Lisa Dupras
Apr 25, 20223 min
Updated: Apr 14
You’ve got a job offer in hand! Now you need to determine if the total compensation package is fair and whether you should request a salary counteroffer. There are many factors that influence a salary offer: location, company size, type of company, experience, and education levels. If you have been offered additional compensation (an annual bonus, sign-on bonus, stock incentives) you will need to do more research. With some analysis using the sites below, you can get a pretty good idea of a fair salary for the type of work you will be doing.
Understanding Job Matching
Some companies have very consistent job titles, many do not. When using the survey tools, carefully evaluate the match of the job you have been offered vs. the job you choose from the survey. if your target position typically has a Senior-level title, you should search for salary survey information for both the lower and higher job titles. Filter the results by as many variables as you can to get data that closely matches the position you are researching. If you cannot filter by location, I would not suggest using the provided data.
Choose Your Matched Jobs Carefully
Many of the tools provide the total number of responses used in calculating the survey information. If the total number of responses is low the reported salary data may not be reliable and should not be used.
Pay Attention to Total Compensation
Many of the survey tools report on average bonus amounts. These should be removed from your survey data so that all your salary comparisons can be equalized. If your company HAS offered you a bonus, you can use the survey tools to assess that information separately. Note - There are many other factors that impact a job offer. This blog focuses on analyzing annual salaries. You can also use this great TOTAL COMPENSATION TOOL which will help you compare apples to apples between different job offers.
A job searcher with 2 years of experience as a financial analyst has received a job offer for an NYC company for $65000 and a $6000 annual bonus for $71,000 total compensation. Is this offer competitive?
The average figure at 10% is what a LOW experienced person is generally making as a Financial Analyst. Someone at this salary is paid lower than 90% of all other Financial Analysts. The average figure at 90% is a very HIGHLY experienced person, most likely over 10 years of experience. Someone at this salary is paid higher than 10% of all other reported Financial Analysts. The median figure is the AVERAGE salary for an experienced Financial Analyst, usually working for 3 – 5 years. "Minimum is the lowest or starting salary, usually for new graduates with the minimum level of experience. "Max" is the limit in terms of salary for what the job is worth. A person in the maximum salary range usually has an extremely high amount of experience performing the duties of the surveyed position.
$78,888 is roughly 3-5 years of financial analyst experience WITHOUT a bonus in New York City.
The job searcher has 2 years of experience so their salary should be somewhat approaching the midpoint of $78,888.
Users can search LinkedIn salaries by years of experience. Financial Analysts with 1 year of experience are reported at $70,000 in the NY Metro Area.
Salary.com reported an average annual bonus of $1,000 and LinkedIn reported that 31% of Financial Analyst respondents in NYC reported a $6000 average bonus.
SUMMARY: The bonus is competitive. The $60,000 offer is low and should be closer to the mid-70s. Formulate a counteroffer for salary negotiation.
Do you need help analyzing your salary offer? What have your experiences been? Have you ever been successful at your negotiations? I'd love to hear about your experiences. Elev8 Coaching offers programs for salary negotiation assistance. mid-70s. Follow me on LinkedIn and click the bell icon on my profile page to be notified of my career posts.
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