can I try to negotiate salary with a company that says from the start they don’t negotiate?

A reader writes:

I know salary negotiation is typically acceptable, expected, and wise, and I even did recruiting for a year or so. But I’m job hunting again, and I’ve never seen this question on an application before:

“To ensure equitable compensation, we benchmark salaries against nonprofits of similar size and budget, because of this, we don’t negotiate salaries. The salary for this role is $96,650. Please confirm that this aligns with your desired salary expectations.” (Dropdown: “Yes, I understand that the salary for this role is $96,650.”)

Does this mean I shouldn’t ever bring it up?

Also, related: Say the salary is below market rate or a huge range, and you know they know. And you probably wouldn’t accept even the very tippy toppiest number of the range, but you do want to woo them in the interview process and then try asking for a bit over the max. But they ask if you’re okay with the range in the application, and then do an initial screener and ask again. Should you just say yes? If you say yes, does it mean you can’t negotiate later?

Yes, when they tell you clearly at the outset that this very specific number is the salary and that they don’t negotiate, and they ask you to confirm you understand this with a very specific dropdown … that’s the salary.

The only way you could try to negotiate anyway and still seem like you’re acting in good faith is if there’s genuinely something about your background that might qualify for you for a higher salary within the structure you understand them to use. Like if it becomes clear that they have a different salary band for people with optional qualification X, or if they’re extremely excited in the interview process about an extra qualification you bring that they hadn’t anticipated finding, there’s some room for you to negotiate based on that.

But otherwise, no, they’re saying they’re not going to negotiate it, and you shouldn’t go through their whole process if you know from the start that you wouldn’t accept that salary, particularly when they asked you to confirm that you understood they don’t negotiate for reasons of internal equity, which means the whole thing they’re trying to avoid is paying people differently for the same work because one person negotiated better than someone else.

To your second question about jobs that offer a below-market rate or a huge range: is it also a job with a clear “we don’t negotiate policy” that they ask you to agree to at the start? If so, all the above applies. But if it’s not, then it’s a different situation; in that case, there’s room to try to negotiate, even if you verbally say you’re okay with their range at the start of the process. You could, upon getting an offer, explain that after going through the interview process and learning more about the job, you’d be looking for a salary of $X and do they have some wiggle room, etc.

But if they’re transparent from the start about what the salary is and that it’s not flexible, then it would be bad faith to take a slot from another candidate if you know you wouldn’t accept that number.

The post can I try to negotiate salary with a company that says from the start they don’t negotiate? appeared first on Ask a Manager.

View the full article