Dive Brief:
- Employers are broaching the subject of salary expectations earlier in interviews to streamline the hiring process, according to staffing firm Robert Half. The move is due at least in part to the salary history bans being passed by state and local governments. Those laws have removed a long-standing question from the start of the hiring process and forced employers and job seekers to shift their approach to determining compensation, the firm says.
- Robert Half also found during a recent survey that only 39% of job finalists tried to negotiate a higher salary than the one offered. Negotiators also tended to be young (age 18 to 34) and male, and they're most likely to live in New York.
- When asked how comfortable they were talking with their employer about money, survey respondents said they were more comfortable negotiating a higher salary with a new employer (54%) than they were asking for a raise in their current job (49%). Robert Half polled 2,700 U.S. workers.
Dive Insight:
Between salary history bans and workers' desire for transparency, it makes sense that employers may be shifting the pay discussion earlier in the hiring processes. And instead of basing pay on an applicant's past compensation, employers are increasingly auditing their pay practices and basing salaries on, among other factors, market data.
When it comes to negotiating, employers also are recognizing that employee requests may correlate with factors like gender. Negotiating a higher salary with a new employer or asking a current employer for a raise is stressful for many workers. But the stakes are higher for women, who are less likely than men to ask for more money and less likely than men to get it when they do. Women also tend to ask for less money than men.
