The salary range is already on the ad, so negotiate to the top of it, not for it. In seventeen states plus D.C., the band must be printed before you reach the room, and salary-history questions are banned in more than twenty states, so the anchor moved from your last pay to the posted band.
Use the band:
- Pull up the live posting for your own role, or the rung above
- Below the midpoint after two years? You are asking to be paid what your employer already told the market the work is worth
- When they name a figure, cite their own number and ask for the upper part, arguing the role and your fit, not your fairness (women get penalized for self-advocacy, per Hannah Riley Bowles)
Much of a negotiation is refusing to look away from a figure right there on the page.
