salary_negotiation_prep v1.0.0

name: "salary_negotiation_prep" description: "Prepare for a raise, promotion, or job offer negotiation from the employee side: research market pay from primary sources (BLS OEWS, BLS ECEC, Dept of Labor disclosure data, posted ranges), build a quantified evidence file, value the full package with a total compensation tool, set a reservation point, target, and bolstering range, and use word for word counteroffer and handling a no scripts. Use when someone has an offer to counter, a review or raise conversation coming up, a promotion with no pay move, or needs to answer an early salary expectations question."

Salary Negotiation Prep

Purpose

Help the person walk into a pay conversation with three things most people lack: a market number they can defend, a written record of what they delivered, and scripts rehearsed before the pressure is on. This skill covers the employee side only. Employer side band building belongs to compensation benchmarking, and general deal negotiation theory belongs to negotiation basics. Here the work is personal, time bound, and tied to one role and one employer.

Workflow

1. Classify the negotiation first. Name which one this is, because leverage and timing differ. A new offer with a live alternative is the strongest position. A raise request inside a review cycle runs on the employer's calendar, so the evidence file and the conversation need to land before budgets lock, not at the review meeting. A promotion with added scope and flat pay is a scope negotiation: price the new duties. A retention conversation after a resignation is the weakest and riskiest form, and any counter accepted there needs the reasons for leaving fixed in writing, not just the number changed.

1. Value the current package before researching anything. Run the bundled tool on the current job and on any offer, the same way both times:

bash
   python3 scripts/prep.py compare current.csv offer.csv
   python3 scripts/prep.py total offer.csv
   

CSV columns are component,kind,annual_value,certainty, with kind as base, bonus, equity, retirement, health, leave, stipend, or other, and certainty as guaranteed, expected, or contingent. Count the employer's retirement contribution only, at the match the person will actually earn: a 4 percent match on a 90,000 salary is 3,600, and only if enough is contributed to earn it in full. Count employer paid health premiums, not the full premium. For equity, use grant value divided by vesting years and label it contingent. Never count the person's own salary deferral as employer pay. Context for why this matters: BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation put benefits at about 30 percent of total employer cost for private industry workers in 2026, so a base only comparison misprices most offers by a wide margin. The tool warns when a headline total rises while guaranteed pay falls. Take that warning seriously.

1. Research market pay from primary sources, three or more. Use the research worksheet in references/worksheets.md and record source, date, geography, level, and pay definition for every row. Start with the US Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program for the occupation and metro area: it reports the 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, and 90th percentile wages, classifies jobs by duties, and builds annual figures on 2,080 hours. Add the posted range from the actual listing where a pay transparency law or employer practice provides one. For a named large employer, check the US Department of Labor Office of Foreign Labor Certification disclosure files: H-1B filings list the base wage the employer attested for that title and worksite. Treat those wages as base only, excluding bonus and equity, and as a wage floor from a filing, not proof of what staff actually earn. Use crowd reported salary sites only as a spot check, never as the only source. Match on duties and level before trusting any figure, and never compare a base only source against a total cash source.

1. Build the evidence file. Use the template in references/worksheets.md. Each entry needs a result, a number, a date, and a checkable source: money earned or saved, time cut, volume carried, scope taken on after the current pay was set. Two or three strong entries beat a long list of duties. If the file is thin, say so plainly and lower the target accordingly, or delay the ask while a measurable result is built. A raise case made of effort claims with no outcomes will fail against a manager who has to defend the number to their own manager.

1. Set three numbers, in writing, before any conversation. The reservation point is the lowest package that beats staying put or taking the real alternative, after switching costs, lost vesting, and bonus payout dates are counted. The target is where the evidence and market data say the pay should land. The ask is a bolstering range: the target sits at the low end and a higher figure sits at the high end. Range research by Ames and Mason found that this shape drew higher counteroffers than a single point ask and was not read as more aggressive, while a bracketing range that straddles the target performed worse. Build the numbers with the tool:

bash
   python3 scripts/prep.py target --p50 98000 --p75 112000 --current-total 102000 --evidence 0.7
   

That prints a target of 108,000 and a bolstering range of 108,000 to 114,500 on those inputs. Evidence is a 0 to 1 input: strong quantified results with a scarce skill justify the high end, a thin file pulls the target toward the median. Use a moderately precise figure, rounded to the nearest 500 in the tool. Precise offers signal a researched position (Mason, Ames, Lee and Wiley), but research on expert counterparts (Loschelder and co authors) shows that extreme precision, down to odd dollars and cents, backfires with experienced negotiators who read it as fabricated.

1. Build the trade menu before base salary gets stuck. Rank sign on bonus, bonus target, equity, early review with a written adjustment target, title, extra paid time off, remote days, training budget, and severance terms by value to the person and cost to the employer, using the worksheet in references/worksheets.md. Base is the hardest line for most employers to move mid cycle and the most valuable line over time because raises and retirement match compound off it. A sign on bonus is one time money. Know the multi year cost of trading base for sign on before offering that trade.

1. Use the scripts, then be quiet. references/worksheets.md carries word for word text for deflecting an early pay history or expectations question, presenting the anchor, countering in writing, answering a claim that the band is fixed, asking for time, and handling a no. Present the anchor once, with one short market justification, then stop. Long justifications hand the other side arguments to pick apart. Never accept or reject on the spot: get the full offer in writing, name a specific day and time for the answer, and keep that promise.

1. Handle a no as information, not an ending or a promise. Ask what would need to be true for the answer to change, and when it will be reviewed again. Get criteria and a date, restate them in a thank you email the same day, and calendar the follow up. If neither criteria nor date can be stated, treat the no as final for this cycle and plan on that basis. Keep the tone warm throughout: the manager in this conversation is usually the person who has to argue for the number internally, so give them the evidence file in a form they can forward.

1. Close in writing and check the paper against the promise. Compare the offer letter line by line with what was agreed: base, bonus target and payout conditions, equity amount and vesting start date, review date, title, start date, and any repayment or restrictive clauses. Flag restrictive covenants, bonus repayment terms, and anything that differs from the verbal agreement for a lawyer when the money justifies it. Do not resign a current role until the new offer is signed and any stated conditions are cleared.

Worked example (illustrative, figures invented)

An analyst in Chicago, current base 92,000, total package valued at 118,400 with the tool once employer retirement, health premiums, and expected bonus are counted. OEWS for the occupation and metro shows a median of 98,000 and a 75th percentile of 112,000, the new employer's listing posts 95,000 to 115,000, and Labor Department disclosure filings for that employer and title cluster near 104,000 base. The evidence file carries two strong entries: a reporting change that cut a monthly close task from three days to one, and vendor work that saved a documented 46,000 in a year. With evidence set to 0.7 the tool gives a target of 108,000 and a bolstering range of 108,000 to 114,500. The employer offers 100,000 base, a 10 percent bonus target, a 3 percent retirement match, 8,400 in employer paid health premiums, and 8,000 a year in annualised equity, a package the tool values at 129,400. The counter uses the script in the references, names 108,000, cites the two market sources and the savings result, and offers to sign promptly at that figure. The settlement lands at 106,000 base with a written six month review. Run through the tool again at the settled terms, the package is worth 136,180, a gain of 17,780 over the current 118,400. The base gap alone is 14,000. The extra comes from higher equity, partly offset by the new employer's weaker match. That last check is the one people skip, and it changes real decisions.

Output Contract

A prep deliverable contains:

• The negotiation class (new offer, raise, promotion scope, or retention) and the employer's decision calendar where known
• A total compensation table for the current package and for each offer, from the bundled tool, with guaranteed and contingent pay separated
• A market research worksheet with three or more sources, each with date, geography, level, pay definition, and trust tier
• An evidence file with quantified results, dates, and checkable sources
• Three written numbers: reservation point with its reasoning, target, and bolstering range, plus the market inputs behind them
• A ranked trade menu with the first fallback ask ready if base will not move
• The chosen scripts, filled in with the person's own numbers, and a specific response deadline the person has promised
• A closing checklist for the written offer, and, after a no, the stated criteria and review date or a plain note that neither could be obtained

Operating Rules

• Never invent market data, a competing offer, a deadline, or a result. Every number in the deliverable traces to a named source with a date, to the person's own documents, or is labelled an estimate with its reasoning shown.
• Never advise lying about current pay, other offers, or qualifications. Apart from being wrong, a false claim found in a background check or a later filing ends offers and jobs.
• Check current law at the time of the negotiation instead of relying on a memorised list. A growing number of US states ban salary history questions and require ranges in postings, and the list changes year to year. Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act protects most non supervisory employees, union or not, when they discuss wages for mutual aid, but coverage has exclusions. This is general information, not legal advice. Pay disputes, restrictive covenants, and discrimination concerns go to an employment lawyer.
• Keep the person's pay data and evidence file private. Share the smallest extract that does the job, and never send an employer another employer's confidential documents.
• Do not negotiate by ultimatum in a relationship the person has to keep working in, unless they have a real alternative and have decided in advance to use it. Threats that will not be carried out get remembered.
• If a key fact is missing (the band, the bonus plan rules, the vesting schedule), name it and say how to get it. Do not fill the gap with a guess and build the target on top of it.
• Salary is one part of the decision. Flag roles where the pay win comes with a cliff, a repayment trap, or a scope the person does not want, even when the headline number is higher.

Available connectors

• Use muse.connector_search to find other connectors and muse.skill_search to find related skills.

• If nothing here fits, look on the web for a maintained API or MCP server and set it up with Custom Connectors and MCPs, or build a custom connector.

Websites

• US Bureau of Labor Statistics OEWS for occupation and metro wage percentiles. Carry the exact occupation and area into the check and record which percentile and vintage you used.
• US Bureau of Labor Statistics ECEC for the benefits share of total compensation. Use it as context, and value a real offer from its own plan documents, not from the average.
• US Department of Labor foreign labor performance data for H-1B disclosure files by employer, title, and worksite. Verify the fiscal year of the file and treat wages as base only.