Salary negotiation can come up in two situations, and many times over a career in business:
- You currently work at a startup or scale-up and you believe you deserve a pay rise. You therefore want to negotiate a new salary with your manager, the founders or HR, and get a raise
- You are in a recruitment process with one or more startups. You are discussing salary during your interviews, or you have already received a job offer that you would like to negotiate.
In both cases, there are key things to know to negotiate your salary well. You need to do some groundwork so that you arrive prepared for the final negotiation with your current or future employer. Here is our advice to help you reach your salary goals.
Know the job market and average salaries
Whether or not you are already in a job, you need to know the market. Without that knowledge, you cannot negotiate credibly. You will need to find out what people with similar backgrounds, experience and roles are paid. Make sure you assess salaries at organisations and companies similar to yours. Depending on a startup’s maturity and sector, the salaries offered can vary drastically. Bear in mind that salaries can also be very different depending on the city (between Paris and other French cities in particular).
We have published a study on startup salaries in France that lets you see where you stand based on your role and years of experience (for permanent roles, known as CDI in France). This study takes into account the sharp rise in salaries in the French recruitment market in recent months. Ideally, if you know what the team in question is paid, that will be a significant advantage for you.
With this knowledge of the market, you will be able to make a real case during the interview, backed by comparisons with other employees. It will also let you revise your expectations (downwards or upwards), with a precise view of what is currently being paid in the startup market.
Set your salary goals
Starting from a market benchmark, you need to set yourself goals:
- What is the target salary I am aiming for?
- What is the minimum salary below which I will not go, whatever the job offer?
You therefore need to define a salary range between your minimum and your ideal target, taking into account the full package on offer (see next point).
If you are a recent graduate, you can rely on surveys published by your school on graduates’ average starting salaries. Also talk to people you know who took the same programme.
Take the full package on offer into account
Depending on the offer, make sure you take the whole package into account. Many candidates tend to consider only the gross annual base salary without looking at everything the company offers, and so overlook significant benefits:
- Is there a variable component? What are the targets? Are they achievable? This is very important for sales and business development roles. Beyond the maximum variable pay (whether capped or uncapped), what matters is assessing the targets needed to earn it, so that you can compare two job offers from two different companies
- Does the company offer equity or BSPCE (French startup stock warrants) to employees? This is often the case for young startups and C-level roles…
- What are the additional benefits?
- What is the remote working policy?
- …
Beyond the base salary, you need to weigh up the other components of pay: variable pay, signing bonus, BSPCE, benefits in kind…
Talk about salary with the person interviewing you
It seems obvious, but many candidates and recruiters avoid the subject throughout the entire recruitment process. The basic rule is to raise it at least once.
If you are in a job interview or a recruitment process, you can mention your current or previous salary to give a baseline. The company will usually try to offer you more. There are exceptions, however, when candidates are leaving particularly well-paid sectors or career paths: strategy or management consulting, banking, finance… For these candidates, knowing startup salaries is especially important to gauge where they stand and set reasonable salary expectations.
Invite the recruiter to share the budget and salary range
It can be strategically useful to find out the range by inviting the recruiter, or the person you are speaking with, to state the proposed budget first. This will tell you whether what you are aiming for is above their range. If so, you will need to address it and try to push the top of the range upwards. It may also give you the pleasant surprise of an offer above your hopes and expectations!
Build a solid case
You need a solid, precise and factual case:
- If you already work at the company in question, talk about your performance over recent months with key metrics. If your responsibilities have changed (managerial role, wider scope…), you can also point to this to show that you now deserve a higher salary, and so get a raise
- If you are in a recruitment process, highlight your experience, your past results and how you can solve the company’s problems. Perhaps you have key skills that are rare on the market and give you an undeniable advantage over other candidates
- Do not hesitate to draw comparisons using the information you gathered during your preparation.
If you are frequently approached by recruiters or headhunters, or you have recently had job interviews with other companies, you can also mention (subtly) the offers you have received. Be careful, however, not to slip into “blackmail”: “If you don’t give me a raise, I’m leaving”. This could damage your relationship with your manager or colleagues.
Beyond salary negotiation, you can find all our advice on startup job interviews on our blog. That article lists many tips that can help you in your job search and land your dream job at a startup.
