Recently I spoke with an HR Director who has been handling negotiations for over a decade.  When I asked her what the #1 mistake she sees women making is, she said, “coming to the negotiation table with an ask, but no fact base to back it up.” 

Whoa.

It’s a good reminder that there are two parts to negotiating effectively:  the skill of negotiation and the data.  Worthmore generally focuses on negotiation skills, but wanted to provide a helpful guide to anyone collecting data.

These are the resources our clients generally find most helpful when determining what their market value really is.

1. Your network

• Peers
• Former Peers
• Mentors
• Recruiters
• Career Services (especially business schools)

Pro tips:

• Ensure you ask about salary, bonus and additional benefits.
• Don’t just ask other women! Try at ask at least one white guy.  Statistically they get paid more, so it helps your case to have as many data points from men as possible.
• Not sure how to ask? Try: “I’m doing some salary benchmarking. Are there any helpful resources you suggest? What do you think is a reasonable salary range for my role? What makes you think that?”
• Former peers are a goldmine, as they are typically happy to tell you what they used to make.

2. The Internet

There are a lot of resources out there, and they are not created equally. I have reviewed almost 40 of them, and these are the ones I find the most helpful.

• careerbuilder.com
• charlesaris.com – see hiring reports (for former consultants)
• fairygodboss.com Salary Bank
• Forge compensation report (for family offices)
• glassdoor.com
• indeed.com
• LinkedIn Salary
• Monster.com
• payscale.com
• salary.com
• thesalaryproject.com
• salaryexpert.com

3. 81cents

Don’t want to do it yourself? 81cents will build a personalized market value report just for you. You can use the code WORTHMORE for 10% off.

Am I missing any resources you’ve found helpful? Please let us know!