The Impact of Negotiation
Negotiating your salary could make a difference of tens of thousands of dollars over several years. Consider this scenario: Two recent graduates in southeastern states with similar qualifications receive an offer of $21 per hour for their first position as a neurodiagnostic technologist. Employee A accepts the offer. Employee B negotiates an additional $3 per hour. That extra $3 an hour is a difference of over $6,000 in the first year of employment. If both employees receive a 3% annual raise every year, Employee B will earn over $7,000 more per year than Employee A by their 5th year of employment and will have earned over $33,000 more in their first five years of employment. In short, not negotiating can be extremely costly.
For female technologists, negotiation may also help reduce gender disparities in compensation. Gender disparities are common in many fields, including neurodiagnostics (ASET, 2022). Research on gender disparities shows that this might partly be due to a lower likelihood of women negotiating their salary when it is not clear that the salary is negotiable. Leibbrandt and List (2015) found that women were less likely to negotiate their salary than men when the job description did not clarify that salary was negotiable. However, the researchers found that when the job description indicated that wages were negotiable, males and females were equally likely to negotiate.
Your framework for negotiation anchors on the fact that you add value to the organization, making it worth their effort to present you with an attractive offer
Information Gathering
Preparation for salary negotiation begins with information gathering and market research. You need to evaluate your worth and know the market in which you will be negotiating.
Step 1: Know Your Value
Your framework for negotiation anchors on the fact that you add value to the organization, making it worth their effort to present you with an attractive offer. Given this, your first step is knowing your merits. First, make sure you know where you fall on the career ladder. Some technologists who are recent graduates from CAAHEP-accredited neurodiagnostic programs are surprised to learn that, upon graduation, they are already considered a Neurodiagnostic Technologist II (López et al., 2023). Even with limited experience, their formal education, training, and board eligibility could make them especially desirable candidates. Also, knowing which job title aligns with your qualifications will help you find relevant, comparable salary data. For those who have been in the field longer, it might help to draft a list of your professional accomplishments. If you do not have any achievements that set you apart from other candidates, check out the article Strategic Resume Building for Neurodiagnostic Technologists for ideas to build your resume for advancement.
Step 2: Know Your Market
The next critical step in preparing for negotiation is to know market averages. Gather salary information for employees who work in a similar geographic location and setting (e.g., nonprofit hospital, private company, etc.) and who have similar experience and qualifications. Areas with a higher cost of living typically offer higher pay, so, if possible, find out how much similar people have been offered for similar roles in your city or, at the very least, in your state or region.
One detailed source of information is the ASET Salary and Benefits Report, which comes from a survey conducted every three years and sent to over 10,000 neurodiagnostic professionals, including both ASET members and non-members. The report includes salary data by region, credentials held, job title, education, years of experience, facility type, and more, allowing you to zoom in and find the most relevant averages for your situation and background. The survey data is only offered for free to survey participants, so make sure the email address in your ASET account is up to date and that your ASET emails are going to your inbox to ensure you receive the invitation, which will next be issued in 2025.
Speaking to fellow technologists is another approach to information gathering. While discussing money might seem taboo, being afraid to ask others what they earn leads to a disadvantageous lack of information. Remember that you may have the chance to return the favor of sharing salary information to help someone else negotiate. If you do not know many technologists in your area, joining a local ASET chapter can be a great way to network locally. Students and recent graduates can also establish chat groups with their peers to keep a channel of communication open for information sharing after graduation. A built-in benefit of these chat groups is that they include people with similar training and experience since they went through the same program around the same time. If you still feel uncomfortable discussing salary, you can try posing the question on social media but understand that this approach could make it difficult to obtain the targeted numbers you need, since the location, setting, and experience must be similar. Also, if you later need to refer to the source of your data, social media input might not be considered credible.
Additionally, check the job posting for a salary range. Not all job postings include a range, but when they do, it clarifies the upper and lower limits for the position. Websites like Salary.com, Glassdoor.com, and Indeed.com might also be helpful.
With your research complete, you should have a number you consider an appropriate offer to reference when evaluating any offers you receive.
Negotiating at the right time, with the right person, and with the right documentation support successful negotiation
Planning Your Negotiation
Once you have a number or a reasonable range in mind, start planning your negotiation. Negotiating at the right time, with the right person, and with the right documentation support successful negotiation.
When to Negotiate
Knowing when to negotiate in the hiring process is critical. The window between your offer and acceptance is when you have the most negotiating power (Madell, 2024). You should not try to negotiate until after you have been offered the job, and it is best to let the employer bring up the salary first. Waiting until they bring it up will also cue you to the right person to discuss it with. For example, you may interview with a department manager but work with a recruiter to determine your compensation. It is also beneficial to know that you are usually not required to give the employer information about your last salary, and, if possible, you should avoid answering this question directly. If this question is asked before an offer is made, you can deflect by saying, “I’m open to discussing this more as we progress through the hiring process” (Harley, 2024).
The Advantage of Competing Offers
Another tool that you can employ in negotiation is to have competing offers. Applying to several jobs at once, even if you know where you are most interested in working, provides more leverage. Technologists who plan on working for the clinical site where they are trained often overlook this: Because the employer has expressed an interest in hiring them, they do not apply to any other jobs. Then, when it is time to negotiate salary with a recruiter, the technologist has no other offers to negotiate a higher rate, which puts them at a disadvantage. Unfortunately, simply mentioning that another hospital pays more is usually ineffective without written corroboration (e.g., an offer letter).
Thinking Ahead: Document Expected Rate Increases
For technologists who plan to obtain credentials after hire (e.g., R. EEG T., CNIM), it can also be helpful to ask that the employer include the rate increase with registry in the offer letter. If a raise with registry is discussed at the time of hire, having the agreed-upon number in writing ensures that you will receive that amount when you earn your credential. If nothing is in writing, staff or budgets can change, resulting in the employer rescinding the offer (or worse, claiming that it was never agreed to).
Using a win-win framework by highlighting the value you add to the organization and expressing your desire to work for the employer can keep the negotiations positive
Putting it All Together: Practice
When it is time to negotiate, remember that your framework for negotiation is built on your value, not your needs. Do not bring your financial needs or goals into the conversation. Also using a win-win framework by highlighting the value you add to the organization and expressing your desire to work for the employer can keep the negotiations positive. For example, “While Hospital X is my first choice, my market research indicated that $36 per hour is the average for someone with my training and experience in this area. I have teaching experience and would love to help the recent graduates on staff with board prep. The hiring manager and I also discussed using my resources to become a clinical site to create a pipeline of technologists to support management’s expansion of services. Given my potential to help the lab grow, would you consider matching what other hospitals offer in this area?” While you want to communicate your value, balance is essential, and you should avoid overstating your abilities or sounding arrogant. This balance is sometimes tricky to achieve, so it is highly recommended that you practice this conversation with someone else (or even a few different people). Also, make sure that you stick to fair numbers. If you did your market research, you know the range in which you can realistically negotiate. Asking for a salary far above that range can reflect poorly on you, especially if you have received a fair offer.
Caveats
Sometimes, even with thorough research, practice, and tactful negotiation, attempts to achieve a better offer can be unsuccessful. Suppose the employer recently hired two other people with similar experience, and neither of them negotiated. In that case, they may be less inclined to make you a better offer because they have been successful finding technologists who accept lower rates. Additionally, if the employer is facing budget cuts when you are hired, it may hamper your efforts. In that case, you may need to make a difficult decision but remember that renegotiation later is also possible; however, it will likely be more difficult as an employee.
Conclusion
Negotiating your salary can yield tens of thousands of dollars within a few years but knowing when and how to negotiate is critical to success. Keep negotiations positive and focused on the value you add and practice the conversation first. Despite best efforts, sometimes circumstances beyond your control can lead to unsuccessful negotiations, but there is little to lose and much to potentially gain by trying.
