Walking into salary negotiations without data is one of the most expensive mistakes you can make. Here's how to get good numbers.
Salary negotiation starts with salary research, and most people do it badly. They Google "average salary for [job title]" and take the first number they find, or they ask around their network and get a range too wide to be useful. Good salary research is more systematic than that - and it pays off.
The goal is to arrive at a defensible range: what your role, at your level, in your market, with your specific experience, should pay. Here's how to build that number.
Use multiple sources
No single salary database is complete or perfectly accurate. Use at least three: LinkedIn Salary (requires a Premium subscription but has very current, role-specific data), Glassdoor (large dataset, but self-reported so it skews toward unhappy reporters), Levels.fyi (exceptional for tech roles and equity compensation), and the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment Statistics (more conservative, but authoritative for broad baselines).
Salary.com and Payscale are also useful. For specific industries, look for industry-specific surveys - many professional associations publish annual compensation reports that are among the most accurate data available.
Adjust for your specific market
National averages are rarely what you should use as your benchmark. A software engineer in San Francisco commands a dramatically different salary than the same engineer in Columbus. Filter by geography wherever the source allows it. If your job is remote, research both your location and the company's primary location, since remote compensation policies vary widely.
Also filter by company size, industry, and seniority level. A marketing manager at a 30-person startup and a marketing manager at a Fortune 500 are very different roles with very different comp structures. Make sure your comparison set is actually comparable.
Validate with your network
The most accurate salary data comes from people who are currently doing the job. If you can have candid conversations with two or three people in similar roles, their experience will calibrate your research better than any database. This requires trust and reciprocity, but it's worth cultivating.
When you've done the research, you should be able to say with confidence: 'Someone with my background, in this type of role, in this market, should expect to earn between X and Y.' That's the foundation of every salary conversation.
Hiring smarter?
Connect your ATS and get qualified candidates automatically.