away (the number below which you say no).

You can get that number from real data. Orbyt's Salary Explorer covers 3,445 roles across 81 US cities with cost-of-living adjustments, and the free salary calculator gives you a role-and-city range in seconds. Cross-check against a second source so you are triangulating, not trusting one point. Write the range down. It becomes the anchor for every sentence that follows.

When to negotiate, and when not to.

Timing is leverage. The right moment to negotiate the number is after you have a written offer and before you accept it. That is the peak of your power in the entire process. The company has chosen you, invested weeks to get here, and does not want to reopen the search. You still hold your alternatives. Both of those are true only in that window.

Do not negotiate the number in the first interview. When a recruiter asks early about expectations, that is a screening question, not an offer. Deflect it (the next section shows how). And do not wait until after you have signed or given notice at your current job, when your leverage has evaporated. Negotiate in the window, not before it and not after it.

Never give the first number.

Whoever says a number first anchors the conversation. You want that to be the company, because their first number tells you their budget, and your first number can only cap your own upside. So when you are asked for your salary expectations, deflect once.

Turn the question back:

“I want to make sure this is a strong fit on both sides first. Do you have a budgeted range for this role? I am happy to work within it.”

If they insist you go first, do not give a single figure and never give your current salary. Give a market-based range with your target near the bottom of it:

“Based on the market rate for this role in this city, I have been targeting somewhere in the range of X to Y.”

In a growing number of places, pay-transparency laws mean the range is posted or available on request. Ask for it. Your current salary is off the table: in many US jurisdictions employers cannot legally ask, and even where they can, it only anchors you to your past, not your market.

The counter: how much to ask for.

When the offer lands, you counter. The mechanics are simple: ask for more than your target so the compromise settles at your target. If the offer is below your market number, a counter in the range of 10 to 20 percent over the offer is common and reasonable. If the offer is already close to the top of the market band, ask for less, because there is less room and pushing hard on a strong offer reads as tone-deaf.

Two rules make the counter land:

1. Anchor on the market, not your needs. “The market rate for this role is X” is a fact the company can act on. “I need X to cover my rent” is your problem, not theirs, and it weakens the ask.
2. Give a range, and keep the enthusiasm visible. A range invites a meeting in the middle. A flat demand invites a flat no. And every sentence should still signal that you want this job. Warmth plus data is the combination that works.

The scripts, word for word.

Steal these. Adjust the numbers, keep the shape.

The opening counter

“Thank you so much for the offer. I am genuinely excited about this role and the team. Based on the market rate for this position in this city, I was expecting something closer to the X to Y range. Is there flexibility to get closer to that?”

Then stop talking. Silence is leverage. Let them respond.

When base is capped

“I understand there may not be room on base. Are there other levers we can look at, a signing bonus, an earlier review, additional equity, or a title adjustment, to get the overall package closer to where I was hoping?”

The email version

If it is in writing, keep it short, warm, specific, and end with a clear question:

“Hi [name], thank you for the offer, I am excited to join. I have one question on compensation. Based on market data for this role in [city], I was targeting the X to Y range. Would you be able to meet me at Z? Happy to talk it through.”

Negotiate the package, not just base.

Base salary is the most visible lever, but it is rarely the only one, and it is often the most rigid because it sets bands for everyone. When base will not move, the rest of the package frequently will.

• Signing bonus. Often the easiest yes, because it is one-time and does not reset internal bands.
• Equity. Can be the biggest number of all at a startup, and the hardest to value. Understand what you are being granted before you trade base for it.
• Start date, title, and review timing. A slightly later start, a better title, or a review at six months instead of twelve all have real value and often cost the company little.
• Remote flexibility and PTO. Sometimes worth more than a few thousand in base, depending on your life.

For the full math on total compensation, equity at different growth scenarios, and comparing two offers side by side, the Job Offer Guide has the models. Here the point is simpler: ask what has flexibility, and negotiate the whole thing.

The competing-offer play, and how to do without one.

A genuine competing offer is the strongest leverage there is, and if you have one, use it plainly and honestly: “I have another offer at X. I would rather be here. Can you close the gap?” Never bluff a competing offer you do not have. If they call it, you have lost all your credibility at the worst possible moment.

Most of the time you will not have a competing offer, and that is fine, because market data is its own leverage.A credible, specific number for what the role pays does the same work as a rival offer: it gives the company a concrete reason to move that is not about your feelings. “Based on market rates for this role, I was targeting X” is a strong position on its own. You do not need someone else bidding to justify asking for your market rate.

When they say no.

Sometimes the answer is no, or a smaller yes than you wanted. That is not the end of the conversation, and it is not a reason to panic. You have options.

• Pivot to the rest of the package. If base is truly fixed, move to signing bonus, equity, or an early review. A no on base is often a yes somewhere else.
• Ask what it would take. “What would I need to demonstrate to get to X at my first review?” turns a no today into a documented path.
• Decide against your walk-away. This is why you set it in advance. If the final number is above your walk-away and the role is right, take it without regret. If it is below, you already know your answer.

One respectful counter almost never costs you an offer. If a company pulls an offer over a single polite, data-backed ask, it just told you something important about how it treats people, and you found out for free.

The mistakes that cost people money.

• Not negotiating at all. The most expensive mistake. The first number is a starting point, and accepting it on the spot leaves the most money on the table of anything on this list.
• Giving a number first. You anchor yourself and cap your upside. Deflect, then range.
• Anchoring on your current salary. It ties your future to your past. Anchor on the market instead.
• Justifying with personal needs. Rent and bills are not levers the company can pull. Market rate is.
• Negotiating over text with a cold tone. Warmth is not weakness. The enthusiasm is what makes the ask land instead of read as a threat.
• Accepting a verbal promise. If it is not in the written offer, it does not exist. Get it on paper before you sign.

The close: get it in writing.

When you have an agreement, close it cleanly. Confirm every number you negotiated, base, bonus, equity, start date, title, in the written offer before you say yes. A verbal “we will take care of you” is not a term. A number on the offer letter is.

Then accept warmly and completely. Once the deal is done, stop negotiating and start being excited. You did the work, you know your number, and you left less on the table than you would have if you had walked in cold. Track the whole process, every offer and every counter, in one place so you can see the pattern across a search. If you are running your search in Orbyt, the offer sits next to the salary data you used to justify it, which is exactly where it belongs.

Common questions.