The salary is the price for labor. Prices obey the laws of demand and supply. The demand for work is decreasing. The supply of unemployed workers is increasing. Since supply of work exceeds demand there is much downward pressure on the salaries. Thus, is there any room left for negotiating the salary?
The answer is: yes, although it will be tougher in these days, and require hard, efficient work and improved negotiating skills. The laws of supply and demand for work are more complicated than they appear at a first glance.
The salary is on the cost side in the accounts of the employers. In order to ensure that the decreasing revenues still exceed costs in these times, the employers want to cut their costs, and thus keep the salaries low. At the same time, however, they want their best employees to stay. They need to extract as much value as possible in return for the salaries they pay. In short, the demand for the most effective employees is still high.
This leaves room for negotiations for higher salary. Basically, an employee must make sure he or she is as effective as possible. The best way to do that is to go to the employer and simply ask questions like: "Of all the things I do, which is most valuable to the firm?" "How can I spend my time here in the most efficient way?" Then, the employee must focus 100 per cent on these things.
Not only will these questions as such probably be appreciated by the employer. By improving efficiency in this way, the employee will also boost his or her bargaining power to negotiate for a higher salary. However, bargaining power only will not do. The employee will also have to be a skilled negotiator, since the employer probably still will use the bad times as an excuse to refuse increasing the salary.
In conclusion: higher salary during the economic depression require, for most employees, improved efficiency and knowledge about how to negotiate a salary.
David_R_Hill
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