Salary Story I Earn 66k After Learning To Negotiate

Illustrated by Jordan Barton.

In our series Salary Stories, women with long-term career experience open up about the most intimate details of their jobs: compensation. It’s an honest look at how real people navigate the complicated world of negotiating, raises, promotions and job loss, with the hope it will give young women more insight into how to advocate for themselves — and maybe take a few risks along the way.

Been in the workforce for at least five years and interested in contributing your salary story? Submit your information here. Published stories receive £100.

Age: 32
Location: London, UK
Current industry and job title: Commercial manager in the tech/recruitment industry
Current salary: £66,000 (inc. 20% bonus) plus shares currently worth £5,200
Number of years employed since school or university: 10

Starting salary and year: £7 p/h in 2011
Biggest salary jump: From £45,300 to £56,500 in 2020
Biggest salary drop: Not happened yet

Biggest negotiation regret: When I started at my current company I was desperate to leave my previous, very toxic job and I didn't properly research market averages for the role I was applying for. The salary was wide open and I could definitely have negotiated a higher starting salary and bonus but at the time I was so overjoyed to be moving that it didn't seem like a priority. I was also at the time under the impression that negotiating on salary was a no-go and was nervous at the thought of doing so. I've since discovered that this is extremely common in younger female professionals and safe to say I would have no such qualms in the future!

Best salary advice: Know your worth, quantify the value you add, use your leverage and do your research. You should be keeping a record of your achievements and accomplishments on an ongoing basis, making sure that these are at the forefront of decision-makers' minds and that you can succinctly detail what you have been doing and how this has improved outcomes. Your line manager will have a difficult time turning down a £5,000 pay rise if you can demonstrate how you've saved the company £50,000 or won contracts generating £1 million of new business. You will need to do this for performance reviews anyway but really it should be something you track and update regularly – it's so useful on a personal level to look back on and a record of your demonstrable contributions will be invaluable for salary negotiations. It's also great for a pick-me-up on those days where you're facing impostor syndrome or need a little ego boost.

It can feel so obnoxious to promote your own success and shout about your achievements but you need to fly that flag high – trust me, nobody is going to do it for you and your manager won't know what you're up to half the time. Shout it from the rooftops!