How to Write a Salary Negotiation Email + 3 Free Templates

Opening your email to find a job offer is exhilarating unless the salary isn’t what you hoped.

Is it time to write a salary negotiation email? Probably!

When the compensation is surprisingly low, it’s absolutely worth working toward a compromise. Even if the salary number is rigid, you can always negotiate other benefits.

Get ready to get confident, creative, and paid your worth. Let’s negotiate.

Is It Acceptable to Send a Salary Negotiation Email? 

Face-to-face conversations about salary and job offers are usually preferable.

Typically, we’d encourage any employee to negotiate and communicate their worth in real life. This way, spoken words or non-verbal cues can help drive your point home.

However, there are times when the written word can be quite compelling. When a salary negotiation requires sign-offs from multiple decision-makers, email is a great g0-to.

In these cases, an email detailing your qualifications, salary range, skill set, and desired compensation package is ideal. 

Three Times to Negotiate Salary Via Email

Let’s explore three common salary negotiation email scenarios and what to focus on in your counter offer letter. 

• When You’ve Received an Initial Offer Via Email 
• When You’ve Been Invited to Put Your Proposed Salary Increase Request in Writing 
• When All of Your Job-Related Correspondence Has Been Conducted Through Email

If you’ve received an initial job offer via email and you’ve been invited to counteroffer via email, then you have the green light. Let’s get to emailing.

What to Include In Your Salary Negotiation Email

In this case, start your email with gratitude for the offer.

However, quickly communicate how the current offer doesn’t quite match one or more of the following:

• Acceptable salary for job description
• Salary expectations that may or may not have been previously discussed
• Market value for the job description and/or job title 
• Market average in relation to industry, company size, years of experience

If you’re really not comfortable putting this in writing and you’d prefer to speak with someone, simply communicate that in a short email.

Ask to set up a time to connect quickly over the telephone, video chat, or in-person to discuss the offer. 

5 Salary Negotiation Tips to Consider When Negotiating a Higher Salary Offer

When coming into a salary negotiation, knowledge is power. The more you know, the more compelling your case will be. 

Beyond the information you’ll gather, the most important tool to have is confidence. We have been taught to regard money as a taboo subject and it doesn’t serve us as employees. 

Once you conduct your research, go in with confidence. 

1. Know Your Salary Market Rate 

Let’s talk salary tools. Using salary research tools like Glassdoor, Salary.com, and our own The Salary Project, gather salaries from your industry, for your role, and (if possible) at your company. 

You might find vastly different salaries from different tools. Don’t be alarmed. Tools are meant to be a guide to shed light. 

Learn and memorize market rates for your role. If you’re seeing that you’re being lowballed, and it’s obvious across the board, you could even consider linking to some of your research within your email. 

For example: 

“I have been researching salaries for my job position in similarly-sized companies and I am finding a salary range of $75000-$82000 to be common across the board.”

It’s a bold power move, but it just might work. 

2. Know Your Particular Worth + Value Add

Many of us have responsibilities that fall out of range of our actual job title.

We take on extra work because we’re “team players”. The salary negotiation process is not the time to be a team player.

It’s the time to show that you work hard. More importantly, it’s the time to communicate that your hard work has a dollar amount affixed to it. 

If you’ve been offered a salary increase for your Marketing Associate position, but you know your job is closer to that of a Marketing Manager, communicate that.

Get your title and salary upgraded. 

Write out your responsibilities and compare them to your job role and similar job roles. If you find that you’re actually doing the job of someone with a much higher pay grade, now is your time to show it. 

3. Ask Clarifying Questions About Total Compensation

Many companies are sheepish about their salary structures because they’re skimming off the top or they don’t really have a salary structure at all. 

If the salary offer you’ve received is substantially lower than what you’re finding in your market research, ask about it.  Here’s how:

“I am finding a salary range of $75000-$82000 to be common across the board. Can you explain how [COMPANY’] breaks down its salary structure and why this one falls so far below the median range?” 

4. Be Confident + Clear

Don’t be flowery or apologetic in your email. 

Don’t feel the need to re-sell yourself. By the time you’re in this negotiation process, you’ve either recently completed a thorough interview process or you’ve done stellar work within the company. 

Communicate your value, but be direct in insisting that you are worth more, not that you want more or you need more. You’re worth more. Period. 

5. Edit Your Email + Send

Last but not least, edit your email.

Take out any weak language. Look for weak-sounding phrases like, “I think”, “I just”, “I feel” or “Maybe I’m wrong, but..”.

Keep everything as direct as possible. After all, you don’t “feel” that you deserve better compensation. You deserve better compensation.

You’re here to negotiate what you deserve. You’re not bamboozling anyone or begging for giveaways. 

You have earned your spot and it’s time your pay grade reflects that. 

Salary Negotiation Email Templates

We have the email templates ready for you Use these as a starting point to counter-offer the salary.

If you have any other tricks up your sleeve, like another job offer, you can consider sharing that to respond to a job offer as leverage. 

If you’re a current employee negotiating a raise, maybe don’t do that just yet.

Instead, be prepared for further negotiations by thickening your smile file of accomplishments, praise, and data-backed wins you have achieved in your time at the organization. 

Re: Job Offer from Prospective Employer

So, you received a job offer from a potential employer after phone interviews, video interviews, and days (or weeks!) of waiting. As you read the subject line of the email, you’re practically salivating. However, when you open it and read the offer, you’re deflated. 

You were expecting a higher starting salary offer especially due to your experience, your stellar interview, and your flawless references. So, here’s what you can say in response. 

Greetings [NAME], 

I was thrilled to see your email hit my inbox this morning, especially since I had such a great experience interviewing and meeting my potential teammates. 

I believe that my experience in [EXPERTISE], [EXPERTISE], and [EXPERTISE] are going to be a great fit to tackle the goals for the upcoming year. I especially am excited to bring my knowledge of [INDUSTRY] to the team to grow that sector. 

Unfortunately, the offered salary of [SALARY OFFER] doesn’t quite match up with my experience, especially as it pertains to the market rate and my additional experience. 

In regard to my experience and qualifications, I would be more comfortable with a salary of [COUNTER SALARY]. I believe this starting salary better reflects my experience and the value I can bring to this team. 

If we can meet at that salary, I am an enthusiastic yes. 

If not, I am happy to discuss this further. 

[SIGN OFF], 

NAME

Negotiating a Salary Increase at Your Current Company 

If you’re writing a salary negotiation email with your current company, then you’re likely already familiarized with the person emailing you, the company’s structure, and maybe some of your current coworker’s salaries.

If you’re not familiar, the salary negotiation process is a great time to find out what others make in similar roles with similar experience. 

If you’ve received an offer that doesn’t appeal to you, this is a great time to reiterate your job title, responsibilities, your successes so far, and your level of experience at your current company. 

Here is a negotiation email template to get you started on your negotiations. 

Re: Enhanced Benefits and Perks (In Lieu of Salary) 

If the salary offer you received has been communicated as an inflexible base salary number, you do still have recourse. 

Use your salary negotiation letter to communicate the market rate for your role, according to your in-depth research. Assuming that this number is, indeed, inflexible, find other ways to meet your requirements. 

Negotiation Items to Consider

• Increased paid vacation time
• A flexible work schedule
• A workable structure for bi-annual or annual performance-based bonuses,
• Better health coverage,
• Telecommuting or commuter stipends
• Education stipends

Here is a sample of a salary negotiation email that leverages a better benefits package over a higher base salary: 

Greetings [Current Employer’s Name],

Thank you for sending your offer yesterday. 

As we have discussed, during my [TIME] here at [COMPANY], I have kept my base salary the same, despite upskilling and taking on increased responsibilities without a title change or a salary adjustment. 

Per your offer email, I understand that the salary of [SALARY OFFER] is inflexible. However, since the average salary for a [JOB POSITION] with [YEARS OF EXPERIENCE] in [GEO AREA] for [COMPANY SIZE] in [INDUSTRY] is closer to, [RESEARCHED SALARY RANGE], the offer comes out below my expectations. 

However, as I do value my position here a [COMPANY], I took the liberty of crunching some numbers to create a structure that comes closer to [RESEARCHED SALARY RANGE] via increased benefits and flexibility. 

I can accept [SALARY OFFER] as it stands alongside an additional two weeks of paid vacation and a monthly stipend of $300 to increase my skills and grow my role here at [COMPANY].

To Summarize, my requests are:

Option A:

[RESEARCHED SALARY RANGE]

or 

Option B:

[SALARY OFFER]

+ Additional Two (2) weeks’ paid vacation

+$300 monthly learning stipend 

I am available to discuss this more at your convenience. I hope we can work out a mutually beneficial package and continue to do great work together here at [COMPANY]

Sign off, 

[YOUR NAME]