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Comment by grepfru_it | Hacker News Reader

1. Look on glassdoor, indeed, whatever site you want to use to find out salary expectations in your role/area

2. When asked, give this number as your desired target, but a lot of times they ask about old pay. if the old pay differs greatly, avoid the topic by pointing out how 'the old job requirements are different, benefits are different, etc. But if they press on this number, tell them, don't lie or completely avoid it

3. Assume the hiring manager has 15% over the offer amount. this amount may also impact your future raises, so it may be better to cap your ask at 10%. but don't be afraid to go ham asking more for starting bonus, longer vacation, golden parachute, etc

4. Good luck!

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Nice list. Check if asking about salary history is banned. It is in 21 states. https://www.hrdive.com/news/salary-history-ban-states-list/5...

Some of these bans only affect state agencies, the city, or special cases.

Even if a company asks, you can say no. I’ve never revealed this info and never will. You are giving them a free negotiating card. It doesn’t serve your interests at all.

You can always choose some qualitative attribute or perk about your job, just like businesses use, and put a monetary value on that to you. The value becomes subjective and you can use that as a reference if you decide you do want to disclose or inflate your salary to negotiate higher for a new position. This is more difficult if the person happens to be familiar with a given businesses rates but businesses are often so secretive about comp rates (for their own advantage) that even management within companies may not know how much you're paid.

Agreed. It doesn't matter at all if asking is banned. Just learn how to talk around the question (not difficult), and always refuse to reveal previous salary.

I like that advice.

It appears to matter in practice. Perhaps some people are struggling to talk around the question.

> A study published in June 2020 from researchers at Boston University’s School of Law found that, following the implementation of salary history bans, workers who changed jobs saw their pay increase by 5 percent more than comparable workers who changed jobs in the absence of a ban, with even larger benefits for women and African Americans.

https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/women/reports/2021/0...

Sometimes it’s okay. Like when you made a metric ass ton at your last job and you know they can’t match that number.

Now you get to negotiate fridays off, 2 months of vacation, and a golden parachute of $X per year worked. Everyone is mad at CEOs but I once negotiated a $25k golden parachute for when I left, _just to see if it was possible_

> a lot of times they ask about old pay

Been in the industry 25 years and never once agreed to disclose my previous pay. Don’t do it. Ever. It’s none of their business and will only be used against you.

They can just get it through a one of the many private spy/surveillance agencies (one of the credit bureaus, for instance) if they really care.

Credit bureaus do not know your salary unless you’ve reported it to them (and why would you do that?)

You may have told your bank at some point, maybe when getting a loan or something, and I doubt they wouldn't share that with a credit agency.

I'll disclose it if I'm concerned I'll get lowballed. Ends the discussion pretty quickly.

Don’t use Glassdoor for tech. They are almost always incorrect since they are salary focused. Use levels.fyi which understands total compensation

Correct. And assume levels is old data at this point. And don’t be shocked, people really make that much.

Blind can be another good resource

I discovered Blind recently and agree it's an awesome resource.

That site names salaries almost 50-100k higher than what I see on other salary sites in Canada. Does the site only aggregate top paying companies, or is the Canadian tech sector actually way more robust than I thought?

The Canadian tech sector has completely changed over the past 5 years (which is when I first came to Canada). When I first got here, $100k+ salaries were rare unless you were very senior or at a select few companies. I am now looking for a job in Toronto after working for a FAANG for a few years and often see companies offering over $200k for mid-level positions. However I will say that level.fyi is a little unrepresentative because it's mainly people with impressive TCs posting on there.

If you look at the details on levels.fyi, you tend to see a bell-curve, just as you might expect if you had a representative sample.

Compensation really is as high as levels.fyi suggests, and even higher once stock growth is factored.

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