Help With Salary Negotiations (It)

[zug]

I'm interviewing for a job and it seems like we're getting close to negotiation time. Wanted some of your ideas of what my skillset should be worth on the local market:

- 5 years systems administration experience, both windows and linux
- 3 years desktop support (softwall installs, active directory pushes, etc)
- some website QA experience
- some programming, mainly perl/php/bash scripting


The job itself is asking for junior linux system administration type work and technical support, but given the interview I think they're going to ask more out of me than that. I want to be prepared in negotiations to name a reasonable number if it comes to that. The company itself is small but US based, if that makes a difference.

 

[citygirl]

Makes no difference if the company is US based. Are you going to be working en blanco for an Argentine entity? If so, your pay can/should be in line with local wages.

Jr system admin work isn't going to pay a lot here.

 

[Desde2008]

I'm interviewing for a job and it seems like we're getting close to negotiation time. Wanted some of your ideas of what my skillset should be worth on the local market:

I think that you will be offered something in the 10K pesos a month ballpark. That is considered a good salary in Buenos Aires.

 

[qpaso]

10k is about right. Check the med care as they have different levels. 310 is a pretty good standard and ask about working national holidays as you might be supporting US schedule. If you have to work them, they should pay doubletime but it depends on the company.

I was sent this the other day on this very subject - http://www.infosalarial.com/contenidos/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3145:sueldos-en-it-a-tecnologia&catid=88:it-a-tecnologia&Itemid=58

 

[zug]

Looks like Info Salarial needs a sysadmin - I get a MySQL db error when I try to go for your link.

Another friend suggested 9k pesos as a minimum, so it looks like I have some consensus.

Also, if I'm working en blanco, what percentage of my pay should I expect to lose to payroll taxes?

 

[Ashley]

You'll probably take home just under 8,000 from a salary of 10. Also, if you're planning on travelling much, you might want to negotiate holiday time before you start too. The standard here starts from 1 week and then goes up...it's pretty terrible really.

 

[Desde2008]

You'll probably take home just under 8,000 from a salary of 10. Also, if you're planning on travelling much, you might want to negotiate holiday time before you start too. The standard here starts from 1 week and then goes up...it's pretty terrible really.

I am not sure of the exact percentage of taxes but it does seem to be somewhere between 20% to 25%. Someone correct me if I am wrong but there are two times during the year where I am paid my salary plus half. So that is an extra month's salary each year. I have heard that it is a law that was passed over 10 years ago that makes this mandatory.

 

[sleslie23]

I am not sure of the exact percentage of taxes but it does seem to be somewhere between 20% to 25%. Someone correct me if I am wrong but there are two times during the year where I am paid my salary plus half. So that is an extra month's salary each year. I have heard that it is a law that was passed over 10 years ago that makes this mandatory.

I guess that depends on your perspective. When I negotiated my salary before being transferred here, I had not clue about the "aquinaldo." It was quite a shock to find out that my monthly salary was my yearly salary divided by 13, rather than 12.

 

[citygirl]

Contracts here typically are written here (if you have one) and negotiated on a monthly salary. sleslie, sorry about your situation. Sounds like the employer might have taken a wee bit of advantage of you on that one. Any monthly salary over 10.000 pesos will have increased withholdings since the company must withhold part of it for income taxes. There is a website you can google that will tell you your net take home based on your gross monthly salary.

To also qualify 2 statements earlier. Your aguinaldo (13th month) is broken up into 2 parts and paid in the middle and end of the year. It is actually calculated on the highest monthly salary earned in the previous months so in fact, if you have earned a bonus, etc, your aguinaldo will be higher than 1/2 of your normal monthly salary. Just an FYI.

Also, I have never heard of 1 week of vacation. The law is after 1 year of work, you are entitled to 14 days of vacation (which includes vacation). So net, it is really 10 working days or 2 weeks after your first full year. So if you started now, you would obviously only earn the pro-rated portion of that for 2012. Typically everyone takes their vacations in January. Also, don't forget to clarify if you are receiving feriados here. OF which there are MANY. 14 extra days off or so a year

You'll want to know about your salary reviews. Are they doing it once or twice a year?

 

[Inferno.]

Another friend suggested 9k pesos as a minimum, so it looks like I have some consensus.

Also, if I'm working en blanco, what percentage of my pay should I expect to lose to payroll taxes?

It always depends if the amount that you are getting is "neto" or "bruto". The net salary is the amount with all the tax deductions, the one that goes into the bank account. The second one is usually the one HR speaks about and puts into the job offer. Because there are many factors that could affect this, they don't usually like to say how much you are going to get, so they stick with the gross salary per month.

If you have a salary of 10,000 ARS, you are going to be deducted by your employer 2 things:

17% (it includes retirement, med care, other taxes, everything by law)
x% (tax of high earnings, impuesto a las ganancias, it varies according to the salary, quantity of children, if you are married or not, etc.)

If you are alone, no kids, no fathers/mothers/others that you are taking care and could put into your tax declaration, this is going to be around 4,800 pesos each year. You can expect your employer to retain 400$ each month (more when you have the aguinaldo). So, you are going to be earning around ~7900/8000$ pesos each month.

I think you should not accept anything below 9,000 brutos. Thats a good salary. Besides, you speak english, that's also a plus to mention in the interview. They probably have contact with the office in USA so that;s going to be handy.

Chris