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name: salary-negotiation description: "Plan a compensation negotiation grounded in numbers and leverage, not nerves. Use when asked to negotiate salary, evaluate or counter a job offer, prepare for a comp conversation, or compare offers. Produces a negotiation plan — total-comp comparison across offers, your target/walk-away and BATNA, the value-based justification, the counter scripts, and what to negotiate beyond base."

Salary Negotiation Skill

Most people leave money on the table because they negotiate from anxiety instead of preparation. This skill replaces nerves with a plan: compare offers on total comp (not just base), set a target and a walk-away anchored to your BATNA, justify the ask with your value, and script the counter — including the levers beyond base salary that are often easier wins.

Required Inputs

Ask for these only if they aren't already provided:

• The offer(s) — base, bonus, equity, sign-on, and any other components (and competing offers, if any).
• Your situation — current comp, your BATNA (best alternative — a competing offer, staying put), and how badly each side needs the other.
• Market data — comparable ranges for the role/level/location (levels.fyi, Glassdoor, peers), if you have it.
• What matters to you — cash now vs. equity upside, flexibility, title, start date.

Output Format

Negotiation Plan: [role] at [company]

1. Total-comp comparison — never compare base-to-base. Lay out total annual comp across the offer(s) and your current/alternative (use the helper script). Equity and bonus often flip the ranking.

2. Your numbers — target (ambitious but justifiable), walk-away (below which you decline), and anchor (open slightly above target). All three anchored to market + your BATNA.

3. Leverage read — how much you have (competing offer? scarce skills? they've invested in the process?) and how to use it without bluffing.

4. The justification — the value-based case for the ask: your evidence (impact, comparable comp, the competing offer), framed collaboratively ("I'm excited; to make this work…").

5. Counter scripts — exact wording for: countering the base, responding to "that's our max", and the non-base levers (sign-on, equity, title/level, start date, remote, review timing) that often move when base can't.

6. The walk-away plan — what you do if they won't meet the walk-away (and why having decided this in advance is your real power).

Programmatic Helper

scripts/comp_compare.py (stdlib only) computes total annual comp across offers so you compare apples to apples (equity amortised, sign-on annualised):

# offers.json: [{"name":"Offer A","base":160000,"bonus":24000,"equity_total":200000,"equity_years":4,"signing":20000}, ...]
python3 scripts/comp_compare.py offers.json
python3 scripts/comp_compare.py offers.json --signing-years 1 --json

Quality Checks

• Offers are compared on total comp, not base alone (equity + bonus + sign-on included)
• A target, a walk-away, and an anchor are all set — and tied to market + BATNA
• The justification is value-based and evidenced, not "I need more"
• Non-base levers are included (sign-on, equity, title, start date, remote)
• The walk-away decision is made before the conversation

Anti-Patterns

• Do not compare base to base — total comp is the real number, and equity/bonus often change which offer wins
• Do not negotiate without a walk-away decided in advance — it's the source of your leverage
• Do not bluff a competing offer you don't have — if it's called, you lose all credibility
• Do not anchor low or accept the first number — the first offer almost always has room
• Do not fixate only on base — sign-on, equity, level, and start date often move when base is capped

Based On

Principled-negotiation practice (Getting to Yes — Fisher & Ury: BATNA, interests over positions) applied to compensation.

Example Trigger Phrases

• "Negotiate salary."
• "Counter a job offer."
• "Prepare for a comp conversation."
• "Compare offers."