Q. I have two years experience working in newspapers as a graphic artist/copy editor. I had a job lined up to work in a major city at a smaller newspaper (circulation around 35,000). It basically came down to the pay and eventually fell through. They originally offered me $15/hour.
I had read up on how to “negotiate” and so figured that they were expecting me to come back with a counter offer. Instead of being flexible, they “thought about it” for about 10 days, then got back to me to tell me they weren’t interested anymore.
But no matter. I still think you will have room to negotiate — if you feel the offer from the new paper is too low. If you think the offer is fair and the opportunity good, there is nothing wrong with accepting it.
Employers have a lot more salary data than we do. To begin with, they know what they pay everyone on staff and where you would fit in. Some also subscribe to services that pool salary data from many employers.
But you are not without resources. Here are three places where you can look up salaries by job title and location. Use all three to see what the range is:
- Salary.com
- Indeed.com
- The Newspaper Guild’s salary calculator. In your particular case, you also know what a smaller company in the same market pays. You should expect more from a larger company.
Good luck.
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Coming Wednesday: Join me and Poynter’s Colleen Eddy for a live chat at 1 p.m. ET. We’ll address the question: When Is a Cut in Compensation a Good Idea?”