Negotiating a graduate salary

When you finish your degree and get close to securing your first position in the tax profession, you’ll soon have to negotiate your initial salary.

But do you know what you’re worth?

Getting your foot in the door and landing a graduate role is difficult enough without having to haggle over money as well.

Here are some tips to help you with your negotiations. You can use this guide to understand what to expect and how to ask for what you deserve.

Research before asking

Tax roles are varied, and the range of starting salaries is broad, depending on the industry and the size and type of the organisation. You’ll see considerable differences between offers from government agencies, large corporate organisations and small businesses.

If a prospective employer hasn’t indicated the salary up-front, you can undertake a comparison study of graduate salaries in similar organisations. That way, you can have a figure in mind when you start speaking with the hiring manager.

For this, you can use tools such as the Australian Government’s Job Outlook website, research sites like LiveSalary, and salary guides offered by recruitment firms and job listing websites.

Some role descriptions state a salary range. To successfully negotiate the top rate, you’ll first need to check that you meet all of the position’s essential criteria and most of the desired criteria. You should also support this with impressive academic results and/or comprehensive work experience.

The negotiation

In many graduate roles, you’ll find there’s little room to move. For example, government and corporate graduate hiring rounds tend to have standard starting salaries. So, before you even consider haggling, find out first if the salary is negotiable.

However, what if you encounter the following situations?

• You’re asked, up-front, what salary you expect: Have a figure, or a range, ready. Let the hiring manager know you’ve done your research. Also, bear in mind the gender pay gap – female graduates are less likely to be proactive in salary negotiations, which means they often get only what the organisation offers.

• The employer indicates a salary that’s lower your expectations: Be frank and tell the hiring manager what you expect, based on your research. If you’re keen, ask if there’s room to move on that figure in the near future. If you’re not completely convinced, be prepared to walk away. The tax profession has opportunities, so it may be worth waiting for something more suitable.

• You’re offered a position before you have discussed money: In this case, you have leverage to name a price, because you know the employer wants you. Start as high as you think they’ll go, but be prepared to make concessions for non-financial perks, such as support for postgraduate study.

Sometimes the organisation may not have the money to pay the salary you ask. Or they may simply want to see how you perform before they pay you a higher salary. In this case, consider a package of some type. Think about what you might want in the way of opportunities – and keep negotiations open by securing the promise of a salary review down the line.

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Five resources for salary research

Salaries vary significantly from state to state and from one firm to the next. Along with starting pay, you’ll also want to find out how much you can potentially earn as you climb your chosen career ladder. For example, while tax accountants and tax lawyers attract roughly the same starting salary, the latter can expect to earn $50,000 more when at the top of their field.

Here are five resources to get you started in your search.

1. MyCareer

This popular job-search website pulls its salary data from positions advertised in the last 90 days. It also allows you to drill down to the relevant sub-sector – for example, under the ‘Legal’ category, you can find the average salary range of lawyers specialising in taxation.

2. Hays

With offices in Australia and New Zealand, the Hays annual salary guide covers payroll trends in both countries. Tax accountant salaries in the ‘Commerce and Industry’ and ‘Professional Practice’ sectors are listed by geographic location, and further sub-categorised according to length of industry experience. Legal salaries cover both in-house roles and top-tier, mid-tier and small private practice firms.

3. Robert Half

Robert Half International publishes an annual Salary Guide containing comprehensive salary information for finance and accounting jobs in Auckland, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney. Data for small, medium and large firms is included under each job category. If you are interested in an in-house tax accountant role within the mining sector, that’s also covered. You can also find out how much salaries have changed since last year.

4. Robert Walters

Now in its 15th edition, the Australian version of the Robert Walters Global Salary Survey looks at both permanent (per annum) and contract (per hour) pay ranges for tax accountants and tax managers, as well as legal professionals (albeit not specific to tax law).

5. PayScale

The salary data on this website – which includes tax professionals – is self-reported by employees, so the figures may not be the most solid. However, the site does give you the option of generating a salary report that tells you how well you are doing relative to your industry peers – in exchange for your own salary data, of course.

Snagging a salary package within the tax sector that ticks all the right boxes can be tricky, but these resources can at least ensure you are coming to the negotiating table with the right information on hand.

Give yourself the edge with free Student Membership

If you are a tertiary education student, The Tax Institute can help you progress in your career journey.

Find out about Student Membership.