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How To Compare Multiple Salary Offers
SaiCareers.com
Congratulations! If you are reading this article, you are probably in a
situation where most want to be: confused with multiple offers. After
considering long term growth opportunities, company values, corporate
culture, and the rest, there remains one important item to compare: the
compensation package.
In their quest for attracting talent and reducing attrition, HR
managers, these days, have become increasingly creative with
compensation, especially the intangible benefits. From free meals to
free wheels, benefits have never been juicier.
Intangible benefits, however, often make it difficult for even the most
seasoned professional to compare salary offers. It is no more a game of
comparing apples against apples or oranges against oranges; while it is
very easy to compare dollars against dollars or percentages against
percentages, how does one compare flex time, free parking,
telecommuting opportunities, etc? This article outlines four simple
steps to compare multiple salary offers.
Identify
components
List all items being offered, from base pay to stock options to work
from home options.
Rank items
Next, rank all the components based on order of importance (to you),
starting with most important first.
Assign a value to the intangible benefits
This is probably the most challenging part. Value
could either be a dollar amount or a rating system (using stars,
alphabets, etc.). If you decide to assign a dollar value, you will need
to do further analysis. How would you, for example, assign a dollar
value to flex time? Well, one way would be to determine how much money
it would actually save you. If flex time saves $500 in babysitter fees
then you could use either that number OR you could look at the
opportunity cost for that time period (Does the flex time allow you to
take up another job; if so, how much could you earn in that time? That
figure could also be used in lieu of the previous approach.)
Compare items side-by-side
As the final step, compare all items side-by-side.
(Our
Compare Salary Worksheet clarifies
these concepts further.)
Finally, don't forget: Long term growth opportunities, potential
career, learning benefits, comparable salaries (of others in your
profession), and regional cost of living are also important factors
that must be considered when comparing multiple salary offers.
Related Articles:
Salary Negotiation Don'ts
Salary Negotiation Tips
Salary Information
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