Salary Negotiation: The Numbers to Run Before You Say a Word

"We can offer 8% more" sounds like an answer, but it isn't one until you know 8% of what, landing where, after what comes out. Before you counter an offer or ask for a raise, run four numbers: the true hourly rate, the actual net increase, the market range, and total compensation. Here's how each one works.

Turn every offer into one comparable number: true hourly rate

Two salaried offers with the same headline number can require very different amounts of your life. A $75,000 role with 15 PTO days, a 40-hour culture, and no expected after-hours email is worth more per hour worked than a $78,000 role with 10 PTO days and a "we're all pretty available on weekends" culture. Neither offer states this — you have to back it out yourself.

The move is to convert both offers to an effective hourly rate using actual hours worked per year, not the nominal 2,080 (40 × 52) everyone defaults to. Subtract PTO and holidays from the 52 paid weeks (25 days is five weeks; 15 days is three), multiply by the hours you actually work in a week, and divide the salary by that.

The lower-salary offer is actually the better hourly deal once real hours are counted. Run your own numbers through the salary to hourly calculator before you compare two offers on the sticker price alone — it's built for exactly this conversion.

What a raise percentage is actually worth in your paycheck

A 5% raise does not put 5% more money in your checking account. Federal and state income tax, Social Security, Medicare, and any percentage-based 401(k) match all scale with the raise, so the number that hits your bank account is smaller than the headline figure — usually by roughly a quarter to a third, depending on your bracket and state.

This matters most when a raise is offered as an alternative to something with real cash value now — a signing bonus, extra PTO, or remote flexibility. A 4% raise that nets under $150 a month is easy to underrate against a one-time $3,000 signing bonus, which arrives with no bracket math attached at all. Run your specific number through the take-home pay calculator before you decide which is actually worth more — don't negotiate against the gross figure.

The market number: research before you name one

Anchoring a counter to a gut feeling is the most common negotiation mistake, and it goes both ways — asking for too little leaves money on the table for years, since most future raises are calculated as a percentage of current pay. Before naming a number, check what the role actually pays using two or three independent sources: a public pay-data site for your specific title and level, your industry's published salary surveys, and, if you can get it, real numbers from people who've done the job. A range built from multiple sources is far harder for an employer to wave away than a single figure you picked because it "felt fair."

Once you have a market range, the standard approach is to counter above the offer, not at your target — a counter of roughly 10–20% above an offer that's below the range you found, tapering toward the low single digits if the initial offer already sits near the middle of that range. The goal isn't to overreach; it's to leave enough room that a "yes, but not quite that much" still lands where you actually wanted to be.

Total compensation, not just the number on the offer letter

Base salary is the easiest line to compare, which is exactly why it's the one companies most often use to make a modest offer look competitive while the rest of the package quietly does the work. Before comparing two offers — or deciding whether a counter is worth pushing — total them properly.

The lower base salary is worth roughly $7,000 more per year once bonus, match, and benefits are added in — a gap that's invisible if you only compare the two headline numbers. Bonus targets aren't guaranteed the way salary is, so weight them accordingly rather than treating them as equivalent cash, but they still belong in the comparison.

If it's a different city: adjust for taxes before you compare

A raise or offer tied to relocation, or a remote role based in a different state, can look bigger or smaller than it is once state income tax is factored in. Moving from a state with no wage tax to one with a high top marginal rate can offset a meaningful chunk of a headline raise, and the reverse is also true — a modest raise attached to a move into a no-tax state can be worth more than it appears. Compare both offers' after-tax numbers, not their gross ones, using the take-home pay calculator with each state selected, before you decide how big a number to ask for.

This guide is for general education, not financial or legal advice. Pay ranges, tax rates, and negotiation norms vary by role, location, and year — confirm current figures and, for high-stakes negotiations, consider talking to someone who does this professionally.

Sources

Pay and benefit figures cited here come from US federal statistical sources:

• Bureau of Labor Statistics — Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics — median and percentile pay by occupation and metro area.
• BLS — Employer Costs for Employee Compensation — what benefits actually cost an employer, as a share of total compensation.
• IRS — 401(k) contribution limits — the annual employee deferral limit referenced when valuing a match.