Tag: value

Convince Others of Your Worth

Recently, I have been chatting with some folks who are in positions to give me compensation for the value I historically would bring to them (per annum, millions of dollars, perhaps even lives).

AKA interviews 😂

While passing tests and getting along great as people, I keep needing to do what you too must see on a frequent basis: convince others of your worth.

I have the $$$ figures, I have the historic evidence, I have the rapport, yet I need a little help from experts.

Some experts on the arts of negotiation and selling oneself have been visited before in Devaluing Your Worth and What Is Your Work Worth?. Those insights are gathered here with new insights sprinkled in that I have negotiated tens-of-thousands of compensation for.

So read on – it will only be 15-20 minutes. This bit of prep could help land you enough to make all the difference. Here goes:

  1. Value Yourself
  2. More Than Just Cash
  3. Update Your Numbers
  4. Aim High to Make Fair
  5. The Reveal
  6. What Is Your Base?
  7. Wrap It Up
  8. Negotiate Like Your Life Depends on It
  9. Further Reading
  10. –

Value Yourself

First off, you need to know what your value actually is – without that, you have nothing, the same as your value in another person’s eyes.

So convince yourself of your worth first: understand how many years of experience you have for a given role, the skills you bring, how and how fast you learn, and the quantities of cash and cash-equivalents (time savings) you have brought to other roles.

That done, figure out what is a fair compensation range for that role. This can be found through:

  • Bureau of Labor Statistics
    • What should be the be-all, end-all source of compensation data, BLS is a treasure trove of data. By role, by industry, by state, and by county, medians and averages and other data are everywhere. It can be a chore to navigate – the effort will be worth it!
  • Glassdoor
    • The most common work resource on the internet. Besides researching the company being talked with (reviews, history, and interview topics), Glassdoor houses a vast collection of salary and total-compensation for cities, roles, and roles at the company.
      • NOTE: Glassdoor will track your use and after the first page you view, it will require you to sign in to view more. While contributing to the Glassdoor community is a valuable way to give back, it can also be annoying.

        Instead, do all your Glassdoor searching in a private/incognito window. When the page blocks you, copy the URL, close the entire private/incognito browser, then reopen the browser, navigating to that copied URL. Voilà!
  • Levels.fyi
    • Largely tech-focused, this site’s deep breakdown of different companies, roles, and cities for both general and specific job titles (e.g. “software engineer” vs. “L4”) is invaluable.
  • Stack Overflow
    • More of a software resource than general, it provides a great, easy-to-read walkthrough of reported data, something you can learn from in reference to other data providers.

Other resources like Salary.com or industry-specific reports like the annual report from the Game Developers Conference (GDC) can be great for pulling additional data points.

From the above, collect the averages and medians of both salary and total compensation (dealing with those in the next section). If there are multiple results, take them all. Put everything into a Google or Excel Sheet – you will need it >_>

Example: Throughout this article, we will reference a fictional role that, after calculation, comes to $98,765 base salary, $123,456 total compensation.

These terms are investigated later, but now you have the details!

More Than Just Cash

Now you have a collection of average and median $$$ figures, a bunch of base salaries and total compensation packages. Here, we need to find what amount of compensation comes from things other than a paycheck.

Usually, total comp refers only to base salary, annual bonus, and stock grants/options. “Cash is King,” as is said, but for many, the additional bonus and stock can be the linchpins in the agreement.

Bonus and stock can be viewed as cash equivalents – not as good as cash, but within a margin of error, can bring major payouts later on a yearly or quarterly basis. Sometimes it can be cash-in-pocket right away – signing bonuses with lenient claw-back terms should be considered as a cash bonus in the offer.

With the numbers you have, look at the whole package of salary, bonus, and stock when the offers come in – any other benefit is gravy. This does not decrease the value of PTO (sick and vacation, approximate value of 2% of base pay per 5-days/1-week; assume “unlimited” is 15 days or 6% of base pay, i.e. 3 weeks before someone starts asking), work from home, or other benefits – it only means that we can judge like with like, salary-bonus-stock numbers compared with the offer of salary-bonus-stock.

But how much does salary and everything else make up total compensation?

Simple: You have salary and total comp numbers from the previous section. Divide salary by total comp in each pair, and get an average and median – this will give two numbers in percentile of how much salary should be making up the total offer package. Since cash is king, pick the higher percent (i.e. expect a higher salary right away vs. waiting a year for benefits to kick in).

Example: $98,765 is the base salary, while $123,456 is the total comp.
$98,765 / $123,456 = .8, or, 80% (round up if needed)
Therefore: Expect base salary to be 80% of total comp.

Total Comp * Percent = Base Salary

Keep this percent for later.

Update Your Numbers

Setting salary aside, bring out the total compensation numbers so we may calculate the total range of value your work is worth!

Adjust all the total comp numbers by the rate of inflation, rounding up to the nearest 5% (e.g. 8.9% = 10%). We do this because virtually all data will be a year (or more!) old.

Next, whenever using general resources that apply to the entire nation (e.g. “X in the USA” vs. “X at Y company, in Z city”), adjust those numbers by the cost of living in your city.

CoL can be found online. I am partial to Best Places to determining my city compared to the national level, e.g. Las Vegas is +11.6% as of August 2022. Best Places, Nerd Wallet, and Numbeo all have excellent city-to-city calculators too (if there is a difference between them when you research, take the number best for you).

(Use the city-to-city calculations later if considering work in another city, but only if the result is higher than what you already have!)

Example: $123,456 is the calculated total. Assuming inflation is 10% and the position would be onsite or remote in Las Vegas, the CoL is 12%, the new total comp is:

$123,456 * 1.1 * 1.12 = 152,097.792, or, $152,098

Aim High to Make Fair

Adjusted numbers in hand, get them down to just 4. Plug the numbers into this grid:

Average of the AveragesMedian of the Averages
Average of the MediansMedian of the Medians
Comp Number Breakdown

These numbers define what you ought expect as a total comp floor from any offer.

The lowest number in the grid is your secret floor. If desperate, you can accept offers just above this value, but for pity sake, accept nothing lower. Tell no-one this number. Cool?

Take a look at the highest number in the grid. That number is your quoted floor, the bottom offer – this is what you will tell folks when they ask “what is your range?” Round up to the nearest thousand. Do your utmost to stay away from this median.

Medians are mediocre. I trust you bring more than a mediocre value.

Time to aim high, getting us closer to the 75% percentile in wages. We do this because it helps inflation-proof your compensation, improves the performance rewards you ought be getting for a good job, it helps prevent a company from low-balling you, helps your peers in the field by demanding a higher wage, and saves your self respect.

What’s not to like?

Anyway, take your bottom number. Multiply it by 15%, 18% if feeling confident. Round that up to the nearest $5K. That is now the top of your range.

Example: Assume $152,098 is our lowest of the 4 values. The highest value is $156,789 (round to thousands).

$152,098 is the secret floor. Acceptable if the company is great, the work good, you would like to work right away, and you and your boss have a plan to review that number in a few months.

$157,000 is the bottom range. Told to prospects.

$157,000 * 1.15 = 180,550, or, $185,000 is your top range. You sell yourself near or above this number.

The Reveal

You have your top and bottom range, a secret floor, and salary percentage. While you never reveal your floor, contrary to this section title, you try, try, try not to reveal your range.

Why?

Keep the employer honest – they ought give you a range expectation for a role first, especially if they reached out to you first. Who knows – they may give you a higher total comp range than you calculated! (This gets touched on later.)

This section though is about when your casual efforts have failed and the employer stonewalls you on the value of your labor. So it is your turn – after giving the context that this is the reasonable range for your experience, the role, and other factors, reveal your range.

Example: “After researching the role and the value I am bringing to it on places like Glassdoor, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and industry reports, a reasonable total compensation range would be $157 to $185, though with my proven career of success, I feel I would fall closer to the top of this range.”

If the person you are talking to balks, you walk. If the person says anything but no, you have the door open 🙂

Even if the employer mentions they likely could not hit the top of the range, they now know your bottom, and are more inclined to meet well above the bottom knowing your expectation of more!

What Is Your Base?

Many times, recruiters haven’t done the homework to figure out what their company is offering in total. When you give your total comp reveal, this may leave them confused. Here is where you save the day:

After the other person expresses they don’t know total comp or need a salary range, you can provide the base salary of your bottom and top numbers using the percentage calculated before.

Easy! So long as you remind them that these are flexible numbers depending on the extra benefits – total comp is always the goal, your personal value placing you squarely at the top of the range.

Example: The total comp range (in thousands) is $157 to $185. The calculated base salary is 80% of total.

Therefore, the base salary range is ~$126 ($157 * .8) to ~$148 ($185 * .8).

(Rounding up, as always.)

Wrap It Up

  1. Find numbers from resources: BLS, Glassdoor, Levels.fyi, etc.
  2. Calculate base pay percent from total comp: base / total
  3. Update numbers for inflation and CoL.
  4. Pick the highest numbers as your bottom total comp, saving the lowest numbers as a secret floor.
  5. Calculate top total comp: bottom comp * 1.15
  6. You now have your secret floor and bottom-to-top total comp range.
  7. Calculate a soft, flexible base salary range for those in need:
    1. Bottom: bottom comp * base pay percent
    2. Top: top comp * base pay percent
  8. You now have your flexible base pay; this is a guide since total comp is the goal.

Nifty, eh?

But what good is knowing your worth if they won’t realize that value?

That’s where negotiation comes in.

Negotiate Like Your Life Depends on It

Your life really will depend on your negotiation. From misplaced time to opportunity cost, you must negotiate – it is one of the most important things you must learn to do.

While I am only a student myself, here is the best I’ve gleamed:

  1. Get a range during the first screen / conversation. Get the other party to reveal a range first if possible; otherwise, give yours and specify how you land at the top of the well-researched range.
  2. Kick behind during the interviews – this is non-negotiable. Study, rest, eat well, destress, clear your calendar. Brush your teeth, wash, dress fine. Smile, mind your manners.
  3. When the offer comes, express your thanks that they considered to give you an offer, and all the time they have invested so far. However:
    1. Offer is above your goal: Great news! Do not show your elation. Instead, explain you have learned through the interview that the role is worth more than originally estimated. Maybe it is responsibility, requirements, or near-future challenges – see how far north it can go with salary, bonus, stock, and signing compensation. (Don’t negotiate too hard here – you have already ‘won,’ so congrats! Anything else is icing on the cake.)
    2. Offer is well below your goal: Oof. While you do not get flustered (take a breath!), verbally gasp or suck in air through your teeth. After thanks, let them know that this is well below the market asking price for a person of your skill and that the offer is very far off of expectations.
    3. Offer is around your goal: OK. It is close. Let the other party know this. Ask how the offer might meet expectations. Let them figure out how to meet your value – if they need help, suggest that you all look at non-salary benefits, such as bonus, stock, signing, and extra weeks of PTO to make up the difference.
  4. Be quiet. Silence. After making a statement, shut up. Let the other side fill the void. They may give you more information or negotiate against themselves.
  5. Walk the offer along. When the offer is below the top range, walk that top range down to the bottom. Choose a way to do this beforehand:
    1. Ackerman Model/Technique: T is the top of the range. B is the bottom. T-B is the difference D you work with. “B + D” is the “T” you initially aim for.
      1. Zeroth offer: T
      2. First offer: B + (D * .35)
      3. Second offer: B + (D * .15)
      4. Third offer: B + (D * .05)
      5. Fourth: B
      6. (Give thanks, but offer no more after this.)
    2. Aggressive Technique: Something I have used before. T is top range, B is bottom, D is the difference in between:
      1. Zeroth offer: T
      2. First offer: B + (D * .6)
      3. Second offer: B + (D * .3)
      4. Third offer: B + (D * .1)
      5. Fourth: B
      6. (Give thanks, but walk after this unless the job is needed and the secret floor is met.)
  6. Be prepared to walk away. Those that can leave the table have leverage; those who cannot are slave to whatever the other party wishes.

All of this is barely skimming the surface level of understanding, demonstrating, communicating, and convincing others of your worth. It is at least a start.

Further Reading

Knowledge is powerful:

–

Those are my tools! Now those are your tools too ~

Like ideas or drafts, the first offers may not be up to snuff. Stay patient, friends, as best you can. Your situation is undoubtedly different from mine – no matter what it is, use these tools to convince others of your worth. Stick to it, k?

Here is to your gains and your greatness! Share with me your success stories and own methods for achieving your value. Cheers for now ~

#PaidMe2023

Restarting the tradition that began as a hashtag in the summer of 2020, I am back to share with you my data once again!

All the below are estimates using free online resources. Your mileage may vary.

The Data

THP – Take Home Pay (assuming only income taxes without contributions apply)
Inf – Inflation (not used for the year of writing, ’23)
CoL – THP normalized to national Cost of Living

Senior Software Engineer, L3
Base Pay: $175,000
THP (after effective tax of 32.54%): $118,050
CoL: $71,545 (THP / location’s decimal-percentage CoL)
Aerospace Company
Westside Los Angeles Metro Area, CA

Excluding all stock, bonus, and other amenity info. Checkout Glassdoor (use an incognito browser) and levels.fyi for great value-add resources.

Takeaways

California income taxes suck. Guess that is why so many CA tech companies offer stock and options, those taxed at a different, i.e. lower, rate!

I haven’t experienced too harshly the cost of living change – housing nearly triples the national average, but Airbnb and fully-furnished month-to-month options are perhaps 100-150% vs 200% higher. Not to mention what would happen with a roommate(s)!

Regardless, take-home pushes me ever closer to financial independence FI while allowing luxuries in some lifestyle choices (e.g. no need for roomies).

–

That is it for this year! Checkout 2021’s data (skipped 2022 – the company gave no raises [I should be “appreciative” that the stock went up, which then proceeded to nosedive] before summer layoffs).

Wanna talk numbers? Would =adore= getting to hear! Curious about an offer or the non-base-pay bits left out of this post? Hit me up for a call!

It is dangerous to go out into the working world alone – I am hear for you. Until needed, I send you cheers in your pay and careers ~

Tribe of Mentors: A Share of Value

Tim Ferriss’s “Tribe of Mentors” is a fantastic book. Heck, I have shared it more than any other gift.

Out of the multitude of mentors that have added to the tome (it is a thicc boi of a book), there is sage advice and practical example for… just about everything 🤷‍♂️

“Tribe of Mentors” holds so much benefit to this day – about high time I added to its share of value with my own answers to Tim’s questions. The 11 stellar Qs abbreviated below:

  1. New belief / behavior / habit in the last five years?
  2. Best purchase $100 or less?
  3. Favorite failure?
  4. Most gifted book(s)?
  5. A better billboard message? Why?
  6. Best investment(s)?
  7. Adored unusual-habit or absurdity?
  8. New grad advice? Advice to ignore?
  9. Bad advice from the professional field?
  10. How to regain focus when lost / overwhelmed?
  11. What to say “no” to in the last five years? Other tips?
  12. –

New belief / behavior / habit in the last five years?

5 years spans the pandemic era – so much has changed… Yet those are things in the world I cannot control, or was unduly influenced by.

For myself, the best improvement to my life comes from being less patient, having the hard conversations sooner.

Whether talking compensation for a job or explicitly defining a romantic relationship or getting appreciation / apprehension / affection / apology aired ASAP, candid talk early and often has reaped for me unequalled dividends.

Best purchase $100 or less?

I do not buy knickknacks or trivial items to then keep around, let alone every 6 months (the original Q’s time span). So I answer in two parts:

The most valuable material gifts I have received in the last 2 years (I assume under $100) have been a coffee mug warmer I spy next to me now along with the Bluetooth earbuds at my other hand. Keeping my tea steaming and my music/audiobooks streaming adds a high quality to life.

What I buy for myself would have to be my supplements. Ashwagandha (KSM-66 variant), L-Carnitine, Lion’s Mane mushroom powder, MCT oil, Maca powder, Beetroot powder, probiotics – I live a better life through manipulating my body chemistry with these. Never wish to be without!*

* Their total cost might be more than $100 every 6 months 😅 11-out-of-10 doesn’t matter as I am a better human being for them 💯

Favorite failure?

Plenty of mistakes have been made, plenty of pettiness and ignorance… To pick a favorite?

A relatively recent one would be declining to go to Italy for a wedding – a poverty-mindset mistake I will never do again. This decision broke me from most of my penny-pinching, freeing me from shackles I unwittingly fitted myself for 😅

But the biggest must be my failure in higher education. I failed to choose the better schools I could have been admitted into, I failed to choose Computer Science over a Mathematics major, I failed to build more relationships and balance relaxation and let so much just happen.

Without those big failures, I would not have maintained the friendships I do have. Jobs would not have come when they did. Struggles and objective suffering would have passed me by and I would be a lesser person without them.

All the choices about higher education wrapped together is my favorite failure. Final answer.

Most gifted book(s)?

Easy, and spoiled in the intro: “Tribe of Mentors” 😂 Too much useful information here. Bonus: when I gift my copy, I get someone else’s markup to reference when it is given back 😉

Influential books? I will speak of nonfiction here while using some “this-is-my-blog-so-deal” authority to give 4 titles:

  • “The Prince” – Machiavelli’s work exposed many, many patterns in life to me. I am more a cynic, more the realist, more guarded against and respectful of the capabilities in others and I for his treatise.
  • “The Art of War” – Brilliant. Tactics and strategy that translates into fundamental principles for living. It holds up thousands of years after being written.
  • “Never Split the Difference” – Less a guide and more a psychology on everyone coming away with what they need in life. I quote it often, having applied it professionally, socially, and personally.
  • “Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus” – This ol’ book has not aged all that well. Science and methodology and society as a whole have moved on from it. Why it makes the list is that it gave me such language to explain how others and I behaved in relationships that hadn’t previously made the cut. The topic also brought me to other improvement works, where I would come to read the likes of Esther Perel, Logan Ury, James J. Sexton, and the gestalt at large (in addition to my own observations).

A better billboard message? Why?

One message? One? These are artificial restrictions. If there would be one thing, it ought be the Truth, but we cannot get the Truth. Instead, we can get close. Let me lend a medley after deep, non-exhaustive consideration:

  • Survive.
  • Suffering Is.
  • Be Attractive.
  • Knowledge is a terrible thing.
  • Competition is for chumps.
  • Be Better.
  • “Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” – Dylan Thomas
  • “Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.” – Horace Mann
  • “[Evil], it is built into the very nature of the universe. Every world spins in pain. If there is any kind of supreme being[,] it is up to all of us to become [their] moral superior.” – Terry Pratchett

Best investment(s)?

The investment in the principles that serve myself, and by extension the world. (Warning: here comes some self-praise:)

My Body is fit. It is attractive, strong, endures, and is a machine capable of incredible things 9 of 10 other people are not ready for.

My Mind is vast. The very wonder of its connections surprises me regularly. Like a sea, not even I have charted its patterns, plunged its depths for certain.

My Soul Is. I look inward to explore the dark and the past, all while others praise me for the light my character would seem to shed upon them.

I am a temple to which I give and hold sacrament (learn, exert, sacrifice for, cherish) on the daily. (Wow, self-aggrandizing much??)

Adored unusual-habit or absurdity?

CATS ❤ But adoring them only makes sense…

Cold showers! Yet there is a lot of rational science backing up this habit…

Butter on bitter, 100% chocolate. Creamy and crunchy. Slightly sweet and biting flavor ~ A great breakfast.

New grad advice? Advice to ignore?

Already too late to tell them that the grades hardly matter, or to invest their efforts into the market, or that all this too will pass…

Instead:

  • Everything is a negotiation. No-one is your chief advocate but you, nor should they be your biggest fan – that’s you! (Always ask for more value.)
  • Be visible everywhere; out of sight is out of mind and you never want to be out of mind.
  • Work less, but under promise, over deliver. Act humble knowing (because you have done the self-work, have gathered the evidence you keep to yourself) that you can catch and eat the other 9 people in the room.
  • Actually, just take some more career advice from Scott Galloway along with his advice on happiness.

What to ignore:

  • Passion. F- your passion. Go be excellent at something that you will spend little time on, get paid lots on, and give you leeway to explore your passions on the weekends and evenings.
  • Fairness. If this hasn’t been ground out of you yet, fairness is a construct. Gird yourself to be treated unfairly and equip the tools required to fight unfairly.

Bad advice from the professional field?

Hmmm… In tech, IDK. Stay up on the frontline of technical topics? Code when not at work?

If tech might be important, it will start showing up in popular media (news, recent sci fi, etc.). Things move so fast, single frameworks or methods or areas of development are gone in less than it takes to earn a college degree. So stay flexible on principles, the ability to learn, and getting people to like you (be interested and interesting).

Get paid to do the thing you are good at. For me, coding is one such thing. I will code every week even when not paid to do so (i.e. unemployment), but will not code twice in a day (e.g. job and hobby). So relax when you leave work (and leave work!) to become a more interesting person with more passions.

How to regain focus when lost / overwhelmed?

Easy. Answer flexible based on what is at hand or is needing to be done:

  • HALTS – Address hunger (eat something salty and fatty, hydrate), anger (journal, meditate, exercise), loneliness (reply to texts, tell someone of their importance in your life), tiredness (naps, meditation), and stress (relocate, disengage, doodle).
  • Exercise – Pull a resistance band, pump some pushups, hike the stairs, squat real fast, stretch. Get the heart going.
  • Music – You best have a banger of a playlist to get into whatever mood you want to be in. Set up a few for yourself – I had many once, but now I go back to just a few for brain work, physical work, and rest.
  • Supplements – Lions Mane, MCT Oil, L-Carnitine, probiotics, caffeine stacked with L-Theanine. These will get one into the right headspace in no time flat 😊

What to say “no” to in the last five years? Other tips?

Over this current era of my life, I have been getting better at a few things:

Do not say “no” for others. Ask for my wants and needs. Here is a post on that.

Be more selfish. This includes being less agreeable (my greatest bane and boon). Do things because I enjoy them, or need it – say “no” to virtually all else.

Be long-term. Do fewer things that are only a short-term opportunity, especially saying “no” to that which loans energy from the future. Think about next year, and discipline the day.

–

I owe a friend for suggesting I answer some of these. Owe Tim Ferriss for putting out this valuable read. Owe it to myself to grow and be better from the insights of others.

I want to hear your take – no need to answer all the Qs, just a few. I want your answers 💯 And if I need to expand, let me know that too – never shy about adding clarity!

Which books and mentors have helped you? They will be my next read – cheers to the growth you and I pursue ~

How to Price Your RPG

In general, games of all and every kind are not known as money makers.

For the niche of roleplaying games, it is paramount you know how to price your RPG if ever to even get the game played, let alone see a cent.

To those ends, I did the research so you don’t have to 😉

The Abstract

Dollar values from here on refer to the price-per-page (ppp) of RPGs. These RPGs include some if not extensive artwork that can serve to boost page counts and perceived value.

TLDR; In general, RPGs undervalue themselves. OSR (old-school revival) games – more concise (i.e. fewer) rules, less pre-generated content – can increase ppp by 25% vs. the broad market (super-sellers like Dungeons & Dragons not included here). The most ‘lucrative’ publications are game extensions – extra rules, adventures, tools, artwork, or features – that can run at or 30% more than OSR games.

If you price your RPG and related content between $.08 and $.10 per page, you are being reasonable. $.30 per page is really stretching it, but no product is sold for less than $.04 per page.

The Data Collection

I ran data for general games, OSR games, extensions / modules / add-on content, and my personal favorites. See The Collection Method section next for what the thoughts behind here:

GroupAverage PPPMedian PPP
General$.07$.08
OSR$.08$.10
Add-on$.10$.13
Faves$.08$.09
Popular RPG Average and Median PPP

Dropping the edges, it would seem that a price-per-page range of $.08 and $.10 is the best option for pricing an RPG PDF.

Tangentially, the data for average and median page counts and prices:

GroupAverage Page CountMedian Page Count
General299288
OSR217203
Add-on134112
Faves258288
Popular RPG Average and Median Page Count

Conclusions here say page count for a primary product ranges from 200 to 300 pages. Extensions should be about half the page count (give or take) of the primary product.

GroupAverage PriceMedian Price
General$20$21
OSR$18$15
Add-on$14$15
Faves$20$20
Popular RPG Average and Median Price

As for price, expect to price between $15 and $20 for the most well-received products.

Check the data for yourself in Google Sheets.

The Collection Method

To gather the data, I referenced Drive Thru RPG, “the largest RPG download store,” for highly rated (>80% positive reviews) page counts and price (rounded to the nearest 50-cents). All prices reflect the PDF versions of games, as those are required by Drive Thru – physical copies are not.

Numbers came from the “hottest” of: core-rulebooks, OSR games, game extensions / modules, and my own favorite games. Collection was made in chunks of the first ~30 and ~50 of the “hottest” lists to sanity-check the calculations were accurate.

I completely avoided the hottest game of them all: Dungeons & Dragons. I know that its price and page count and rating may be skewed for the sheer popularity of this godfather of RPGs.

Like D&D, some other data was excluded. Any price-per-page that far exceeded other ppp was excluded, though a comment has been left on the excluded page and price.

The ranges of prices are taken as the difference of the average and the median, pivoting around the average. The average was always less than the median, indicating that many games undervalue what they could sell themselves for reasons of market ignorance (this is speculation only).

–

Now you know how to price your RPG! This has certainly helped me determine what pricing and lengths I should be looking at.

Bonus observation: While going through content, I noticed that ppp was increased for creators who had a dedicated following, their “1000 True Fans.” Examples include Runehammer Games (YouTube, Drive Thru RPG) and Dungeon Craft/University (YouTube, Drive Thru RPG). Might be something to keep in mind for your own popularity ~

And cheers to that! Price your RPGs right and we will catch up next week.

Work for Pay, Not Free

The zeitgeist regarding labor is smarter now than it was just 10 years ago as it comes to work, pay, et al. As with all things, it could be better.

One of the ways thoughts on employment could be improved is to work for pay, not for free.

Here are points on how:

Experience

Experience is garbage. The person offering “experience” in exchange for cold, hard cash cannot go choke on that “experience.” Why? Because it holds no tangible value.

I.e. experience is “free.” Do not work for “free.”

Denied a Raise?

Say a coworker is earning more for the same (or even less!) output than you, or a new employee is offered higher compensation. You attempt to negotiate a raise but are denied.

What now?

Either:

  1. Quit (but only if you have another job lined up, are financially set to take a well-deserved break, or do not require the wage-slave benefits like health insurance)
  2. Get cut by cutting back the day-to-day effort (collecting that sweet, sweet unemployment insurance)

Do not wait! Act now for your own benefit. Check out some other options and help on cutting back:

Get a Pay Cut?

First, what counts as a pay cut? A few things:

  • Meeting or exceeding performance expectations, not getting a raise despite that.
  • Not getting at least a cost-of-living increase in wage (as of May 2022, that is North of 8.3% – anything less is wage theft by the employer).
  • Demands by work to work more.
  • Org or team changes that decrease the quality-of-life at work.

If any of the above or similar occur, it is time to cut back in proportion to how the employer has cut back on you. A few ways to do that:

  • You can always quit if able (see above).
  • You Earn Commission
    • Raise your rates, especially for this employer.
    • Retain control of your work (e.g. a photographer keeps the unwatermarked originals, an artist holds Photoshop files, programmers source code local to themselves).
    • Aim to drop the employer (if 80% of pain comes from 20% of clients, drop that 20% sooner than later).
  • You Are Hourly
    • Clock out on time.
    • Do 0 (zero!) extra.
    • Take your breaks on time and use your paid leave regardless of business needs.
    • Reread your job description; when told to do something outside of that agreement, decline to do it (unless the employer is ready to immediately renegotiate the agreement, with an immediate pay-bump for you 😉)
  • You Earn Salary
    • Over-estimate the time it will take to do things, making sure your work takes up that extra time. (I find an extra 30-40% is a useful tool if previous performance has not been recognized.)
    • Again, do nothing extra – it is not in your job description to organize events, work on other products or projects, or in your incentive to work on anything that hasn’t been agreed on with management for how you will be judged (i.e. Objective Key Results – OKRs – used to define pay performance).

What Else?

Work advocates like the hustle-hustle-hustle icon Gary V speak to “getting in” for time vs. any other compensation, even experience.

E.g. serve coffee and run packages for the CEO for free – that may work for a select handful with a decent safety net, but that willful enslavement is not something I can ethically get behind.

And if an employer ever offers or suggests working for free, they have done you a great favor: the employer has shown you they cannot be trusted to act fairly or honestly for you. You might still do business, but you will be fighting everything the employer says because everything they say will come at a cost to you.

So if you have other ways to recognize employer exploitation or how to maximize your earnings under subpar conditions, share them! Your work has value, so work for pay, not free.

The Real Values of Your Job

You get a wage, yet that is not all. What are the real values of your job? Or any job offer?

Base Pay

The hourly or salary numbers of the job.

This is a guarantee of value. Out of virtually all other values, this is the most fundamental because it is not a hypothetical. You will be paid this by law, otherwise the law is broken.

Additionally for hourly, though a person could expect HOURLY RATE x 40 HOURS, that may not be the case. Adjust accordingly, in that it may be 35 hours instead, or there is overtime pay on the regular – talk with your coworkers about these expectations.

Stock

AKA Options (more volatile for gains or losses) and RSUs (more guarantee, less risk). This is flexible value in an employer offers at a discount or pre-set rate.

For many in, say, the tech industry, this is the bread-and-butter of employment, the real value of their compensation. For pennies on the dollar, you can gain stock then sell it at a steep profit.

Be warned: Stock is fickle in that it can fall nearly as easily as it can rise (at least in recent years). What you may have banked as the cornerstone of your finances can become so much bitter ash.

Time Off

Sick days, vacation days, holidays. Each day is worth about .4% of Base Salary (1 8-hour day in 2000 annual working hours).

Not something to sniff at. These values can add a significant proportion to the overall value to a job, but be careful if anything is “unlimited” – these days have no value if not taken or are allowed to be taken (these instead have negative value as a lie from the employer).

Matches

Talking about the big one here – 401K matching. The employer will match dollar-for-dollar a 401K contribution.

Free money here. A very important value, though it is not offered everywhere and only works if you are able to. Keep an eye out on this!

Bonus

Annual performance, sales, commission – these can be substantial, or trivial. They can happen often, once a year, or not at all.

Whatever bonus gets offered (if any), take note and negotiate on this too!

Misc.

Largely subjective, include any other items you feel might be of value to you in your work. This bucket is mainly for values of a few hundred dollars, but could be worth a lot more.

Examples:

  • Commute Time (less is more! 0 is best)
  • Special Health Insurance Benefits (specifically of benefit to your upcoming year or lifestyle; you ought be getting basic health insurance regardless!)
  • Snacks
  • Gym Memberships
  • et al.

As with everything, a lot of these offerings only have value if you reap the value from them. If not using anything of benefit, it has no value to you and should not be included in the value of the job.

Experience?

You can’t even choke on experience, so it is of virtually no value here.

Can you gain training, networking, and exposure while on another’s dime? Sure, yet there still needs to be that “dime.”

Are some employers worth it? Perhaps. Big names, such as Google, Facebook, or Apple are all great names in virtually any field, while some banks or law firms would be great in their fields. Yet these employers are tiny compared to the vast swath of the broad market, where you are likely to be employed.

Experience is nice, but again, it cannot feed you.

Putting It All Together

Job Value = Base Pay + Stock* + Time Off + Matches + Bonus + Misc.**

*Stock is the number of shares given in a year multiplied by (market right now – rate given in the offering).
** Money is time – the more money you keep, the more time you will be giving your future self, so do not discount time savings as being worth a lot!

This will give you a dollar amount, the real value from the real values of your job.

The Value of Being a Professional

Hey there! Before going on, know that I’m hardly a professional. Knowing what a professional’s value is, however, is invaluable.

This post is for you that need to double-check if you are being valued; for you looking for work so you know what’s acceptable to ask for and what an employer ought to be offering. For simplicity, I’ll be using my own profession of software development as the example to be used.

I’ve participated in the #PaidMe movement and laid out the tools I use to put together what my work is worth before. Now, to help you not devalue yourself or others, here are those tools applied!

Note: Having a pen-and-paper handy along with a calculator to figure out the value of your own work while you read may save your time.

Inflation

From 2019 to 2021 (now), inflation has been 2.88%. (This will be important as we’ll be getting some salaries from 2019.)

Because some of the following numbers will be multiplied by hundredths-of-a-percent, there is going to be some inevitable rounding. If the values are off by a few dollars, no sweat – you should be rounding up anyway 😉

Bureau of Labor Statistics

In the Spring of 2021, BLS has data from 2019 for the United States as it comes to compensation. In 2019, software folks (QA and dev) were most often paid $107,510 a year.

With a trusty map of 2019 pay for techies, we can take the national value and inflate it, leaving us an estimated $110,606.29 per year median.

The hypothetical $111K is contradicted by Salary.com’s reported $115,430 per year average. Since this is private company is only a statistically insignificant ~4% different, we’ll ignore Salary.com for now in favor of the official numbers (inflation and BLS).

Cost of Living

How much money one needs in different parts of the country changes drastically, even from suburb to suburb. Where your zip code is has a heavy factor in what you should be earning.

A few example metros / locales follow. I received two different CoL calculations in my recent research – Best Places in general had higher values while PayScale was more conservative. Naturally, I went with the former (what a shame to be underpaid):

WhereCoL vs NationalEst. Min. SalaryEst. +10% Salary
Las Vegas111.6%$123,436.62$135,780.28
Redmond185.1%$204,732.24$225,205.46
Seattle172.3%$190,574.63$209,632.10
Austin119.3%$131,953.30$145,148.63
Washington152.1%$168,232.16$185,055.38
Boston162.4%$179,624.61$197,587.07
New York City187.2%$207,054.97$227,760.47
San Francisco269.3%$297,862.73$327,649.01
San Jose214.5%$237,250.49$260,975.54
CoL Applied to BLS Median Pay

You, sharp reader, will have noticed that the numbers estimated above do not match up quite with the BLS values previously. That is because BLS does not always include bonuses, stock options, the size of the company a person is employed at, or what has been the best few years for software companies ever.

More on that in the next section.

Remember: Always round up to at least the nearest thousand thereabouts. Exact numbers shown here to allow you to make your own decisions on how comfortable you are with rounding.

Also remember that odd numbers (123.45 vs 120) psychologically seem “more official” and “legitimate.” If you can round up while keeping some of this oddness when you go into negotiating your value, it’ll help you greatly!

Expected Salary Range

Not every company has or likes to have the cash on hand to pay huge base salaries. Though cold, hard cash is almost always preferred, you can leave it up to a company to make up the difference in your value.

Base salary is usually less than the CoL and BLS calculations above, yet this does not take away from your value. You can accept this lower pay by expecting the company to exchange cash bonuses, equity, PTO, or other subjective boons.

A cash bonus usually is a lump-sum payment delivered every six-months or a year. Usually about 10% of your base salary, you can negotiate this percentage higher to make up the total value difference. If the bonus is variable, say, based on performance, only calculate for the “you did no more and no less than your job” value.

Equity is some investment in the company. My personal rule aside is to only accept equity at a 2:3 rate, where for every $2 of base pay being forgone, $3 comes in equity. Why? Equity is variable with the market and often delayed in being granted to you. There is no timely guarantee for your work to be properly compensated, nor is the opportunity cost for not having cash-in-pocket slight, so as equity literally costs the company nothing to give you, asking for more is always a safe bet.

PTO (paid time off) is a common benefit working at most companies. PTO comes as paid vacation, sick time (if separate from vacation), and holidays. Each PTO day is 8 hours but the value of the whole day is your daily salary rate, i.e. base salary divided by 250 days. Daily rate multiplied by the number of days is PTO’s value.

Finally, there are other boons that the company can give. Maybe it’s better healthcare, a shorter commute, a better title, work-life separation, etc. Tangible (physical, material) or intangible (time, feeling), only you know what’s more important than cash-in-the-bank. Always keep in mind that any boon you accept in replacement of direct pay is doing the other party a favor.

Glassdoor Et Al.

Every company changes in what they may offer potential new-hires. Glassdoor, Levels.fyi, and other websites have oodles of employee-reported data on pay, among other things.

If you are looking at a company that has a presence on one of these sites, use the site. Compare the ranges of base salary and other payment options to your BLS and CoL numbers. This gives you not only an idea of what other compensation to negotiate for with the company, but also a second set of values that may be higher than BLS + CoL (needless to say, increase any site-found value by at least 10% since site values do not account for CoL increases or inflation).

Tip: I always salary search using a Google Chrome Incognito window to do my browsing. Sites like Glassdoor track your usage, preventing further use if you navigate to a different page. Incognito gets around this:

      1. Arrive at a blocked page.
      2. Copy the website URL.
      3. Close all of the Incognito tabs / windows.
      4. Open a new Incognito window.
      5. Paste the copied URL.
      6. Tada! Unblocked. Continue researching your value.

Putting It All Together

You now know what you should be compensated based off of your research into the company, role, BLS, and CoL.

When the talk of money comes up, here is the handy equation to keep on hand:

Total Compensation = Base + Bonus + Equity + PTO

If you have other boons you are looking for, convey to the other party that you are taking these for granted, increasing your base or bonus or equity if the other party wants to take these boons away. Never Split the Difference is an astounding book (read it at least four-to-six times so far) that goes into more depth in how to handle leveraging boons that may not have an impressive dollar value.

Now, that total compensation ought to be a range, something like the fair value you found through research of median or average pay (whichever is higher), and at least 10% more than that. Propose the larger numbers and have the other party justify why they ought to be offering you less, giving a sense of disbelief the entire time (much more in Never Split the Difference).

Barring the most dire circumstances of survival, never, ever accept below the median or average pay for the role in the place you are bidding for. It is anti-social and masochistic and despicably weak. Don’t do it.

On the plus-side, if the other party counters above your expected compensation range, smile! Then let them know that’s a good base-pay starting point. “Now let’s talk about bonuses and equity.” Using the simple trick of adding 10% more to acceptable figures, you enable yourself to maximize your worth to the other party and to yourself.

–

Having gotten through this article, how are you doing? Are you making out like Robin Hood, maximizing your value above par? Are you being taken for granted, paid pennies on the dollar?

If you need to be valued more, talk with those that pay you about increasing your compensation 10% if you are being underpaid by 10% or less. However, should the compensation be undervalued by more than 10%, you can still have a conversation with the payor, but it is also time to look at other companies since you have been clearly disrespected and taken for a ride 😐

Enough talk! Check your numbers, go get your value, and be confident that you are in the right (heck, you at least have the United States government backing you up). All the best to your endeavors going forward – cheers!

10 Posts 2020

In a first, I’ve posted every week of 2020! #FeelsGoodMan

Out of all of those, I want to share my thoughts on the ten most-eyed posts of 2020 👀 What’s changed, what’s the same, you get the drill.

10. Character Sheet Essentials

This is my attempt to boil down characters to the essentials of what needs to be known. A character sheet still needs the four sections “Self, Seem, Story, and Stuff,” but there’s more wiggle room, especially on “Self,” on what a given game IP ought to include.

(Note card-sized sections are pictured for reference.)

9. BITS – The Core Mechanic

My joy of a game system, BITS delivers a faster pace of gameplay, simpler arithmetic, but a thorough set of possible outcomes for any action. Here I talk of the dice, the math, and other factors in resolving conflict in the system.

8. Cast 21 – Tools to Face Uncertainty

Back when I could upload podcasts, I outline twelve actions that remove stress and improve decision making. These are points that are recommended by the best performers and thinkers in our society which I have also tried out personally to great success 😁

7. Cast 12 – Quick Table Top Role Playing Game – 1

My first publication of a tabletop role-playing game. (Check the second part for downloads.)

I’ve come a long way in terms of knowledge and technique for making games (specifically TTRPGs), yet this first system has a special place in my heart ♥

6. Cast 19 – Virtual Mentors

I go through the folks that I constantly learn from, folks that you can gain from, too!

The cast includes Gary Vee, Timothy Ferriss, Jocko Willink, Jordan Peterson, Paula Pant, and more!

5. Cast 09 – GDC and Crunch

I reminisce about being accepted to the Game Developers Conference (which I later give up my pass) while also facing crunch at work (on a project that later gets culled during COVID).

4. COVID and False Arguments

There are a lot of disgusting, dangerous things being said to downplay or misinform about the current global pandemic.

One hit me so hard on social media it took me days to get over the audacity of it. Then I wrote a blog post in response 😉

One thing I’d add to this post: You can’t give someone lung cancer from your lung cancer condition. You can give COVID-19 to another without even knowing you have it. Therefore, this is another point that comparing COVID to other diseases as a means to render mute the concerns (and lives lost) of the pandemic is not just infantile and uninformed, it is dangerous.

3. #PaidMe

Surprised that this isn’t higher. I got on the bandwagon of a summer hashtag that had folks sharing salary in different industries.

I went farther, breaking down role, base pay, take-home pay, inflation to 2020, and normalizing to a national cost-of-living.

Check the data out yourself to have a reference point in your own salary negotiations 😊

2. Trip Across COVID America

I fled Las Vegas to the wilds and eventually the East Coast in May. What’s written retells my journal entries for the trip, including a very eye-opening understanding of poverty in the forgotten, decaying rural sections of America.

1. What Is Your Work Worth?

I wish I had this guide when I started in the professional sphere.

What’s inside is a step-by-step formula to calculating what you ought to be paid along with surefire ranges you must ask for when negotiating pay.

It’s dangerous to go about with ignorance when it comes to money. Take this insight along for the ride.

–

If you’ve missed out on these crowd-pleasers, it’s not too late! I also recommend checking out the other posts – you’ve plenty of content to gleam from.

What has been your favorite post? Which articles would you recommend I read? Let me know! Cheers to your 2020 wrap-up ~

Devaluing Your Worth

As I approach a new year with a new company, let’s look at common nasty bits of the flip-side of how to value your worth: devaluing it 💩

First Off: Not Knowing Your Value

You would do yourself a better favor ignoring any new paid work if you haven’t done the bare minimum of any interview process.

That bare minimum? Doing the research, ie:

Know where the money is 💲

Figure out how much a title pays nationally. Know what that role pays in the region and industry (though industry is less and less relevant). Glassdoor the salaries paid at the company. Normalize everything to the cost-of-living (CoL) of the town you live in and where the company is headquartered.

Of those numbers, get the median. Get the average. Pick the highest value. At least multiply that number by 110%, if not 110% to 125%.

Then what do you have? Value. Or, more precisely, an appropriate range (high average or 110% to 110% or 125%) of value you must ask for with the role with the company in the city. Anything less is at best worthless, if not going to be a sticking point for you later.

Second: Anchoring Low

A common negotiation tactic is to anchor the talks on a low value.

You are not low value.

When the company goes low, you go high. Heck, if the company goes OK, you go high. If they go high, you go higher 🔥

They mention a range lower than yours or doesn’t intersect the top of your range? You sigh, you flinch, you gasp, and you quote them your researched range. (Apply emphasis that your skills warrant the top of the range no-doubt.)

You are cornered or feel compelled to mention a range? That 110% to 125% is looking awfully fine right now 😉

If you feel uncomfortable asking for this kind of cash, just know other companies across the nation are paying at or above your quoted. So why do you deserve any less? (If you have an answer to this rhetorical question, there are some confidence and self-esteem issues you need to figure out ASAP.)

No, seriously, if you don’t think you doing a role is worth the nationally determined compensation for the title, stop reading this article. I wish I had something of mine to link here, but I don’t – go get help!

Side note: If you ever find yourself being in the very rare and unusual position of the company offering more than the top of your not-yet-quoted range, tell the company the both of you are close, but you were looking for approximately-10%-over-the-company’s-value. That way you leave nothing on the table that the company was not already planning on giving you!

Third Up: Not Shutting Up

After you have spoken, cease speaking 😶

Simple, ya? No. Human nature wants to justify ourselves and our expectations of others to others. To do that, we’ll lace our speech with weak words and bury our hopes in our own babble.

When you’ve stated your range, when you’ve told the company they need to have a better offer, when you’ve asked for that bonus, shush.

As many professional negotiators put it (see this post’s Further Learning section):

They who breaks silence first loses.

This in part applies to:

Fourth, Your Greatest Enemy: Yourself

What I mean is you will negotiate against your own self interests.

There are many ways to hamstring your efforts:

      • Quoting a dollar range first.
      • Agreeing to additional responsibility without additional compensation.
      • Settling for splitting the difference.
      • Generally being too agreeable 😇

The root of your self-harm is fearing the discomfort of disagreeableness.

Be conscientious of your value, be kind to those you negotiate with, but be brave enough to be disagreeable when a benefit to you and your future selves is on the line.

–

What have you done in negotiating down your value? I’ve done all of the above and more – which have you? Share your experiences for others and myself to watch out for.

COVID is still very bad – While you Zoom safely from home, may you earn your worth and more 😁 Cheers~

What Is Your Work Worth?

I’ve been around the block a few times as it comes to employment and figuring out my work’s value.

In figuring that worth out, a few excellent tools have made themselves invaluable time and time again.

I don’t use these tools until I have an interview lined up or a change in job title or I’ve been employed at the same place for 9 to 12 months. However, when used appropriately, they’ve put the leverage on my side when negotiating a salary or raise. For the cost of an hour looking up values, I’ve netted tens-of-thousands of dollars in value added.

That, and the tools have let me know if I’m walking into a proposal as being underpaid – as an advocate for the worker, never be underpaid 😐

Here, I’m opening-up my personal toolbox for your use. May it be a starting point on your next job offer, a stepping stone to ask for a raise, or merely another reference for your own methods to calculating your work’s worth 🙃

TLDR

(Really, you should read on. But, if pressed for attention, do the following.)

  1. Get the job title for the new job / your current job.
  2. Next, get the city for the job’s cost of living (CoL; google “cost of living theCityName“).
  3. Go to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, searching for the job title, and recording the median salary.
    1. Example for Software Developers.
  4. If the median salary is not in your current year, search “inflation calculator”, using what you find to turn the salary into your current year’s dollars.
  5. Multiply the median salary by the CoL percentage (111% CoL = 1.11).
  6. Take the multiplied result, round up to the nearest tens-of-thousands (this is the Minimum Salary you should consider for the job).
  7. Multiply the result again by either 110% (this is the Expected Salary you should quote to anyone who asks).
    1. If your Minimum Salary is less than $100,000 and you’re feeling fierce, multiply the Minimum by 125% instead of 110%.
  8. Aim for the Expected Salary or more (negotiate!). Accept nothing less than the Minimum Salary.

If you want more detail, you’ll have to read on 😁

Variables

So what’s important in determining worth? Well, simply put… everything.

That’s hardly helpful, so here are some base values needed for the figuring:

  • Job Title (Title)
  • Company
  • City
  • Base Salary (Salary)
  • Potential Bonuses (Bonus)
    • Performance Awards
    • Signing Bonus
    • Stock Discounts
    • 401K Matches
    • PTO
    • Gym Memberships
    • Commute
    • etc. (Don’t worry too much on this.)
  • Cost of Living (CoL)

Titles can be important, and bonuses lucrative, but unless you have some special arrangement to fully leverage non-salaried bonuses like stocks or commission, nothing will be cash in the bank at the end of the day.

If the salary can’t be increased, multiply the difference of what you want vs. what is offered by 2 (“2” for the number of years a person typically works in a position). Negotiate for bonuses equivalent to that number.

Sites for Values

To get values for the variables, Sperling’s Best Places, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Glassdoor, Salary, Salary Expert, and the job post itself will be your best friends.

(If any of the salary sites have bonuses, record those too).

  • Sperling’s Best Places
  • BLS
    • Search for the job title for the median salary and national area data.
      • Example of a Software Developer. (The “State and Area Data” tab has county information that gives you another salary value when you hover the mouse over the maps.)
    • If the salary medians are from a past year, use Google to find an inflation calculator to turn those old salaries into today’s dollars.
  • Glassdoor
    • Search both the job title salary globally and the company itself for salary information for similar work.
  • Salary
    • Enter some basic information to get the job’s salary.
  • Salary Expert
    • Get more salaries for the job title at the location of the job.
  • The Job
    •  Here is where you get the job title, company name, and city.

If your industry has compensation reports (eg Software and Stack Overflow, Video Games and the GDC Game Developers Survey), include those here too! More data, more power!

Formulas Go Brrrr

You’ve been good so far. Now, do this:

  1. Get one salary out of the reported salaries.
    1. If there’s a national salary (eg BLS, Glassdoor), multiply that salary by the CoL of the city the job is in to get the salary to use.
      1. Eg $100,000 national salary * 1.10% CoL = $110,000
    2. Calculate the Median and the Average for all salaries collected from every source.
      1. Google Sheets is a great tool for this.
    3. Whichever of the calculated Median and Average is higher, keep that and discard the other.
    4. Do this for the bonuses too.
  2. Round the calculated salary up to the nearest tens-of-thousands place. This is your Minimum Salary.
  3. Round the bonus up to the highest place (eg $102=$200, $1799=$2000, etc).
  4. Multiply the Minimum Salary by 110% to 125%. This is your Expected Salary.
    1. Why “110% to 125%”? Well, it depends. The higher the percentage, the more difficult it gets to defend during negotiations asking for the Expected Salary. Use judgement and self confidence in this – regardless of what gets asked for, a salary will always need defending, so preparing a longer argument of why the salary is warranted comes with negotiating 🙂

Tada! You now have a Minimum Salary, an Expected Salary, and Bonus values, aka your work’s worth. That said, let’s put them to work 😎

Using Your Worth

Here’s where the negotiation comes in. Negotiation is a topic unto itself and is better covered by cleverer folks than I, so I’ll leave you with these bullet points to keep in mind:

  1. Ask for more than you think you’ll get. That’s why asking for Expected Salary is the least you can do for yourself if pressed to give an expected value.
  2. If given an offer more than the Expected Salary and the Expected Salary hasn’t been told to the person making the offer, counter with at least the offer’s salary and the Bonus calculated earlier, if not asking for an increase in the offer’s salary by 10%.
  3. If given an offer less than the Expected Salary, work with the offer to see about raising the salary to the Expected (*cough* negotiate *cough*). Should the offer salary not be raised, do mental math to calculate twice the difference of the offer and the Expected Salary – negotiate for that value in Bonuses (signing bonus, PTO, etc.).
  4. Don’t accept less than the Minimum Salary. The greatest power is to the person who’ll walk away first.
    1. That, and accepting less than what’s literally fair (the median and average) hurts you, your peers, your industry, and your country. Don’t do it.

These values you’ve calculated are the bare minimum acceptable to not hurt yourself (Minimum Salary) and a reasonable request for the work to be done (Expected Salary) with wiggle-room (Bonus).

Remember, you are asking for compensation for the work to be done first, your history and experience second. Be aggressively fair for future, but only use the past as a lens instead of an anchor keeping you from accepting reasonable work.

Further Learning

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What do you think? What do you use in your own work worth calculations? I’d really like to know!

If you’d like a spreadsheet with some of these formulas filled out, let me know.

Lastly, a reminder about our relationship to work and money:

Your pay is not a judgement on your value. It should only be a fair estimation of your work’s worth.

Good luck, y’all, on your next negotiation, job or raise. Cheers ~