I have a AP job offer which is around 130k USD equivalent. My publication record is "exceptional" compared to the average candidate. The school's ranking is pretty average at the moment. I am not a person with extravagant spending habits but I want to receive a salary that reflects my market value (for psychological reasons or whatever). At the same time I don't want to make unreasonable demands to upset the relationship. How hard should I bargain and what is the reasonable upper limit of salary that an AP can receive? (I'm not in Singapore or Europe)
What's the reasonable upper limit of AP salary, and how hard should I bargain?
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Exceptional means what? Solo top 5? Solo top field? Coauthored pubs are very heavily discounted for new PhDs, if you didn't realize. Back to the point: some lower ranked schools have the cash to make premium offers to attract top candidates (think WUSTL, though this is more of a senior thing), while others do not. It really depends on what school you are talking about. Having said that, you are unlikely to offend anyone by trying to negotiate for a higher salary. I certainly did, and it paid off, though not as much as I had hoped.
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Be careful not to annoy your chair. In the US the big salary rise comes at tenure, so you want them to like you at that time.
One question: what do you mean by negotiate hard? The main way to get rises is to get outside offers, but this can be like kicking a hornets nest if you're not serious.
As an AP, I'd personally sit tight an wait for tenure. $130 is pretty good - that's what most APs are paid at top 20 Econ depts. In any case, the chair may not have much flexibility.
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Top 15 school last year was paying $130K-$135K in the US for AP. This year I wouldn't expect much of an increase. So, what you got is market salary. You can not bargain an increase without having a better offer. This is your value in the market -- unless you have another offer to compete.
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Be careful not to annoy your chair. In the US the big salary rise comes at tenure, so you want them to like you at that time.
One question: what do you mean by negotiate hard? The main way to get rises is to get outside offers, but this can be like kicking a hornets nest if you're not serious.
As an AP, I'd personally sit tight an wait for tenure. $130 is pretty good - that's what most APs are paid at top 20 Econ depts. In any case, the chair may not have much flexibility.It's very unlikely that the chair involved in your recruitment will still be the chair when you are up for tenure. I wouldn't worry about this. Everyone on the faculty knows that the smart thing to do is negotiate for a better salary. That's how we get pay rises.
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It may be better to push for other perks (research funds, reduced teaching, extra sabbatical leave, housing subsidies in some places). Sometimes it's easier for departments to sweeten the offer in these ways than to give raw salary. Perks may also be more mutually beneficial if your marginal tax rate will be very high.
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^ 2nd that.
And research funds are often over-looked by ABD's on the market. In your 4th and 5th year, you don't want to be worrying about obtaining extra research funds (from your school or extramural funds) when you should be focusing on cranking out more research papers.
The main bumps in pay come from tenure or outside offers from other schools. Research is your best friend in either case so think more about what helps that cause rather than trying to squeeze out another $5k in salary.