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by s3tt3mbr1n1 813 days ago
I’m in the unique situation where I’m hiring my replacement after having made a promotion. I know they will make (substantially) more than me. How would I negotiate a matching or superior salary?
6 comments

Everyone else is telling you to leave or try a power play, but food for thought -- you may actually be less valuable now in your new role because you aren't experienced in it. If you just moved from IC to manager, you might be a pretty new manager.

It's normal for managers to have reports that make more than them. Just because you manage them doesn't make you more valuable.

I'm not saying this is the case for you in particular, but it might be, so something to consider before playing hardball.

That’s very insightful and the argument I would expect if I were to start discussions about salary. How would you counter this?

I would also say I’m more qualified for the job than those that are applying now, so I’m not sure if this really is applicable to me.

> How would you counter this?

"I asked for a promotion, not for a complete career switch".

maybe it's no the right time to negotiate your salary ? given there is competition for your job position and your competency is not proven. why not wait till next year ?
Offer to step back into that position because taking the promotion will reduce your pay to under the going rate for the position you’re leaving.
You just got a promotion, so now you're in a better position to make more money by leveraging the new level/status at another company.

Leave or get a competing offer to use as leverage if you really like your company.

Competing offer. Go interview.
Leave.
Unfortunately this is the answer.

The bean counters do not give a shit about your experience or value. They just need warm bodies. They know the friction of leaving a company is high so they'll intentionally make you feel like a sucker until you finally quit, getting more years and months out of you for a lower rate than you deserve. When you finally do leave, they'll pat themselves on the back for retaining you for so long at a depressed wage.

I guess the problem with bean counters is they don't know how to count our beans. The low performers look exactly the same as the high performers to them. So they make foolish decisions.
Leave? Into what is anecdotally the worst job market for developers since 2008 and maybe even the dotcom bust?
I don’t understand this remark. It’s still incredibly hard to find engineers here in Europe (I’m hiring at 5x the minimum wage, to give an idea). Where are the swathes of unemployed people that you are describing? Are a quarter of American IT professionals unemployed?
Read a book or watch some Youtube videos about negotiating (in general)?
Anything you would recommend, specifically for salary negotiations?
Josh Doody's stuff is pretty good: https://fearlesssalarynegotiation.com/
Cambell's "Start with NO" is a great book to read.