Salary Advice

[Dublin2BuenosAires]

I am currently negotiating a starting salary with a former employer. They are a US multinational in the financial services space, typically they pay towards the top end of the pay scale. They have advised that they will 'do the right thing' in relation to a starting salary, with the caveat that this will be a local contract, i.e. in pesos.

The role is within the internal IT organisation and would be equivalent to a Project Manager role. It is more a business consulting role, one internal pay grade above senior functional/business analyst. The hiring manager is based in Europe and has asked for my thoughts on a salary. When looking salary guide websites I noticed a fairly wide spread in salary ranges for an equivalent role.

If anyone can offer advice on a realistic and yet competitive salary for this type of role I would be very grateful. Happy to discuss via PM or in thread.

Thanks.

 

[citygirl]

My advice - the employer should always come to you with the first offer. There is no win in it for you to start the negotiations. I would go back to them and ask them to come up with a starting point for the discussion commensurate with the local rates.

This is a US company but with a hiring manager in Europe correct? Do they have teams here? If they do, I guarantee they have salary bands already established for Argentina. Most multi-nationals aren't going to go outside of those bands. Their local HR dept should be coming up with a figure to start the discussions.

The description is pretty vague and PM salaries can range from a little to a lot. Will you be managing teams?

The local PMs I know that are managing teams and are paid in/support the local market, the average en bruto salary is probably around 13-15K a month (pesos). For those that are PMs but don't have management responsibility, less. Probably under 10K a month.

 

[sleslie23]

In my experience (IT) the employee generally provides the salary expectation and the employer either meets that or tries to negotiate. Personally, I think this is better because it's harder to go up once the negotiation begins. A lot depends on whether they need you in Argentina more than you need them. If the former, then you will have a lot more leverage. When I moved here, I was able to negotiate a higher salary than the established salary bands because my employer wanted me here and I was still cheaper than the US.

That said, I would strongly recommend getting some sort of "guarantee" that you will get periodic cost of living increases. That higher salary I mentioned above is not so high after 5 years of high inflation with relatively no cost of living increase. I am at the whim of managers in the US that don't understand that inflation is 30% not what INDEC says.

 

[PhilipDT]

In my experience (IT) the employee generally provides the salary expectation and the employer either meets that or tries to negotiate. Personally, I think this is better because it's harder to go up once the negotiation begins.

Citygirl is right there is no benefit to starting negotiations with your bid.

 

[sleslie23]

Citygirl is right there is no benefit to starting negotiations with your bid.

I didn't mean to imply that you should start the interview/transfer process by discussing salary. That generally happens at the end.

That said, I'm not sure what industry you guys work in that you don't provide salary requirements as a potential employee. Nor can I understand how it's not in your benefit to provide them.

 

[citygirl]

The person that provides the opening bid is always in the weaker position when negotiating - that's basic common sense. Let's say you think 50.000 USD a year is a great salary and you start with that. The employer might have been willing to offer you up to 60 but the minute you say 50, they're going to take it.

And I negotiated salaries as an employer (across all industries, including IT). I loved when an employee started it off b/c I immediately had the upper hand. And in most cases, it worked out to my benefit and the employee wound up receiving less than I would have been wiling to pay them.

Unless you are VERY familiar with the market and salaries of your peers, employees are ill served by starting negotiations.

* The above is in reference to a direct position with a company. If you are looking at project work, typically the rates (be it hourly/day/per project) are open knowledge prior to discussions commencing. I have an hourly rate for project work that I publicize and it's well known by both sides prior. But that is an entirely different subject than discussing direct positions with companies.

 

[PhilipDT]

What she said! Although let me provide a slightly different interpertation of Citygirl's example:

"Let's say you think 50.000 USD a year is a great salary and you start with that.  The employer might have been willing to offer you up to 60 but the minute you say 50, they're going to take it."

Or they may recognize that as 50 was your opening offer, you might still be happy with less, and try to push you to 45. Remember every dollar they don't pay you is an extra dollar in the bottomline.

 

[citygirl]

Philip is quite correct - great correction/clarification.

 

[Dublin2BuenosAires]

Just to add a note of thanks for you advice. I am looking for some sort of benchmark to start off with. There will be no interview, I will be the only resource in lat am in a new department. Yes i have a good hand to play, as they need someone with the IP i bring from europe having worked in a similar area internally. They approached me (disrupting my professional sabbatical !). The dept head / svp will be based in europe , i wont be included in the local headcount and will have a local contract. So the discussion is initially between myself and european dept head to agree a salary (neither of us have a benchmark) and then to push that through the HR dept here. Although it is not their budget (in BA) we have to benchmark against the local market.

Thanks again. ...a little in the dark as to what w should benchmark against, looking at say the top quarter of the local salary range for an equivalent role.

I know that is vague, but the role is a hybrid role (biz/IT) and is new for the company. It is a permanent role.

 

[fifs2]

Just to add a note of thanks for you advice. I am looking for some sort of benchmark to start off with. There will be no interview, I will be the only resource in lat am in a new department. Yes i have a good hand to play, as they need someone with the IP i bring from europe having worked in a similar area internally. They approached me (disrupting my professional sabbatical !). The dept head / svp will be based in europe , i wont be included in the local headcount and will have a local contract. So the discussion is initially between myself and european dept head to agree a salary (neither of us have a benchmark) and then to push that through the HR dept here. Although it is not their budget (in BA) we have to benchmark against the local market.

Thanks again. ...a little in the dark as to what w should benchmark against, looking at say the top quarter of the local salary range for an equivalent role.

I know that is vague, but the role is a hybrid role (biz/IT) and is new for the company. It is a permanent role.

You know I dont know how you can lose by making an initial offer yourself. Think of a salary you feel will give you a good life here and make the offer..if it's off the wall they'll laugh and make you an offer they think is fair. In 2005 we had a girl we hired as Project Coordinator from Europe and coming to Bas who said her min. salary requirement was 3-4k euros. I politely declined and suggested 5k pesos was the max. at that time...she came to Bsas and accepted..noone lost face in the process. We are an SME working with bilingual Pms in the IT sector and pay 10-12k pesos net for our guys with experience. They have no direct supervision responsibilities but deal with high end customers like Oracle and Sony. If you're talking a multinational I'd suggest you pitch for 20k net + annual inflation & performance adjustment. I'm quite sure you can live well on that. Just my own thoughts.