# What Can you negotiate as a Salary with Contractors **URL:** \ **Category:** SECURITY CLEARANCE Q&A\ **Created:** [June 16, 2019, 12:29pm UTC](https://discuss.clearancejobsblog.com/t/what-can-you-negotiate-as-a-salary-with-contractors/7382 "2019-06-16T12:29:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![My95s](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discuss.clearancejobsblog.com/my95s/32/241_2.png) [@My95s](https://discuss.clearancejobsblog.com/u/My95s)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2019, 12:29pm UTC](https://discuss.clearancejobsblog.com/t/what-can-you-negotiate-as-a-salary-with-contractors/7382/1 "2019-06-16T12:29:23Z")
What have yall negotiated as a salary and pay for contracts including benefits ? ---
**Author:** ![amberbunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e47774/32.png) [@amberbunny](https://discuss.clearancejobsblog.com/u/amberbunny)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2019, 3:54pm UTC](https://discuss.clearancejobsblog.com/t/what-can-you-negotiate-as-a-salary-with-contractors/7382/2 "2019-06-17T15:54:44Z")
Everything. No matter what they tell you. Everything is negotiable if they want you. Now, that said, if you have a common skill, or there are many just like you…they have no reason to negotiate. I would study Glassdoor and other compensation web pages. Know your value and what you bring to the team. Be able to articulate that. Many times they will simply bring you in as a mid tier employee and that may accelerate your PTO or 401K match.Shoot for slightly higher than mid tier of what the position regularly pays and let them negotiate back to mid tier. If you get that you did well. Now if you are brand new to the career you do not have as much to offer. But with the economy as it is now puts you in the catbird seat. Particularly if you have options. ---
**Author:** ![h0peful1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ecccb3/32.png) [@h0peful1](https://discuss.clearancejobsblog.com/u/h0peful1)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2019, 2:21pm UTC](https://discuss.clearancejobsblog.com/t/what-can-you-negotiate-as-a-salary-with-contractors/7382/3 "2019-06-20T14:21:02Z")
If they’re a half decent contractor, they won’t totally lowball you (employees talk and get a general consensus of that they’re being paid, and pissing off your new employees right off the bat isn’t a good idea) but they’ll probably offer you a few grand below that they’d eventually offer. Don’t feel bad, they’re billing for much more per hour than what you’re getting. Where I’m at now, I took the initial offer as I thought it was fair, only for them to adjust my pay up 3 months in. No complaints there. ---
**Author:** ![amberbunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e47774/32.png) [@amberbunny](https://discuss.clearancejobsblog.com/u/amberbunny)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2019, 3:25pm UTC](https://discuss.clearancejobsblog.com/t/what-can-you-negotiate-as-a-salary-with-contractors/7382/4 "2019-06-20T15:25:51Z")
I agree they usually try to not insult you. Some will give a range, and offer you 25% up from bottom, you should negotiate to get 75% up…and then jointly settle on about 50% up the range. That my approach and I have been successful with it for quite a while. ---
**Author:** ![My95s](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discuss.clearancejobsblog.com/my95s/32/241_2.png) [@My95s](https://discuss.clearancejobsblog.com/u/My95s)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2019, 5:36pm UTC](https://discuss.clearancejobsblog.com/t/what-can-you-negotiate-as-a-salary-with-contractors/7382/5 "2019-06-20T17:36:36Z")
Can you give me an example? ---
**Author:** ![My95s](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discuss.clearancejobsblog.com/my95s/32/241_2.png) [@My95s](https://discuss.clearancejobsblog.com/u/My95s)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2019, 11:19am UTC](https://discuss.clearancejobsblog.com/t/what-can-you-negotiate-as-a-salary-with-contractors/7382/6 "2019-06-21T11:19:18Z")
Can you give a numerical example ---
**Author:** ![amberbunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e47774/32.png) [@amberbunny](https://discuss.clearancejobsblog.com/u/amberbunny)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2019, 8:50pm UTC](https://discuss.clearancejobsblog.com/t/what-can-you-negotiate-as-a-salary-with-contractors/7382/7 "2019-06-21T20:50:54Z")
That is market and job specific. Use [salary.com](http://salary.com) or [payscale.com](http://payscale.com), Glassdoor, etc to determine a fair range of salaries in a given area. Compare your skill set to the suggested range. Some use a Bell Curve to show you the differing skill sets that bring certain dollars. For instance a graduate degree and certifications in one area my be the determining factor is a high offer. But it doesn’t mean anything if I want to be a welder. In that field how good I can weld is what matters. In the cleared world the higher the clearance, the different communities you worked in and around can count for a lot more. Normally a company wants you to give the first number. Don’t. Tell them you are confident a company as good as theirs will give a fair, competitive offer. If pressed into a corner, state the range you researched on line and bump up where you feel you fall. Normally it is expressed in a range of 10K. If you shoot just over the 75% point, let them ease back into the 50% part. That way your experience is recognized and you feel you got a little something. ---
**Author:** ![laughingman](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discuss.clearancejobsblog.com/laughingman/32/362_2.png) [@laughingman](https://discuss.clearancejobsblog.com/u/laughingman)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2019, 11:08am UTC](https://discuss.clearancejobsblog.com/t/what-can-you-negotiate-as-a-salary-with-contractors/7382/8 "2019-06-23T11:08:05Z")
This is a very vague question - in the DMV, Help Desk get paid between $60K-$80K and Sys Admins/Eng get around $95K all the way to $165K or even higher in some cases. But as others have mentioned above, everything is negotiable depending on what skill set you have.