Salary & Equity Negotiation

A twenty-minute conversation you have once decides the base every future raise is calculated from. There is no investment decision available to you with that ratio of effort to consequence.

Last verified 2026-07-21

Whoever names a number first has given something away

Early in the process a recruiter will ask what you're looking for. The question sounds administrative and it isn't — the first number on the table shapes everything after it, and a number you name becomes a ceiling far more often than a floor.

The move is to hand the question back: you're focused on whether the role is the right fit, and what is the budgeted range? This is not evasion. The employer has a band, they knew it before they called you, and asking for it is asking for information they already have.

Two things have changed in your favour here. A growing number of US states and cities require employers to disclose the pay range, in the posting or on request, and several ban asking for salary history at all. Where those laws apply, the band is something you are entitled to rather than a favour you are requesting.

Why base salary is the line worth fighting for

A signing bonus is paid once. Base salary is paid every year, and every percentage raise, every bonus target and usually every future offer is calculated from it.

That makes the same dollar worth wildly different amounts depending on which line it lands on. $10,000 added to a signing bonus is $10,000. $10,000 added to base is $10,000 this year and more every year after, because next year's raise is a percentage of a bigger number.

Employers know this, which is why a signing bonus is the concession offered first — it costs them once and it doesn't disturb their internal pay bands. Taking it isn't wrong, but take it knowing it's the cheaper thing they had to give.

What's actually on the table

An offer is a bundle, and the parts have very different amounts of give in them. Base salary, signing bonus and equity grant are usually negotiable — they are decided for you specifically, by someone with discretion.

Other parts are set at the company level and no recruiter can move them for one hire: the 401(k) match formula, which health plans exist, the holiday allowance, the vesting schedule everyone is on. Pushing on these spends credibility and produces nothing.

The most reliably overlooked negotiable item is the start date, which costs the employer almost nothing and can be worth weeks of your life. The second is a written commitment to an early review — useful when the band genuinely is capped and both of you know it.