Quote:Original post by jackolantern1
I would be kind of cautious with that site. When I was a manager in a telecomm business, one of my sales reps approached me with a big packet of info that he had apparently bought from salary.com. It included their statistics for what he was "supposed" to be making in our area, an article about how higher paid employees are better producing employees, etc. It said he should have been making about 70k + commissions (which was utterly ridiculous for the area we were in and his experience). He was making about half of that, and in reality, he was barely hanging on to his job as it was. Him handing in that packet was actually quite infuriating.
Following up on this, your salary is whatever you negotiate.
Salary
IS NOT based on what you know, or what you have done, or what you are capable of. Companies do not need to pay you what you are worth, or pay you based on how much value you provide, or any other factor of your perceived value.
Honorable companies will pay you approximately what they feel is right, but it is still your job to negotiate what the actual value is. Dishonorable companies will pay you whatever they can get away with, right or not, and so you must protect yourself against them --- or better, don't work there.
It is your responsibility as the employee to come up with an estimate of what you are worth to the company. There are many sources of information with wildly different accuracy. Salary.com is one, the annual Game Developer Magazine's salary survey is another. Government sources are generally available, but still not perfect.
Having those sources are useful for starting your negotiation. Simply presenting a packet and demanding that much in pay is inappropriate. It is also generally inappropriate for professional level employees to allow the employer to set your wage without negotiation. (Obviously other jobs such as manual labor, burger flipping, etc., this does not apply.)
Ultimately it comes down to the individuals. The employee brings their skill set and experience to the bargaining table. The employer brings their total compensation package to the bargaining table. They sit down and talk.
If you can negotiate a 290K salary with a golden parachute, then do so. If you can negotiate a 50K salary, then do so. If you can only negotiate a small hourly wage with no other benefits, then do so.