It’s important to remember, however, that there are many parts of an employment “package” beyond money. Benefits may include: time off (vacation, personal days and sick leave), retirement plan contribution, health insurance, life insureance, etc.

New hires (and continuing employees) should think about what is important to them – if an employer is stuck on salary, but can be generous in other areas, those additional “perks” could be of high value to you and may be worth a trade off in target salary.

This is the case in most negotiations when people focus solely on price. Often there are other important interests (of your own and theirs) that when considered carefully, open the door for maximum value in a negotiation, at little cost to the other.