[Closed] Salary package - am I asking too much?

As with all job offers you shouldn't just look at the base salary but also add in all other pacakge benefits. If in total you will be worse off then I don't think you are asking too much to have your salary increased to compensate. Be aware however that they may well say no and then you will have to ask yourself whether or not the great job is worth the pay cut.

I'm in a similar position. I start a new job in 2 weeks where they have matched my current salary but they have no pension provision (a new company only 18months old and I'll be the 4th employee so early days for them).
I'll also be loosing my car allowance so I'm going to be a fair bit down each month in real terms. But I decided not to ask for more money as I know they were aware of my current package and benefits and considered this when making their offer to me. I'm making a conscious decision to go back to a different part of my profession and see it as a good opportunity. As such I decided I'll live with the reduction as a result... but only you can make that call when weighing up all the factors.

I would always negotiate. The offer they make is just that, an offer, so I would assume I could negotiate.

You would have good grounds for negotiation if the overall package was less than that which you are on now.

Take into account the whole package they are offering. Pay, holidays, pension, health/life insurance, sick pay etc. It all makes a difference and as far as I'm concerned I go to work to earn money so the more the better.

How much do you want the job...

It is NOT unreasonable to go back and discuss the "total package". I'm guessing they are relatively small? It is not uncommon for small companies not to have pension schemes. It may also be that there is a pension scheme but you only become elegible after a certain period.

I'd be inclined to ask them to pay a pension rather than just bump up the salary. From a paye/ni perspective (both employee and employer) it makes sense. There are new rules coming which will force employers to offer a "tiny" pension provision, they won't want to give you more money AND then next year have to offer you that on top.

Be prepared for them to simply say no however. If they believe what they have offered is fair market value and they have an alternative candidate they may do. So be careful how you present it. if you say "there is absolutely no way I could come and work for you for X, it needs to be X+Y as a minimum" then its rather awkward to work your way back. I once had someone do this to me, and took it as a rejection of the offer (we weren't able/willing to offer Y) and offered it to our second choice the same day. Candidate 1 kept trying to negotiate after that but his bridges were burnt.

Also don't forget that as we're living through a crisis period that it's a buyers market and signing a new employee is an opportunity to reduce the salary bill too. Personally I look at it as a position where salaries increased by too much and are/should be going through a period of right sizing.
It's really your call but I wouldn't expect them to negotiate.

aren't the condems putting thru new legislation so all employers will have to offer a pension ? not sure about the timescale or whether its just the usual bs

the new legislation won't affect small firms, i don't get a pension, nor will i, think the minimum might be about ten people.

look up auto-enrolment - [url= http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/auto-enrol-and-wpr-the-facts.pdf ]DWP[/url]

From 2012 every employer will have to enrol into a workplace pension, those workers who:
• are not already in a workplace pension scheme;
• are at least 22 years old;
• have not yet reached State Pension age;
• earn more than the minimum earnings threshold (likely to be £7,475 a year); and
• work or ordinarily work in the UK (under their contract).

ask your employer what they are putting in place
it's a few years off for small employers though

Other aspects of the package are quite good - healthcare + life assurance - but I reckon these are worth about 2K a year, so I am still not breaking even.

It's part of a multinational group so the lack of ppension is a bit weird (apparently it's standard in adveritsing though [??]). Given they had a 10-figure post-tax profit in the first half of this year, I reckon they could afford at least some of my pension payment!

I have just offered a job to someone whereby our pension scheme is less than he was used to, so he negotiated to have a little more in his salary, no probs, it was only a few K. He was the right guy and we put lots of effocrt in the recruitment and didnt want to lose him.

My advice woudl be say something like "I would love to accept this role, I think that I can really add value. But the package is less than I was being paid, so i would like to ask for xxx."

Good luck

I'd say there is no harm in asking as long as it is done politely and respectfully as detailed above.

I guess it depends...you say it is a great job but are you motivated by money? If so, it doesn't sound like a great job as you will be worse off.

If you aren't motivated by money then does the job still stack up? If so, take it and pay a pension yourself - yes you will have less disposable income but you will be doing a great job and have some money behind you when you retire.

Going by the fact you are asking, it doesn't seem that great a job...if it was great you'd take it without asking (although I'd also be concerned about lack of pension...but I wouldn't weigh the money thing up as a consideration of the job - but I'm not motivated by money - I've got to like and want to do the job).

Good luck with whatever you decide.