Salary negotiation tips, email scripts, and what to say to HR

You have an offer. The number is fine, not great, and you have a short window to say yes, ask for more, or let the moment pass. Most people let it pass. Fidelity's 2022 Career Assessment Study found that 55% of workers don't ask for more when a new position is offered to them, and the reasons are almost always the same: fear the offer gets pulled, discomfort with the conversation, or simply not knowing what to actually say.

The position worth stating early: that fear is measurably out of proportion to the risk. In the same Fidelity study, 87% of Americans who countered on salary, other compensation, or benefits got at least some of what they asked for, and 73% of employers said they were willing to negotiate an initial offer at all. A much larger, more recent field experiment tracking real tech job seekers found something sharper still: candidates who were simply told, accurately, that companies expect negotiation were seven percentage points more likely to counter their offer than a control group who weren't told anything, and the group that countered ended up with meaningfully higher pay as a result. The gap between negotiating and not negotiating isn't really about leverage. It's about whether you know the conversation is normal and have the words ready when the offer lands.

What the data actually says about negotiating

The Fidelity figures above come directly from the company's own learning center, drawing on its 2022 Career Assessment Study: 55% of workers don't ask for a higher salary when a new role is offered, 73% of employers say they're willing to negotiate an initial offer, and 87% of people who did counter got at least part of what they asked for.

A separate, more rigorous source backs the same conclusion from a different angle. Researchers Zoe Cullen (Harvard), Bobak Pakzad-Hurson (Brown), and Ricardo Perez-Truglia (UCLA Anderson) ran a field experiment with nearly 3,900 tech job seekers recruited through levels.fyi between 2023 and 2025, as described in UCLA Anderson Review's research brief. One group received a short message stating plainly that companies expect candidates to negotiate, along with real data on how often countering succeeds. That group countered their offers 61% of the time, against 54% in a group that received no such message, a seven-point gap caused by nothing more than being told the norm. The researchers also found that negotiating produced an average compensation increase of 12.45%, which for this specific, highly-paid sample worked out to roughly $27,000 a year. Your own number will look different, since this sample skewed toward senior tech roles, but the direction of the finding, that negotiating consistently beats not negotiating, held across the study.

Neither study claims every ask succeeds, and neither claims a specific number for your specific offer. What they do establish is that the baseline fear, that asking is risky or unusual, doesn't match what actually happens most of the time.

The four-part structure behind a counter that works

A counter that lands well almost always has the same four pieces, in the same order, whether it's written in an email or said out loud on a call.

1. Genuine enthusiasm, stated first. Open by confirming you want the job. A counter that reads as a threat to walk reads very differently from one that reads as "I'm in, let's get the number right."
2. A specific number, not a range. A range invites the employer to anchor to the bottom of it. A single number, even one you arrived at with some flexibility in mind, forces a direct response. This is specific to countering a written offer that's already on the table. It's a different moment from an application's salary-expectations field, asked before any offer exists, where a range is the better move: there, you're the one setting the first anchor rather than responding to one, so leaving room to negotiate matters more than forcing a direct response.
3. A reason the number is reasonable, tied to market data, a competing offer, or the scope of the role, not to your personal financial needs. "I need more because rent went up" asks the employer to solve your budget. "Based on what similar roles are paying in this market, I was expecting closer to X" asks them to match a number that already exists outside the conversation.
4. A clear, low-pressure close. State what you need to make a decision and by when, without an ultimatum. "If we can land on X, I'm ready to accept and get started" moves the conversation toward a yes rather than a standoff.

Every script below follows this same four-part shape. Once you've used it a couple of times, you'll start hearing it in reverse, as the shape of how employers respond too.

Email scripts you can copy

The first counter, right after you receive an offer

Subject: Re: Offer for [Role title]

Hi [Name],

Thank you for the offer, I'm genuinely excited about this role and the team. Before I confirm, I'd like to talk through the base salary. Based on the scope of this position and what similar roles are paying in this market, I was expecting something closer to [specific number]. Is there flexibility to get there?

I'm ready to move quickly once we land on a number that works for both of us. Happy to jump on a call this week if that's easier than email.

Best, [Your name]

When you have a competing offer to point to

Subject: Re: Offer for [Role title]

Hi [Name],

I wanted to be upfront: I've also received an offer from another company at [figure, or "a higher base salary" if you'd rather not share the exact number]. This role is still my preferred option, and I'd like to find a way to make the numbers work here rather than go elsewhere.

Would you be able to come closer to [specific number]? I can confirm quickly once we're aligned.

Thanks, [Your name]

Negotiating start date or a signing bonus instead of base pay

Subject: Re: Offer for [Role title]

Hi [Name],

Thanks again for the offer. I understand there may be less room on the base salary itself, so I wanted to ask about two other areas: a signing bonus to help bridge the gap, and a start date of [date] rather than [original date], since I have a prior commitment to wrap up.

Either of these would make a real difference on my end, and I'm otherwise ready to accept.

Best, [Your name]

Following up if they come back with "this is final"

Subject: Re: Offer for [Role title]

Hi [Name],

I appreciate you checking. Given where things landed, I'd like to accept the offer as it stands. Could you send over the formal paperwork when you have a moment?

Looking forward to getting started.

Best, [Your name]

Notice that last script isn't a defeat. Asking once, respectfully, costs you nothing with 73% of employers already expecting it. Knowing when to accept gracefully is as much a part of the skill as knowing how to ask.

What to actually say to HR or the hiring manager on a call

Phone or video negotiations follow the same four-part structure, but two specific moments trip people up every time.

When they ask "what number are you looking for?" before you've said one yourself. Don't deflect with a range. Say: "Based on the scope of this role and current market rates, I was expecting something around [number]. How does that compare to what you have budgeted?" That last question matters, it hands the next move back to them rather than leaving you to fill an awkward silence with a lower number than you meant to say.

When they say "this is our best and final offer." Don't argue with the word final. Instead, separate the base salary from everything else: "I understand the base is set. Is there room on the signing bonus, start date, or review timeline instead?" Compensation is rarely only the base number, and employers who genuinely cannot move the base often can move one of these other levers without needing new budget approval.

In both cases, a short pause before you answer is fine. It reads as considered, not uncertain.

A worked example: turning a $75,000 offer into $82,000

A candidate receives an offer of $75,000 for a marketing coordinator role. Comparable postings in the same city, found through a quick search of current job ads, cluster between $78,000 and $86,000 for the same title and experience level. The candidate emails back the same day using the first script above, naming $83,000 specifically and citing the market range as the reason.

The hiring manager replies two days later: budget only allows $79,000, but they can add a $3,000 signing bonus and move the start date back two weeks to accommodate the candidate's notice period at their current job. The candidate accepts, landing at $79,000 base plus a $3,000 bonus, effectively $82,000 in year one, up from the original $75,000 offer, for the cost of one email and a two-day wait. Nothing about this exchange required confrontation. It required a specific number, a market-based reason, and the willingness to ask once.

Common mistakes that tank a negotiation before it starts

• Naming a range instead of a number. "Somewhere between $75,000 and $85,000" reads to most employers as "I'll take $75,000."
• Negotiating before you have a written offer. Verbal numbers shift. Wait until an offer is in writing before you counter against it.
• Justifying the ask with personal need rather than market value. Rent, debt, and family costs are real, but they don't give the employer a number to compare against. Market data does.
• Treating the first no as final. "This is our best offer on base" is often true and still leaves room on start date, bonus, or review timeline, as the worked example above shows.
• Going silent after accepting a lower number out of relief. If you accept below what you asked for, it's fine to ask once more, briefly, about a six-month compensation review tied to performance, rather than letting the number sit unchanged for a year.

Common questions

Will negotiating my salary get a job offer rescinded?

It's extremely rare for a professional, respectful counter to cause an offer to be pulled, and Fidelity's data shows the majority of employers expect and accept negotiation as a normal part of hiring. Our guide to what to do if an offer is rescinded covers the separate, much rarer situations where offers do fall through, and negotiating alone is not a common cause.

How much more should I ask for than the initial offer?

There's no universal percentage, since it depends on how far the initial offer sits below market rate for the role, location, and experience level. A reasonable approach is to research the actual range for comparable postings first, then ask for a specific number near the top of that range rather than guessing at a percentage increase.

Should I negotiate salary over email or on a phone call?

Either works, and the four-part structure in this guide applies to both. Email gives you time to word the ask carefully and creates a written record; a call can resolve things faster and lets you respond to pushback in real time. Many negotiations end up using both, an initial email followed by a short call to finalize details.

What if the employer says the offer is non-negotiable?

Ask whether that applies specifically to the base salary or to the whole package. Many employers that hold firm on base salary still have flexibility on signing bonus, start date, remote work days, or the timing of a performance review, none of which require the same budget approval as a base salary change.

Is it bad to bring up a competing offer if I don't actually have one?

Yes. Citing a competing offer you don't have is a lie that's easy to expose if the employer asks a follow-up question about it, and it undermines the rest of the conversation if discovered. Market-rate data for the role is a more defensible, and equally effective, reason to cite instead.

Does salary negotiation work the same way for a raise at a current job as for a new offer?

The same four-part structure applies, but the reasoning shifts: instead of citing market rate for a role you haven't started, you're citing specific, quantified contributions since your last review. Our guide to quantifying resume achievements covers how to turn vague accomplishments into the kind of specific numbers a raise conversation also needs.

Where ResumeProofed fits, and where it doesn't

ResumeProofed doesn't negotiate on your behalf or generate a counter-offer email for you, this is a conversation only you can have, and no tool should pretend otherwise. What it can do is make sure the resume and cover letter that got you the offer in the first place are backed by real, specific numbers from your own career, the same kind of concrete evidence that makes a market-rate argument credible once you're sitting across from HR.

Try ResumeProofed free: two tailored applications on the house, no card required.