A job offer is usually the point where a salary is easiest to move. The employer has already chosen you, the budget for the role is set but rarely fixed to the dollar, and whatever base salary you agree now becomes the starting point for every raise and bonus that follows. This guide covers negotiating a new job offer: researching what the role pays, setting your numbers, wording the counter and handling the replies you are likely to hear. It is part of the salary negotiation guides, which also cover raises with your current employer, counter-offers when you resign, signing bonuses and the benefits package.
Why the starting salary matters
Raises, bonus targets and pension contributions are usually set as a percentage of base pay, so a higher starting salary carries forward. The example below shows how a gap at the start of a job widens when both salaries get the same yearly raise.
Two offers for the same role: $70,000 and $77,000. With the same 3% raise every year, the gap in the first year is $7,000. After 9 raises, in year 10, the gap has grown to $9,133 a year, because each raise is a percentage of a larger base.
The same logic is why the base salary is usually settled before one-time items such as a signing bonus, which doesn’t carry forward.
Research your market rate first
A counter backed by data on what the role pays in your city and industry is easier for a hiring manager to defend to their own budget holder than a number with no anchor. Useful starting points:
- The Government of Canada’s Job Bank wage reports, which give low, median and high wages by occupation and region.
- Our salaries by profession pages, which pull government wage figures together for common jobs.
- Salary ranges in job postings for similar roles. Several provinces now require a range in publicly advertised postings; the pay transparency laws by province page lists which ones and from when.
- Self-reported salary sites and recruiter salary guides. They add company-specific detail, but their samples are self-selected, so they work best alongside the government data rather than instead of it.
Experience, credentials, the size of the employer and the city all move the number. A figure that sits near the middle of several sources is easier to defend than the single highest one you found.
Should you reveal your current salary?
An employer that knows what you earn now can anchor the offer to it rather than to the market rate for the role, which is why many candidates steer the conversation back to the position: “I’d rather focus on the market value for this role and what I bring to it.” Some provinces limit when employers may ask about pay history; the rules, and who they cover, are on the pay transparency laws page.
Set your three numbers
Before the conversation, people who negotiate well usually know three figures:
| Number | What it is |
|---|---|
| Target | The salary you are aiming for, grounded in your research |
| Opening ask | A little above the target, which leaves room to meet in the middle |
| Walk-away | The lowest offer you would accept; it stays private |
The space between the opening ask and the walk-away is your negotiating range. Opening at the walk-away number leaves nowhere to go.
Countering an offer: scripts
These scripts answer a written offer from a new employer. They don’t cover a different situation, your current employer trying to keep you after you resign.
A direct counter
“Thank you for the offer. I’m excited about the role. Based on my research and experience, I was expecting something in the range of $X. Is there flexibility on the base salary?”
Asking for the range
“I appreciate the offer. Could you share the salary range for this position, so I can see where the offer sits in it?”
Asking for time
“Thank you. I’d like a day or two to review the full package. When would you need my answer?”
Backing the number with experience
“Given my years in [field] and results like [specific achievement], I believe $X reflects the value I’d bring to this role.”
Backing the number with market data
“The market data I found for this role in [city] runs from $X to $Y. Given my qualifications, I’m aiming toward the upper part of that range.”
Mentioning a competing offer (only when it is real)
“I’d prefer to join your team, and I have another offer at $X. Is there room to get closer to that figure?”
Beyond base salary
When the base salary can’t move further, other parts of the package often can:
- Signing bonus: a one-time payment, often easier to approve than a higher base; see negotiating a signing bonus.
- Benefits: health and dental coverage levels, spending accounts and pension matching.
- Remote or hybrid work: where and how often you work from home.
- Vacation, title, start date, review timing and professional development: usually discussed in the same conversation as the salary.
To compare two offers whose packages differ, the total compensation guide shows how to put a dollar value on each part. If the strongest offer pays less than your current job, see whether to take a job with a lower salary.
Handling pushback
“That’s the best we can do.”
“I understand. Is there flexibility elsewhere in the package, such as a signing bonus or an earlier salary review?”
“That’s above our budget.”
“Could you share the budget for the role? I’d like to find a figure that works for both of us.”
“Your experience doesn’t justify that.”
“Could I walk you through a few examples of how my experience applies to the work this role involves?”
“We don’t negotiate.”
“I respect that. Is there any flexibility on the start date, vacation or a signing bonus?”
Whatever is agreed, the usual last step is a revised written offer with the final terms, received before resigning from your current job.
Public sector and unionized jobs
Many federal and provincial public service jobs, and most unionized jobs, pay on a classification grid set by a collective agreement. The dollar figure for each step is fixed, so the points that can move are usually the classification level, the starting step within it and the credit given for prior experience.
Raises with your current employer
Asking your current employer for more money is a different conversation, built on your record in the job rather than on an outside offer. The guide to asking for a raise covers timing, building the case and what happens after a no, and the raise calculator shows how much of a raise reaches your paycheque after tax.
Related guides
- Salary after tax calculator: what an offer pays after income tax, CPP and EI
- Salary calculator: convert an offer between hourly, biweekly, monthly and annual pay
- Highest-paying industries in Canada
- Severance pay in Canada