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$tart $mart Facilitator Script

$tart $mart Workshop Setup

• Arrive at the location for the workshop at least 30 minutes before the workshop starts.

• Make sure that the audiovisual and computer equipment is working.

• Load the $tart $mart PowerPoint presentation and test your web connection. Pull up the websites and .

• Identify whiteboard, blackboard, or flip charts that you will use to write on throughout the workshop. Make sure there are markers or bring your own.

• Distribute the following materials to all participants:

o Student workbook

o Equal pay pins and pink bills

o Student contact form

o Pre-workshop survey

o Name tag

o Additional AAUW materials

• Start the workshop on time in order to get through all of the material.

NOTE: The script contains questions to ask the participants as well as tasks that you will be responsible for throughout the session.

Slide # 1 [pic]

Opening Remarks and Introduction [approximately 20 minutes]

Objective: Attendees will understand what the gender wage gap is, how it happens, and how it will affect them over their working lives.

Thank you for coming to this workshop. $tart $mart provides women students with knowledge and skills for negotiating salaries and benefits when approaching the job market so that they receive fair and realistic compensation.

The workshop was created by the WAGE Project and piloted on nine college campuses in fall 2007. In spring 2009, WAGE formed a collaborative agreement with the American Association of University Women (AAUW) to broaden our reach by training their members and others as $tart $mart Facilitators to deliver the program on campuses from coast to coast. More than three-hundred and fifty $tart $mart workshops have been conducted in more than forty-five states. Please refer to the information about both the WAGE Project and AAUW to learn more about these two organizations. You can find more info in the appendices of your student workbook.

Before we begin, please make sure you have completed the contact form and the pre-workshop survey.

TASK: If an AAUW member is present, please ask her or him to give a brief overview of the benefits of joining the organization.

TASK: Ask a volunteer in the room to collect all the contact forms and pre-workshop surveys.

Slide # 2 [pic]

Key Discussion Points for This Slide

$tart $mart is a workshop.

• This is not a theoretical lecture.

• You have to work hard to get the most out of this.

• Encourage the group to ask questions.

• This is a team effort—all of us together, engaging in work that can result in you walking out of here with the tools and skills to be wildly successful in negotiating your starting salary.

Slide # 3 [pic]

This workshop empowers you with information and skills.

• What the wage gap is and how it affects your long-term financial future

• How to benchmark a compensation package to your occupation and location

• How to negotiate

o Salary negotiation is not always easy, because it is not familiar behavior for women.

o Mastering the fundamentals of negotiation will help you to be successful.

• How to develop a “bare-bones” budget to negotiate a salary that covers your costs

This workshop focuses on figuring out what you’re worth doing a particular job. Follow all of these steps to be successful in getting the salary you deserve.

Slide #4 [pic]

The gender wage gap will affect you for the rest of your life.

• Know what the gender wage gap means to you personally.

• Understand how the wage gap happens.

• Learn why the wage gap happens.

Slide # 5 [pic]

Slide # 6 [pic]

Slide # 7 [pic]

Slide # 8 [pic]

AAUW’s groundbreaking research report Graduating to a Pay Gap revealed

• One year out of college, women working full time already earn significantly less than their male counterparts earn.

• The pay gap continues to widen the longer women are in the workforce.

What the gender gap means to you personally

• Translate that 23-cent gap into your paychecks.

• Once you do this, you will not forget it!

TASK: Hold the pink bills against a real dollar bill to show this differential to the participants.

Slide # 9 [pic]

The information for this slide comes from Doctor Evelyn Murphy’s Book Getting Even. Here’s what this means:

• A woman college graduate will earn approximately 1.2 million dollars less over her working life than the young man standing next to her getting the same degree at the same time.

• If you graduate with an MBA, law degree, or medical degree, the loss can be two million dollars over your career.

• That’s the personal cost of the wage gap to you.

QUESTION: What would you do with 1.2 or two million dollars over your working life?

TASK: Using the whiteboard, write down several responses from the participants. Call it their dream list.

• These are things you may have to do without because you are not paid fairly!

• Every time you hear “the gender wage gap,” I want you to say out loud, “I want my million dollars!”

• Let’s practice. I say, “The gender wage gap is 23 cents.” And you say, “I want my million dollars!”

Slide # 10 [pic]

How the wage gap happens

• Most women have no idea that they will lose a million dollars over their career compared with the man graduating along with them.

• You are never going see a BIG bite out of your paycheck.

• Little nicks, little setbacks, accumulate over time into the million-dollar loss.

Here’s an example:

• You get a job with a starting salary of thirty-five thousand dollars.

• Wow, you think, that’s a lot of money! I never dreamed I was worth that much. That’s more than my mom makes. Aren’t I lucky! Now suppose your best friend, a guy who is graduating with you, gets a job at the same company. They offer him thirty-nine thousand dollars. Hmmmm. “Well,” you think, “maybe he’s worth more. Besides, four thousand dollars isn’t much, considering how much I’m going to earn. I won’t say anything.”

Slide # 11 [pic]

• At the end of the first year, you and he get your performance evaluations. You both did well. So you both get a bonus for last year’s work. 

• The company’s policy is that bonuses are five percent of salary.

QUESTION: What are bonuses based on?

TASK: Wait for their answers.

Salary, of course!

Slide # 12 [pic]

• So, you get a one-thousand, seven-hundred and fifty dollar bonus.

• He gets one-thousand, nine-hundred and fifty dollars.

• For the last year’s work, with the same qualifications and experience, he earned four thousand, two hundred dollars more than you.

Slide # 13 [pic]

• Now, planning for the next year, the boss says about him: “He’s a go-getter, a hard-charger.”

• Note the way you are described as a “hard worker and steady,” which is a gendered description of your performance compared with his.

• The employer bumps his salary up to forty-four thousand dollars. They raise your salary all the way up to thirty-nine thousand dollars.

• You are making in your second year, with experience, the same as his starting salary, because raises are also based on salary.

Slide # 14 [pic]

• At the end of this year, you both get bonuses again.

• His is two-thousand, two hundred dollars, and yours is one thousand, nine-hundred and fifty dollars.

• The second year, you made five thousand, two hundred and fifty dollars less.

Slide # 15 [pic]

• In those two years, you earned almost ten thousand dollars less than he did with essentially the same skills, experience, and good performance reviews!

• Ten thousand dollars!

Slide # 16 [pic]

• Now, at the end of the second year, the boss looks at him and thinks, “He’s going places. He’s starting a family. He’s management material. We want to keep him over the long haul.”

• “We’ll put him into the management track, which starts paying at fifty-three thousand dollars a year.”

Slide # 17 [pic]

• You just told the boss that you are starting a family, and what happens?

• You’ve told the boss that you are going to work full time to the day before you have the baby and be back at work full time two months later because you are committed to this job, and your family needs the income. Management wants you to stay with them because you are good, so they’ll bump you up to forty-three thousand dollars but not into a management position!

Slide # 18 [pic]

Slide # 19[pic]

• Notice what’s happening? The longer you work, the bigger the difference between what you and he earn!

• It is difficult to get caught up when you start from behind.

• That’s how the wage gap happens. 

Slide # 20[pic]

Why the wage gap happens: You started at thirty-five thousand, and he started at thirty-nine thousand.

Slide # 21[pic]

• Both had essentially the same experience, qualifications, and responsibilities

• Gender biases (he’s hard-charging, which is valued, and you’re steady, which is less valued) and stereotyping (you’re probably going to go part time) kicked in.

• You are accumulating serious losses in your paychecks.

Slide # 22[pic]

• Gender biases and stereotyping set back practically every working woman financially.

• That’s wage discrimination.

• It’s been illegal since the ’60s!

So why don’t women take action?

• Often equate action with litigation and aren’t willing to take the risks

• Don’t act on it because these small inequities don’t seem worth the aggravation, risks, and expense of lawsuits

• Fear we may lose our jobs

Slide # 23[pic]

Women talk themselves out of taking any action on their own behalf. Here’s what we heard from women when WAGE did a national survey several years ago. Women rationalize not doing anything about this inequity because

• I didn’t think I was worth this much.

• I’m grateful to have a job offer.

• Why fuss and ask for more?

• I don’t need as much money to live on as he does!

Slide # 24[pic]

Don’t fool yourself. You need as much as he does to live a decent life.

Slide # 25[pic]

Statistically, women live longer than men and will need more money for retirement.

Slide # 26[pic]

• Here are additional comments from women who accepted a lower salary than a male friend at the start. But think about it:

o How did you know if this was the only job you could get?

o How did you know that this was the only salary they’d offer?

Slide # 27[pic]

• Don’t make these inequities about you.

• Your starting salary is about a job and what doing that job is worth to an employer.

• Your salary has nothing to do with what it costs you to live and nothing to do with whether or not you desperately need a job.

Don’t start any salary negotiation thinking this is all about you.

The tools of these workshops help you keep your focus on the job and will

• keep you grounded in facts (salary benchmarking), not emotion, and

• make your actions strategic.

Now you have the backdrop for the workshops: what the wage gap costs you, how it happens, and why it happens.

Next: On to what you can do to get your million dollars!

Benchmarking Section [approximately 45 minutes]

Objective: Attendees will understand how to access to learn about salary ranges and benefits, create a budget, and will determine their target and minimum salary and research their take-home pay using .

TASK: Ask the group about jobs they hope to do when they graduate, and make a list on the blackboard.

QUESTION:

• Where do you hope to do this job?

• What starting salary do you expect to earn for this job?

• How did you figure out this starting salary?

TASK: Summarize the job, the expected salary, and rationale for all three. Make observations such as

• The job titles are vague.

• You’re not sure whether the salaries are realistic or not since they were based on hearsay or guesses.

We’ve got some work to do: We need to take these notions of jobs and pay and turn them into objective data informed by the real world of work.

Slide # 28 [pic]

Benchmarking Your Salary

Step 1: Determine the right title.

Step 2: Know the salary range for the job in your location.

Step 3: Determine your target salary.

Step 4: Research market conditions.

Step 5: Benchmarking benefits.

Step 6: Develop a budget and calculate your minimum acceptable salary.

These are the steps we will follow to get prepared to go into a negotiation.

TASK: Exit the slideshow temporarily and prepare to use the blackboard and the web.

TASK: Open the web browser to to do the next section.

Get onto the website .

The WAGE Project is licensed with , and we will use the Salary Wizard information for this workshop.

Once on the WAGE Project’s website, click on the box marked “calculate what your job is worth.” This brings you directly to .

’s information about salaries for the city or zip code in which you want to work is only an approximation.

• National averages are based on specific wage information from tax records.

• Information is modified for cost of living and wage rates in each area.

• For free, you get approximate salary ranges in an area or zip code.

• For a fee, you get precise salaries from employers in that zip code.

You may, as you get closer to negotiating for a specific job, want to pay for more precise, up-to-date salary information. For now, these approximations provide valuable adjustments for the place you want to work.

In your notebooks, you have the pages of the site that I am going to use so that you can make notes about the steps in benchmarking your salary.

These pages will help you walk through this exercise on your own for the job you want.

We are using a model job today to walk you through the process.

Step 1: Determine the Right Title

The first step: Determine the right job title.

• Not some vague idea of a “kind of job”

• A clear understanding of what the job you want is called

• Use words to describe what you think you want to do.

NOTE: This is where you use the job title, location, and profile the school has provided. Explain to the group that you cannot do everyone’s job title, so the school has chosen a title to use as a model for this workshop.

Using the job title chosen for your workshop, go onto , and click on “calculate what your job is worth.”

Pull down the tab “select a job category” to find your chosen job title.

Select a job category and type in a location [you may need to use a zip code].

Click “search.”

There are lots of job titles under each category.

Scroll down to see which ones sound closest to your chosen job title.

If there are multiple titles such as Accountant I, II, III, list two side by side and have students observe the qualifications listed and choose the title that best fits their credentials.

Clicking on “view job details” gives complete information on each title.

Refer to the titles selected in their workbook.

TASK: Have students discuss which title best fits an entry-level applicant, and select the title.

Now, on to what employers are paying people who do this job.

Step 2: Know the Salary Range Where You Plan to Work

NOTE: Again, customize to the school’s chosen location and job title.

Click on “view salary info” in the green box.

A bell curve will appear showing the range from low-range (10 percent to 25 percent), mid-range (25 percent to 75 percent), and high-range(75 percent to 90 percent).

The twenty-fifth to seventy-fifth percentile is what an employer is likely to use as a reasonable salary to offer you.

If you are qualified for this job, start somewhere in that range.

It is important to know the salary range in the market where you want to work.

If you only take the national average for that job title, you could be over- or underpricing yourself.

Don’t shortchange yourself by not knowing the salaries in your marketplace.

It’s important to understand that this information about salaries for the zip code in which you want to work is only an approximation.

For now, these approximations provide valuable adjustments for the place where you want to work.

TASK: Write the job title on the board, and the 25–75th percentile salary range next to the job title.

Step 3: Determine Your Target Salary

NOTE: Facilitators will need to create a student profile with the help of the campus contact to coincide with the job title the school chose.

Now I know the salary range for my job title. How do I decide where within that range my target starting salary will be?

Keep in mind what twenty-five percent, seventy-five percent, and median mean.

• Twenty-five percent means that twenty-five percent of the people holding this job are paid less than this amount.

• Half the people with this job earn the median or less, and three-quarters earn seventy-five percent or less.

So, where in this range do you fit?

Refer to the Student Profile that was created for this workshop. It is in your student workbook.

Take a look at the details of the job requirements.

Figure out how the skills, experience, and qualifications match, exceed, or underqualify for each of these requirements.

Be honest, and don’t be modest.

TASK: Let students determine where the target salary should be, discussing their answers with the class after they have read everything. Write down answers on the board.

Now, with all that analysis of my experience compared with the job specifications, where in the salary range should I set my target salary? 

TASK: Write the agreed-upon salary figure on the blackboard.

Step 4: Research Market Conditions

NOTE: Direct students’ attention to this information in their workbooks.

The next step is to research the market conditions in the specific locale where you want to work.

Here’s what you need to consider:

• The overall economic conditions of the area, the demographics, and special conditions that might have a bearing on your particular industry.

• Who is the competition for the organization with whom you hope to work?

• How is the health of your potential employer?

• Is the business expanding in the local economy?

• Is my field vulnerable?

Where to find answers

• Business sections of local newspaper

• Internet and Google

• Business publications

• Local chamber of commerce

Ascertain the overall condition of local vitality, especially in your field.

Remember, information learned from this research will be helpful in your salary negotiation.

Now you know what salary you’re shooting for and why. You’ve got rational, fact-based arguments that you can discuss with an employer. You can make an informed case for a salary that you consider reasonable, fair, and justified.

Step 5: Benchmarking Your Benefits

TASK: Continue in the web browser for the next section.

There’s one other aspect to benchmarking your salary, and that is to benchmark your benefits.

Click on the “benefits” tab on the salary range page.

Notice that benefits add significantly to your salary.

When you take a job, you’re actually earning a “compensation package” with two parts, salary and benefits.

Benefits are mostly calculated off your salary—the bigger your salary, the more benefits are worth, too.

Like your salary, benefits may be somewhat negotiable. So, it’s important to give your benefits the same objective analysis as your salary.

We’ll get back to this after you’ve negotiated your salary.

Step 6: Develop a Budget and Calculate Your Minimum Acceptable Salary

In benchmarking your salary, you need to do one final calculation. You need to figure out what is a minimum acceptable salary.

This is important for you to always keep in mind. It’s the salary you need for bare-bones monthly expenses.

Research what costs are in the area where you hope to work.

Be realistic. Consider all possible costs.

TASK: Have attendees work in groups and develop a monthly budget for the area where the job is to take place. Write all suggested expenses and amounts on the board. Prompt them, but go with their suggestions!

• Rent

• Utilities (heat, water, electricity)

• Personal utilities (cell phone, Internet, cable TV)

• Student loans

• Food

• Transportation (car or public transportation, if available)

• Miscellaneous (toiletries, cosmetics, haircuts, dry cleaning, health club)

• Clothing

• Entertainment (movies, eating out, concerts)

• Other!

Add up the budget items. Have a calculator with you or have students use smartphones to add up budget items. Write the total budget amount on the board.

TASK: Pull up

Now, we’ll go to a new website to calculate our take-home pay! This is free!

In the web browser, type in . Once there, click on “salary paycheck calculator.”

Once you’re here, input these three items:

• The state where you will be working

• The gross pay that you have determined

• Enter your pay frequency as monthly

Click “calculate.”

There are other items you can fill in, but for today’s workshop we will only use these.

Now you have your monthly take-home pay.

Compare this to your budget!

What is the minimum salary you can accept?

This is bare-bones living. And that’s what you need to keep in mind whenever you think you’ll just settle for whatever you can get.

Congratulations! Now you know how to benchmark the salary and benefits for your first job after graduation.

NOTE: Blackboard should show job title, salary range, target salary

benefits, budget, and minimum acceptable salary

Take a 5–10 minute break

Negotiation Section [approximately 40 minutes]

Objective: Attendees will understand the importance of their benchmarking research and how to use tone, tactic, and tips in the actual negotiation.

Slide # 29[pic]

The two most important principles of salary negotiation:

• Do not discuss salary until you have received a job offer!

• Know what you are worth in the marketplace (benchmarking), and be prepared to justify it in the salary discussion.

Slide # 30[pic]

Let’s start with the all-important question: When does salary negotiation begin?

• Salary negotiation starts only after you’ve been offered a job. Not before.

• There is nothing to negotiate until you have a job offer.

• WHEN you have the job offer, that means they want YOU. You have an advantage.

Slide # 31[pic]

Now, let’s step back and set the scene for salary negotiations with three T’s: tone, tactics, and tips.

Slide # 32[pic]

You can and should set the tone in any discussion about your salary.

Be positive.

Salary negotiation is a discussion. It is

• A conversation about your qualifications and the employer’s needs.

• An opportunity for you to find out more about this potential employer to see if this is a good fit.

Negotiate with the proper attitude and demeanor.

Never make demands.

Always say you are hoping for more instead of expecting more.

Be persuasive.

You’ve done your homework, and you know your worth in the marketplace.

• Put all your analyses and research to use.

• Focus on objective criteria.

• It’s hard for the interviewer to disagree with the facts you’ve assembled and with your objectivity.

• An interviewer will be impressed that you have done homework. It’s a sign that you are seriously interested in the job.

Be flexible.

You have done your homework.

• You know what you want (target)

• You know what you need (minimum).

Be flexible in thinking about how to get to your target.

• Listen to and understand the employer’s needs.

• Brainstorm about ways to meet your goals and their needs.

• Remember, their needs may not be only about money.

• They may need you to start working immediately or to work during particular times or at particular offices.

Listen carefully.

Keep in mind why these aspects of tone are critical to your success.

Slide # 33[pic]

The next fundamentals are the tactics.

Tactic 1: Never be the first to name a salary figure—even before the salary negotiation process starts.

Leave it blank on an application, if possible. If asked why you left that blank, tell the interviewer that you’re more interested in doing (whatever work you’d be doing) at (that specific company) than you are in the initial offer.

What if an application or job advertisement requests a salary requirement?

• Avoid the salary issue altogether.

• Ignore the request for salary requirement or history. Say your salary requirement is negotiable. Say you expect to earn market value for someone in your field or for someone with your educational background.

• “My research says the salary range is between ____ and ____ for someone with my qualifications, education, and skills.”

If the interviewer presses you to name a figure before you’ve got a job offer, it is up to you to remind her or him that you are interested in continuing to discuss the job itself until she or he decides to offer you the job. Then you will consider accepting the offer.

Slide # 34[pic]

Here are some options for putting off salary discussion.

Ask students to refer to options for putting off discussion of salaries in the workbook. Information on that is on the next page. Ask for any of their ideas.

Slide # 35[pic]

OK, now let’s say you’ve gotten a job offer and the salary negotiation process has begun. The interviewer says

• “What salary are you expecting?” or

• “What kind of salary do you need?” or

• “So you must have a salary figure in mind.”

Again, you need to avoid being the first to put out a figure.

Instead, you say something like, “I’ll consider any reasonable offer.”

She or he tries again, “Come on, you must have some salary you’re expecting.”

And you say, “You’re in a much better position to know how much I am worth to you than I am.”

It is important for you to come up with other lines if you think you need more.

These tactics are important.

You are signaling that you understand that salary negotiation is a process when you use words like “initial” offer and that you’ll “consider any reasonable offer.”

You have just established with the interviewer your competence in an area not reflected on your résumé—that you are serious about and committed to your career from the first day on the job!

Think for a minute about the sensibility of not being the first to put out a salary figure. If you’re too low, you’ll get hired below your worth and lose a lot of money.

If you’re too high, the employer may think you are greedy and care more about the money than about doing a good job.

Wait for the employer to be the first to talk about a salary figure. Then you can respond with your value.

If the employer insists you give a number, then say “my research tells me that someone with my skills, education, and qualifications should be making _______.”

Aim a little above your target salary to give yourself negotiating room. That way, you’ve started with reasoned, justified facts. You let the employer know that you are informed and expect to be paid fairly.

Be prepared with your responses.

Show that you are informed and expect to be paid fairly!

Slide # 36[pic]

Tactic 2: Aim high AND be realistic when you name your salary expectations.

Researchers have found a strong correlation between people’s aspirations and the results they achieve in negotiation.

Perhaps you aim even a little higher than your target. You know that you can clearly justify your target.

Perhaps the interviewer sees something else in your résumé and in your interview that adds to your case even though you had not thought of it.

Be flexible. Aim a little higher. Stretch your target goal a little. See what happens.

This is where your analysis and researching in benchmarking your target pay off.

Slide # 37[pic]

Tactic 3: Anticipate the employer’s interests, and base your salary negotiations on your competitive market value.

Determine your value to the prospective employer.

Know how you will contribute to the profitability of the employer’s company.

Negotiating is about understanding what the other side needs.

Show the interviewer a level of career sophistication that’s not on your résumé.

The employer has interests that you can acknowledge because you did your homework on the company beforehand.

Find the company’s website. Look at its annual report. Google to see if it has been in the news lately. Know the company’s goals, products, current business condition, and marketplace.

Talk specifically about how you would fit into the company’s business.

Make your case for your specific contribution to the company from the day you start to work there. Talk in details, not generalities. 

TASK: Let the group make suggestions of what they would say back to the interviewer.

Choose your examples before the salary negotiation, and then be ready to talk in carefully crafted illustrations.

Slide # 38[pic]

Here are three tips you need to keep in mind.

1. You have to sell yourself.

Don’t assume the interviewer has translated your experiences into your value to the organization.

Talk about how your experience brings value to the business. Give an example.

Talk about your work ethic and your ability to work with people. Give another example. Talk specifics.

The person negotiating your salary may not even be the person you negotiated with originally, so you may have to do this all again!

2. Anticipate objections.

TASK: Ask the group to consider what objections might be raised and how they might respond.

3. Don’t bring your personal life into a salary negotiation, no matter how urgent your personal needs may be. The employer doesn’t care that you have student loans to pay off or that you’re financially supporting an elderly parent.

Be careful of “oversharing” through Facebook, blogs, outgoing voicemail greetings, and texts!

Slide # 39[pic]

Your salary will be based on what the hirer assesses is your capability to get the job done, the company’s budget, market rates for your job, and your ability to successfully negotiate for a higher salary.

TASK: Refer to the Questions an Employer Cannot Ask You page in the appendix of their workbooks.

Slide # 40[pic]

Here’s what is important about the salary negotiation process: By the time this salary discussion starts, you are already prepared. The benchmarking work was the preparation. Let’s review.

1. You determined the salary range for this job in the place where you’ll be working.

2. You’ve developed a target salary you believe reflects how well you meet the job specifications.

3. You may have adjusted that target salary for market conditions.

4. You know the minimum acceptable salary you can accept.

5. You know the value of a reasonable benefits package for your job.

Salary is mutually agreed upon with your employer.

You can actually say no if the negotiation does not go well. You hold the power!

This is where your positive attitude, your persuasiveness, your flexibility, and your tone give you confidence in the value you can deliver to this employer.

Slide # 41[pic]

Listen carefully to EXACTLY what the interviewer says.

“This is what the job pays” or “here’s our offer” is VERY different from “here’s the only offer we will make.” The first two statements start a process. The latter could be an ending.

Let’s take the last statement first. Don’t assume that it’s over, even if the interviewer says something as clear-cut as “this is our offer—take it or leave it.”

Remember, they offered you the job. They want you. You can always get the last word on whether or not to accept their offer. 

So your testing statement might be, “My research on pay scales for this job in this area led me to believe that I would be offered a little [or considerably] more to start. Is that at all possible?”

You have to decide whether or not to take the job ... or you may say, “I had hoped for more money. I’d like to think about this and get back to you tomorrow. Will that be all right?” Again, who knows? Maybe the interviewer will reconsider and up the starting salary. If not, tomorrow you’ll have to decide whether or not to take the offer.

Slide # 42[pic]

Now, let’s consider the other opening line. The interviewer said, “Here’s the starting salary for this job.” You listened carefully, and you know that the interviewer has started a discussion.

How does the dollar amount of the offer fit with your benchmarking?

• The offer is below your minimum acceptable salary.

• The offer is above the minimum but below the target salary.

• The offer meets your target salary.

• The offer is above your target.

Your response to all these possibilities is the same: Pause, reflect, and do not respond immediately—no matter whether the salary is insultingly low or beyond your wildest dreams. Take your time.

If the interviewer cannot get above your minimum acceptable salary, be prepared to walk away.

Thank the interviewer; repeat how much you wanted to accept the job offer but that you cannot accept that salary. As you leave, you may get another offer. Or you may not. Always be professional!

If the offer exceeds the minimum acceptable salary but is below your target, you need to engage in a discussion reminding the interviewer about your value to the company.

If the offer meets your target salary or exceeds it, pause and think about what you’ve just heard.

See if the interviewer will raise the stakes or not. Keep in mind that salaries for entry-level positions usually have narrow bands for negotiation.

Be sure to thank the employer for the offer and then direct the discussion to the next topic: “Can we discuss the benefits package?”

Pay attention to your comfort level as the offer is made.

• Was the employer aggressive or unprofessional?

• Were you uncomfortable at any time in the interview?

• Are your values consistent with those of the organization?

You spend a major part of your day and life at work, so make sure you will be comfortable in your new position.

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Your tendency is to be so glad that someone is offering you a job that you accept whatever they offer with a smile.

• The employer is choosing you, not your price. They really want to hire you! They think you’ll make or even save them money!

• You must have the ability to do the work, or they wouldn’t be making you an offer.

• If you think you have little experience, remember the other qualities that make you successful.

• Their hiring decision is based largely on your personality, enthusiasm, and transferable skills. Since they can’t teach manners and common sense, they hire it.

Okay, let’s assume you’ve got an acceptable salary offer. Now it’s time to talk about your benefits before you shake hands on that offer.

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Ask for the benefits package offered by your new employer

Review the list and find out the amount of financial support your employer gives you for each one. 

Once you’ve done that, add up the value of all your benefits and compare the sum with the norm from your information about your job title and location.

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If the total value of your benefits is about the same or exceeds the norm from your salary research, good! You know you’ve guaranteed yourself a strong starting compensation package.

If you heard anything in this discussion about benefits that leads you to think that the employer might add a little more to sweeten the package, go back to that benefit and ask if the employer could perhaps add another week of paid vacation or a small signing bonus.

What if the value of your benefits is MUCH smaller than the norm on ?

The employer may have a legitimate reason for not offering much in benefits. A small startup company may not be able to afford benefits until its sales build up. On the other hand, the employer may just be trying to skimp on benefits.

Whatever reason the employer has for not offering competitive benefits is NOT your concern.

What you care about is that, if you went elsewhere, you could probably get this same job with a lot more value in benefits tied to your salary.

You don’t want to be penalized for the employer’s inadequacies—unless, after you’ve thoroughly explored options that would compensate you for these losses, you make an informed decision to forgo additional value in your benefits.

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Determine what it will take to make an unacceptable offer acceptable and what items are negotiable:

Nonmonetary: title, training and education, access to technology, promised review dates, travel assignments, home equipment usage, extra week of vacation

Near-monetary: benefits, overtime or comp time, company car, travel awards, relocation assistance, expense coverage, dental or optical insurance, on-site, free child care

TASK: Expand the discussion on the nonmonetary and near-monetary items in bold.

Use the balance-sheet technique to decide whether to accept

• List reasons for accepting.

• Be creative. There are ways to both make up for a benefits shortfall and advance your status (promotion and salary) quickly.

TASK: Ask attendees to make suggestions of how they would make up for a benefits shortfall.

Signing bonuses, relocation expenses, faster promotions, larger bonuses for performance—these are ways to negotiate for the equivalent of the traditional benefits your employer is not offering you or other employees.

Read negotiation books. Find other options. New options are constantly being proposed. You just need to stay informed.

Other suggestions:

TASK: Tell the students there are other suggestions in the workbook.

• Dental insurance. This is not included in most medical plans, so you may want this coverage. It’s gaining in popularity and is often offered at a cheaper rate than you could get on your own.

• Optical insurance. Eye exams, glasses or contact lenses, and other eye-related issues are not covered by most medical plans, so you might want a separate plan.

• What kind of salary progression would be expected in the first three-to-five years? What is the average range of raises? Are there performance-based raises and bonuses?

• Life insurance. This is something we often don’t like to think about, but many organizations provide basic term coverage, which you can supplement to provide more coverage for your family.

• Accidental death insurance. This is important especially for dangerous jobs but really for any employee.

• Business travel insurance. If you travel a lot for the job, it’s wise to have extra coverage, just in case.

• Disability insurance. There are actually two kinds of disability insurance: short term (up to six months) and long term (beyond six months). You should really take advantage of this insurance.

• Vacation days. Most organizations have a system based on level in the organization and years with the organization. Entry-level workers often start with a week or two of paid vacation.

• Paid holidays. Most organizations also have certain holidays when they are closed for business and pay their employees for the day off (such as Thanksgiving, New Year’s, Labor Day).

• Pension plans. Employers contribute to plans that accumulate over time but may also require you to be employed a certain period of time to be fully “vested.”

• Sick or personal days. Most organizations give employees a certain number of paid sick or personal days per year.

• Profit sharing. If you are working for a growing and profitable organization, profit-sharing programs can offer you great year-end bonuses based on the success of the organization or your division.

• Stock options or employee stock-ownership plans. These are plans that allow employees to purchase company stock options at below-market prices.

• Tuition reimbursement. Organizations that want to encourage their employees to gain further education and training offer some form of partial or complete tuition reimbursement.

• Health clubs. Some organizations get a group discount to health clubs and country clubs for their employees.

• Dependent care. Some employers offer a plan for employees to deduct pre-tax income for care of dependents. Others subsidize (or even offer) child care.

• Employee-assistance programs. Some employers offer free or low-cost counseling to employees for dealing with situations such as substance abuse and marital or family problems.

• Overtime, travel premiums, and comp time. Many organizations offer some compensation for employees who work past normal hours—whether at the office or while traveling on business.

• Parking and commuting reimbursement. These are perks that not many get, but some companies do offer various benefits related to commuting.

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When the offer is made, ask questions that have not yet been answered.

• What are the promotional opportunities of this position?

• To what position or level?

• How and when will my performance be reviewed?

• Will this include a salary review?

• What kind of salary progression would be expected in the first three-to-five years?

Do not accept the final salary offer until you have considered the benefits package too. Once you have everything in writing, ask for time to consider the entire compensation package.

Once you’ve satisfied yourself that you’ve got acceptable benefits, that’s it. You get to shake hands in agreement for the compensation package and sign a contract! Be sure to ask for the complete job offer in writing! Great job!

Role-Play Exercise and Debrief [approximately 45 minutes]

Objective: This section allows participants to practice the skills they just learned.

Now it’s time to put into practice what you learned so far. Each one of you is going to participate in a role-playing exercise—either as a job applicant or as the employer. Both of you will get the same thing out of this exercise—but only if you work at it!

Pair up with a partner, someone you don’t know, and decide who will be the employer and the job applicant.

Read your script. Read it thoroughly. Get fully into your character. These scripts are deceptively brief, but each script contains many details that you need to use in order to be most effective. So concentrate hard for the next five minutes on your character.

Applicants: Write down the points you want to make to explain how your experience and your qualifications have value for the company: Write down the sequence in which you intend to raise these points. Understand why this sequence is important in building the case for your worth. This is strategic planning for your salary negotiation. Write down the precise language you want to use to make these points so you know you will be professional and persuasive.

Employers: Write down what arguments you need to hear to adjust the salary offer. Write down the language that will be important for you to hear to be persuaded of her value.

TASK: After five minutes, tell the attendees to go off to a secluded part of the room or the hallway and sit opposite their partners. Urge them to take the full 10 minutes to do the negotiation. Tell them that if they settle out before that time, they haven’t fully explored the negotiation process. At the end, reconvene to see what happened in each pairing.

Remember, you can only test what you have absorbed in the last couple of hours if you fully engage in your role.

It is easy to treat this role-playing casually, but the only person who loses by that behavior is you.

Debriefing of the Role-Play Exercise

TASK: When most pairs are finished, stop the negotiation. Ask each couple whether or not they settled on a starting salary. If yes, write that salary on the blackboard.

Start with the highest salary agreed to and ask the two participants to explain how they arrived at this figure. Ask the employer what made her raise the salary for the applicant. Ask the applicant what she felt she had done well. Write on the blackboard the outlines of the process they went through, including the key phrases in their language that got them to the salary figure.

Move through the group until you get to the lowest salary, and ask them to explain the process by which they arrived at their figure. Ask the employer and applicant what could have been done better. Write on the blackboard what they can learn from the debrief.

Do not analyze the employer’s effectiveness at all. That’s not the point of this workshop.

Ask for couples who did NOT reach a salary agreement to raise their hands. Write down the outline of the process they went through, including key phrases.

Ask the class to critique what the applicant could have done to keep the negotiation going and reach an agreement.

Ask the audience to applaud for each pair!

Let me summarize some key features of these negotiations.

TASK: Point out on the blackboard examples from this discussion that document how an interviewee did the following:

• Handled discussion with tones that were persuasive, flexible, and positive

• Employed tactics that made objective arguments

• Aimed high and were realistic

• Didn’t initiate salary expectations

• Took initiative to sell their case

• Didn’t personalize the discussion

• Understood the employer’s needs and anticipated objections

Wrapup [approximately five minutes]

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Before we close, let’s go over a few final tips.

First, pay attention to your résumé.

A strong résumé is essential, and this takes work too. Check with the college career office for guidance in putting together a top-quality résumé.

Pay the same kind of attention to detail in creating your résumé as you did in benchmarking your salary.

Keep it updated even after you get the job, adding important successes as they happen.

Second, once you $tart $mart, remember that every step along the way, you need to focus on your employer as well as your own performance.

Find out immediately about promotions—what kinds of jobs are next steps with your employer, when you can be considered for promotion, what you have to do to get there, and what the salary is for those jobs.

Find out about raises for the job you hold.

Also, observe the financial health of the organization. Is it stable, or are there troubles? Should you be looking for other employment?

Take care of your financial health.

You don’t need to think about your earnings every day, but you do need to pay attention.

Take courses, and learn about finances and investment opportunities.

Stay within your budget, and don’t take on more debt than you can handle.

At the back of your workbooks are take-home materials (employment information, suggestions of websites, and books). Please look through them for additional ideas and resources. You will also find information about the WAGE Project and AAUW. We encourage you to e-mail us your experiences in salary negotiation at .

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Today’s economy has been described as the worst since the Great Depression. I know you want jobs, and you may be inclined to take anything just to have a job.

But stop! It is important to remember, in whatever job you are offered, that you ask for and receive a fair and equitable salary.

We will continue this terrible wage gap if we do not ask for what is fair and just!

Today you learned how to $tart $mart. Remember, now more than ever, we need that MILLION DOLLARS!

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TASK: Get feedback from the group on what resonated for them in the presentation. Ask them what was their “aha” moment. Write great thoughts on the board.

Thank you once again for participating in this workshop. Good luck.

Before you leave, please complete the post-workshop evaluation. Your completion of this evaluation will ensure that we can continue to improve this workshop for future students.

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