We devote significant time and energy during a job search to answering the question “what is your salary requirement?” And we often base the response on what we want to earn, our salary in our last job, the salary we earned in a different city, or a variety of other factors derived from our needs.
Another idea, in our view, is to develop a market-based response derived from data. Recent Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) career outlook articles suggest factors influencing salary include your:
- Geographic location,
- Education level,
- Experience, and
- Occupation.
These are, of course, not the only factors that will determine the salary you will be offered. Other factors, such as the local rate of unemployment, economic trends in your industry or profession, and your prospective employer’s budget will make a difference, too.
Today, we’ll start with the first four categories to jump-start your market research.
Geographic location has an impact on salary.
The geographic location of your prospective employer may matter, even when the job is fully remote. Chances are that a small employer in a low cost rural town won’t be able to pay the high salary a New Yorker expects.
Nonetheless, data on the highest income cities is readily available. A CNBC report, for example, lists the 25 highest-household-income cities as follows:
- San Francisco, California: $146,872
- San Jose, California: $146,143
- Seattle, Washington: $124,715
- Washington, District of Columbia: $109,300
- San Diego, California: $106,007
- Oakland, California: $101,421
- Boston, Massachusetts: $95,858
- Virginia Beach, Virginia: $94,066
- Austin, Texas: $93,004
- Portland, Oregon: $92,274
- Denver, Colorado: $92,249
- Colorado Springs, Colorado: $84,913
- Long Beach, California: $84,880
- Sacramento, California: $84,836
- Raleigh, North Carolina: $84,489
- Atlanta, Georgia: $83,440
- New York City, New York: $82,314
- Minneapolis, Minnesota: $82,019
- Los Angeles, California: $81,924
- Charlotte, North Carolina: $79,588
- Bakersfield, California: $79,327
- Mesa, Arizona: $79,262
- Fort Worth, Texas: $78,144
- Phoenix, Arizona: $77,463
- Arlington, Texas: $77,080
We recognize that your household income may include more than your own salary. But this figure may offer a good first approximation before you do further research. And, it comes from a credible source.
Another way to assess comparative wage rates in US metro areas to look at minimum wage rates. The federal minimum wage has remained at $7.25 per hour for many years, but it has risen to more than $17 per hour in a few cities. We have gathered minimum wage data for all 50 states and the District of Columbiia and published them in a previous post.
Additionally, certain states and cities have pay transparency laws and regulations. Generally, pay transparency laws and rules require many employers either to publish the pay ranges for their open jobs, or disclose the pay range during their interview process. These rules, where applicable, take even more guesswork out of framing your salary request.
Our posts on pay transparency may help you begin your research.
Education matters
Your income is likely to rise with your education level, according to BLS. For example, their statistics indicate that you could earn nearly 170% more money with a four-year college degree than you would with a high school diploma. While a college degree may entail a significant financial investment if you are not in a locality with a robust public college or university system, this makes educational advancement worth considering. Additionally, both public sector and corporate employers may take your degree—even an irrelevant degree—into account when making a salary offer.
Experience counts!
New graduates and career-changers may not realize that their level of experience counts when asking for a starting salary. For example, the median salary for some IT workers may be in the six-figure range, but it may not be realistic to expect a six-figure offer for your first job in the field.
Research job leads for openings that request your level of experience, and include salary ranges before you quote a salary requirement or discuss an offer, if possible.
Your occupation matters.
Most jobseekers realize, I believe, that their chosen occupation or profession will be a major salary determinant. Nonetheless, we have pulled some general BLS data on occupations, with median wages, and then displayed it below, to illustrate the extent to which occupation matters:
Management, professional, and related occupations; $1,579/week
Service occupations; $742/ week
Sales and office occupations $958/week
Natural resources, construction, and maintenance $1,024/week
Production, transportation, & material moving occupations $884
While the BLS categories above may be far too broad for career planning purposes, they give the student or prospective career-changer a feel for the wide range of salaries and wages for different occupations. Management jobs, for example, pay at least twice as much as service jobs. So your choice of occupation could have a profound impact on your earning power. Avoid nasty surprises when you receive salary offers. And avoid undervaluing your talents. Be sure you are aware of pay ranges for your locality, occupation, education level, and your level of experience.
Guide to the Post-pandemic Job Market
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