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Know rules to negotiate pay after long unemployment By Marcia Heroux Pounds, MCT News Service Are you close to a job offer? If you've been unemployed for several months or longer, you are likely at a disadvantage in negotiating salary. Knowing the rules of the game can help you navigate a competitive compensation package. "Whether out of work or not, don't talk about the compensation until you've been offered the position," said Joan Ciferri, president of David Wood Personnel in West Palm Beach, Fla. And, she said, "don't behave like you're more interested in the package than the job." Some recommendations: • Get the interviewer to tip his or her hand first on the salary budget. "Find out what range they have for the position. If they ask you what compensation you're looking for, turn it back on them: "What range do you have budgeted for the position?' " • Check salary info. Generally, unemployed job candidates in the recession have been offered less or equal to what they were making in a previous job. Look at salary information on the Bureau of Labor Statistics website, www.bls.gov, to gauge salary for different occupations. But consider the entire compensation package, not only the salary, Ciferri said. "Make a business decision, instead of an emotional decision," she said. One strategy is to offer your services for 90 percent of the midpoint in the pay range, said Barry Brown, president of Effective Resources, a consulting firm. Most employers have not updated their pay ranges for two years, so ask when the ranges were last updated, Brown said. • Come back on money. If offered less than the high end of the salary range, and there's another offer on the table, ask whether the salary can be addressed again. But, be aware, that's always a risk if there are other qualified candidates. Besides salary, there may be other forms of compensation including bonuses, health insurance premiums, subsidized child care services, a company match on your retirement savings, and extra mileage reimbursement or a gas card. • Try the midrange. There's also a case for being somewhere "in the middle" in changing economic times, Ciferri said. "Businesses are not making what they used to make and have had to cut staff, she said. "You don't want to go so far off the scale that you're the first one to go." Still, Brown counsels employers not to take too much advantage when hiring workers in these economic times. "They will be the first people to leave when things turn around," he said.
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