How to Handle a LOWBALL offer! - Salary negotiation tips

It's amazing that I watched through this video and read all the comments about companies trying to rip their employees off, and not once was the word "Jew" ever mentioned.

I just got an offer that I have never seen before. It went from a contract position at a good rate in the job posting to a part time w2 at a lower salary when they offered. The part time had no health benefits. Have you ever seen this before and what is the point of this? How am I supposed to make an impact as a software developer on a project working part time it’s kind of bizarre to me.

Recently, I saw a lab technician job that demanded a college degree and 1 year experience, but pays $16, that's $2 under market, in addition, the local hospitals offer the same job at $18 and only requires a high school diploma. And the McDonald's around here are offering $16-$35 an hour job as a crew member.

Back in 2021, I had applied to an EET position in Louisville, KY. They tried to offer me $14 per hour. I almost laughed into the phone at that. After a few minutes of trying to get them to bring that amount up to a realistic level, they didn't budge. So I told them "That isn't even worth continuing this conversation, have a nice day." The position went unfilled for almost a year until they finally listed the wage and brought it up to about double what they tried to offer me. Many of these employers are clowns.

Very helpful!

thank you for sharing, i just had an interview and wating to get an offer. The job post shows the range from 94K to 117K mid point and $141K max, I have 12yrs of work experience per what they are looking or. is it appropiate if i give the range from 105K (walk away number) to 115K (ideal)? i am afraid if i give too high, they will offer to someone else. please advice?

Perfect summary. Thank you 👍

Remote work is worth a lower salary tbh

As a contractor, I read salary should be 35% more than a salaried employee.

That's why companies be like location (remote)

Similar as a Contractor losing 25k of benefits.

Reading the comment sections of this guys videos is super entertaining

Lowballing negotiations are a red flag. You just gave them a resume, a cover letter, multiple interviews, probably an online questionnaire. So the company already knows your skillset, experience etc. and still lowball you? Walk away, no negotiations. Tell them that you feel insulted by the offer. Just remember, if you negotiate a higher starting wage, they will just claw back that extra money further down the line with wage freezes and below inflation wage rises. F-them from the get-go!

Awesome! keep it going!

Tell ‘em to shove it

Lowball offer is just an instant NOPE. Once upon a time I was given a lowball offer that was significantly less than my current package. I kindof laughed and said (fairly politely) I told you guys what I was currently on and now you are offering me much less than my current pay? Poor HR pleb that had been given the task of phoning me with this BS offer understood and was fine. 30 mins later a barrage of phonecalls from the recruitment agent and senior management at the target company berating me for "demanding more money" "more than they can afford" "you want to put other people out of work" blah blah. I thought it was hilarious and just kept repeating "No thanks, bye". HOW DARE YOU lol. Anyone lowballs you under market rate is either a start-up (which can be interesting, for sure) or are cheapskate sweatshop fuckwits. Walk away.

It drives me crazy when I get a low-ball offer, which has happened a few times. It just completely turns me off to the organization/position. I just feel like "they don't value me now, they won't later" and walk away.

That was really helpful! Thank you for sharing!

I do not respond to clear lowball offers. I will not reject and I will not dignify with a response. They will either significantly negotiate against themselves or they'll stay ghosted. I'm too busy to be petty.

This just happened to me, recruiter submitted me at a rate in the range of what they were offering for the position. After a couple of rounds of interviews, they made an offer that was much lower than the rate we submitted, and well out of the range they had on the job description. I firmly told the recruiter no, I won't accept anything lower than this, so they come back with another low ball offer, higher than their initial offer, but still lower than my bottom line, and lower than the pay range they had on their job post. I told the recruiter not to bother going back to negotiate, it's a full pass for me.

on a low ball offer, i immediately reply that i can not afford to work for that kind of money. but i can refer some people that maybe would...the dumb faces after that are priceless

The opportunity works both ways.

You are giving up your most valued possession. TIME is also known as LIFE. In exchange for money that may or not lead you help you to have a better living which in turn will likely increase the life you have left. Or may lower it if you end up overworked, over drama, and under paid.

Is up to you to determine how much you value your life. And if the money given is worth the amount life you will lose in the deal.

I start with my salary requirements when the company first contacts me.

If it's too big they will let me know and the conversation ends saving everyone a lot of time.

I think you're assuming here that I actually WANT to work.....But seriously, how unprofessional is that kind of a move? Do they want the candidate that is willing to take 10-25% less than what they are worth? I would be seriously concerned about what other surprises they might have in store. They absolutely know what people are worth to the penny and they absolutely know what they are doing when they lowball. A clear message to them would be no respose- no phone call, no email, no nothing, as if the message wasn't received. I'd also have concerns about the recruiter- they wouldn't hear from me for about 3 weeks minimum.

11 minute video with about 90 seconds of useful information. 🙄

Consider moving temporary (two years) to a high pay city because many offers are an percentage increase based on existing salary.

Very good point on looking at the total compensation package, vs just looking at base pay. This was why I accepted my employer's counter offer. (I work for a small business and like my job, but had an opportunity for a similar role at a large healthcare corperation.)
While they couldnt match the basepay of thr other company, they got me close enough, kept me hourly instead of moving to salary, and threw in a company vehicle and education opportunities. Not having to maintain a vehicle or pay for gas was huge. That and thr ability to still get overtime for hours worked over 40 were able to bridge that gap.

Not sure i really agree with this advice. Negotiating after a low ball is almost certainly an ongoing waste of your time since their offer is generally indicative that they aren't really interested in you as an individual. I've always terminated negotiations at that point and moved on.

Bla bla bla. You repeat yourself 20’times and describe the question that is totally clear. Stop talking rubbish and come to the point

Don't negotiate - just walk. Its a big red flag.

I had a job contact me to try to rehire me after i left. They tried to offer me 3% less starting then what i was making before. I reminded them they were the ones who contacted me, asked me, and the percent might be in the wrong direction

I'm lucky enough to be at a point where I'm highly skilled and in demand. If I get a low-ball offer, I just tell them that I am only accepting serious offers and am disappointed that their company has wasted my time. Only had to do that once.

There's no coming back from a low-ball in my experience. Either you devalue yourself, or you move on. It's a sign they're not willing to meet you where you need to be, and I've never had one come even remotely close to that number, so I don't even bother. I take it as a sign this is not the company for me, and just reject outright. Sometimes I just laugh, because they've wasted my time and their offer is insulting.

Man, there’s really nothing more frustrating than hearing recruiters talk on this. There’s a difference between a lowball and an offer that’s slightly below your target. A lowball is an insult, plain and simple. It is a company attempting to take advantage of you. Treat it as such.

The polite response to a lowball is to end discussions and move on. The impolite response is to mentally end discussions but lead them on as long as possible. Continuing negotiations misses the point.

Some companies pay 50% less of the market and they don’t care. Florida pays this rate so Seattle should too. NM the fact it takes double to live in Seattle.

I disagree with number 4 "Present your value case". This should have already been done during the interview process. If they don't think you're worth hiring and/or would bring value to the team they wouldn't have offered in the first place. And if you're reasonably sure your ask is in line with market value there is no reason to reiterate your value, it should be obvious.

How to handle is simple:

Just say "Sorry, it looks like we're not on the same page regarding compensation for this position, so I cannot accept this offer. I wish you well in the future." If they come back with a better offer, consider it in light of the fact that you now know this is a company that gives lowball offers (which means you should consider it to be a less desirable place to work than before you had received that offer).

If they don't come back with a better offer, be happy. You've just avoided working for a terrible company.

I'm currently working for a low quality employer, trying to get hired on full time with the company they have me assigned to. Everything in this video is accurate. I was in a desperate situation, took an offer that was low but sounded okay because of the opportunities, was totally lied to about the role. Been fighting the good fight but they're doing every nasty trick in the book to keep me from paying me fairly.

Sidenote: To hell with geographic negotiation. If you can afford to pay $200k for the job, that's the salary. Yeah yeah market forces, it's just deeply messed up and talent shouldn't stand for it. Where I live is none of your damn business anyway.

a company offer $40 below, then tried to explain all the perks - i told them the value of those perks is $0 and stood up and walked out!!!

The company has interest to compensate you fairly. Lowball offer means they either don’t value you as a candidate or they don’t understand the rules of the game. One rule of the game is that even if you accept an offer well below the market rate there is a good chance you will find a better offer soon. Or maybe find your colleagues got more.
So by trying to save on your salary they are actually causing more cost down the line.

While I was between positions, I was working through a recruitment company and we kept getting nothing but positive feedback. Went through 5 interviews (7 total if you count the 2 interviews that they failed to show-up for) at this small company and never received an offer because they wanted to see how this 'other' candidate stacked up... but they kept having scheduling conflicts which just continuously kept delaying the offer. The recruitment company didn't want to start looking elsewhere since we were at the finish line (causing me to lone-wolf again). After a month of waiting, I accepted elsewhere for more pay and benefits that I preferred. I know I made the right choice simply because I'd probably be working twice as hard for a company that doesn't really appreciate heartbeats since they knew I was unemployed and probably felt like they could get me cheap.
I simply miss the days when companies were about providing QUALITY service and bettering it's community. Now its just about the bare minimum service and bettering it's shareholders.

Honestly, I get the purpose of these videos but I am very confident in my skills and have always been a top performer. I don't play games in interviews and I've gotten up and left interviews when they try this kind of silly shit simply stating that I'm not interested in playing games.
I'm the good opportunity, these companies are just companies.
And with that... The highest paying companies don't play games, they know they want the best and it's a smooth and easy interview into offer. Maybe they play games with those lesser qualified but I've only had stupid games from small companies and I turn them down on the spot.

You don't need to have a strategy for dealing with lowball offers other than to give them a disgusted look and tell them you're disappointed they'd insult you like that.
Insult lowballs.
Insult silly games.
Insult ridiculous hoops and interview processes.

Best way to handle it is walking away

How negotiable is PTO? Do they have to stick to the general policy and just give the standard for the company?

I answered an ad that clearly stated that the job paid $27 an hour. Got the interview and a follow up interview and was told that I was the only qualified candidate they found for the job. I got a call a few days later with a job offer with the pay rate of $22 an hour. I mentioned that the ad said $27 an hour. I bluntly told them that if the offer was anything less than $27 an hour I was not interested. We ended the call and less than an hour later got another call from the interviewer's boss with the $27 an hour offer. The interview was through an agency for the employer. I started the job and in less than 6 months later got a promotion and raise to $34 an hour. I have always been blunt and up front about pay when it comes to job offers. I usually get what I want.

I need to know the range before I get deep into a complicated hiring process.

I really like your videos. They are very helpful. However, the frequent cuts in these videos (sometimes in the middle of a sentence) are rather distracting. You are best when you talk in a continuous flow. Its fine if you have to think about what to say next, look on a paper or whatever. That gives the audience more time to process what you said. The flow of information is improved and everybody wins.

Just my $0.02. Keep on sending your good tips.

Got same issue. Passed interviews brilliantly and got a lowball offer. After decline HR came back to me in 30 minutes with the proper one, all numbers got as we agreed before, but I felt so offended that declined any way.