Curtley-Óg
Registered User
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- 38
Last week, following an application/interview process, I received an offer for an internal role which involves an increase in pay grade.
The increase is ca 13%, along with a car allowance of ca Eur 175 / month after tax (and adjusted for my working 3 days per week, which I have since 2015)
This promotion is only my second change of grade in over 13 years with the company, the last being in 2013.
While it is a decent offer, I want to make sure it is fair in terms of base salary and also have concerns the car allowance is not in my best interests to avail of.
In terms of my financial priorities over the next 5 years...
I am doing my utmost to buy my own home as a first time buyer, and have been doing everything possible to save/maintain a deposit along with applying for (successfully, thankfully) local authority home loans in several counties in which I would be happy to live.
As soon as I manage to own my own home, I will max out my pension AVC's. I have about 22 years to retirement and definitely need to increase my contributions.
There are two main areas I wish to negotiate regarding the offer I have received:
1. Whether it is fairly bench-marked internally against similar senior roles, as well as with those in wider industry. I suspect that a simple percentage (10% max for internal moves + 3% increase being applied across the board this year based on company/personal performance) has been applied on my current salary, which pushes me into the next grade, but may well be relatively low in that grade. Ie such that I am paid less than colleagues in equivalent roles, hired in the past 2 years with less experience than me.
2. Whether the car allowance can be simply changed to contribute to my gross salary. I get that the company will then need to make pension contributions on that amount, but shelling out on a car deposit (even if the Eur 175 / month would make a meaningful dent in monthly PCP payments) , is very far from my financial priorities currently. I own a 2000 Skoda Octavia since 2011 which has sailed through every NCT to date. My strong preference would be if I could get another year or two out of the car, while building up savings for a decent 2nd hand car after I own my home. I feel like the car allowance is forcing my hand to get locked into the PCP eco-system, and can't see how to make the allowance work for me. Note the car allowance requires me to drive a car less than 7 years old rolling basis (the age of the car, not the car itself!!)
Overall I may be in the thick of thin things being overly-distracted by point 2. Would I be better focussing fully on point 1? If I could negotiate a 25% salary increase (with no car allowance obviously) it would be equivalent to the 13% increase + car allowance. This may sound like an outrageous increase, but I am starting from a low base for my experience/career stage (my perceived ability to take on responsible roles has suffered due to part-time working since 2015). I am considering requesting a bench-marking of my salary to account both that I am based in Ireland (colleagues from same discipline/grade in the UK appear to be relatively higher paid than me, despite lower cost of living there) and impact of inflation in recent months.
I would be grateful for thoughts on what I should focus on when negotiating the salary for the new role - is it a solid strategy to focus on benchmarking for location/similar roles internally/externally? Would folks agree the car allowance will cost more than it will benefit me given my financial priorities, or am I missing something as to how I could make it work for me?
Thanks in advance.
The increase is ca 13%, along with a car allowance of ca Eur 175 / month after tax (and adjusted for my working 3 days per week, which I have since 2015)
This promotion is only my second change of grade in over 13 years with the company, the last being in 2013.
While it is a decent offer, I want to make sure it is fair in terms of base salary and also have concerns the car allowance is not in my best interests to avail of.
In terms of my financial priorities over the next 5 years...
I am doing my utmost to buy my own home as a first time buyer, and have been doing everything possible to save/maintain a deposit along with applying for (successfully, thankfully) local authority home loans in several counties in which I would be happy to live.
As soon as I manage to own my own home, I will max out my pension AVC's. I have about 22 years to retirement and definitely need to increase my contributions.
There are two main areas I wish to negotiate regarding the offer I have received:
1. Whether it is fairly bench-marked internally against similar senior roles, as well as with those in wider industry. I suspect that a simple percentage (10% max for internal moves + 3% increase being applied across the board this year based on company/personal performance) has been applied on my current salary, which pushes me into the next grade, but may well be relatively low in that grade. Ie such that I am paid less than colleagues in equivalent roles, hired in the past 2 years with less experience than me.
2. Whether the car allowance can be simply changed to contribute to my gross salary. I get that the company will then need to make pension contributions on that amount, but shelling out on a car deposit (even if the Eur 175 / month would make a meaningful dent in monthly PCP payments) , is very far from my financial priorities currently. I own a 2000 Skoda Octavia since 2011 which has sailed through every NCT to date. My strong preference would be if I could get another year or two out of the car, while building up savings for a decent 2nd hand car after I own my home. I feel like the car allowance is forcing my hand to get locked into the PCP eco-system, and can't see how to make the allowance work for me. Note the car allowance requires me to drive a car less than 7 years old rolling basis (the age of the car, not the car itself!!)
Overall I may be in the thick of thin things being overly-distracted by point 2. Would I be better focussing fully on point 1? If I could negotiate a 25% salary increase (with no car allowance obviously) it would be equivalent to the 13% increase + car allowance. This may sound like an outrageous increase, but I am starting from a low base for my experience/career stage (my perceived ability to take on responsible roles has suffered due to part-time working since 2015). I am considering requesting a bench-marking of my salary to account both that I am based in Ireland (colleagues from same discipline/grade in the UK appear to be relatively higher paid than me, despite lower cost of living there) and impact of inflation in recent months.
I would be grateful for thoughts on what I should focus on when negotiating the salary for the new role - is it a solid strategy to focus on benchmarking for location/similar roles internally/externally? Would folks agree the car allowance will cost more than it will benefit me given my financial priorities, or am I missing something as to how I could make it work for me?
Thanks in advance.