In advance of salary negotiation, it is imperative for you to know exactly what your salary value is. If you do not know how much you are worth before negotiating salary, then you will find it very difficult to ask for a salary that matches what the job market will pay.

If you do not do your research, your employer will decide your pay increase for you and it may be very disappointing. Millions of people regularly negotiate salary, but very few get the maximum pay increase that they could.

Research the market in advance of approaching your boss for a pay raise, or before revealing your expectations for salary at job offer time. It is like a game. Do not reveal your information too soon. In this case, your strategy is to keep your information close to you. It could be your past salary history, or what you are planning to ask for in salary negotiation.

Before going into a salary negotiation, know what you are worth in compensation terms!

Whether you are looking for new employment or you are asking for a pay raise, do your research first. There are great Internet resources available, like SalaryExpert.com or Monster.com. These sites have continual access to all the salary information that is available.

Make sure you scrutinize the quality of information from each site, so you feel you have reliable information. If a web site reports salary scales based on information provided by subscribers it may not be as accurate as if the salary data is reported by the hiring department of the companies in that field.

Another method, if you are a little intrepid, is to do a bit of discreet research. If you know people who work for the firm, and are not fearful of asking direct questions, you may well find find out what other staff are earning in the same job for that business.

Better yet, if you can ask a valued human resources friend, you may find out not only about the company you work for, but you may also find out about other companies in your market. Whatever information you can find out, will be useful, as long as the source is someone you can believe.

One source of information that is invaluable are research reports published by the salary research consultants. These consultants survey HR departments nationwide, or in specific regions, and get very specific salary data for hundreds and hundreds of job titles in each region. The current version of these reports are very valuable to job seekers, but they are hard to find. If you do find one, you are very luck because current data is worth its weight in gold!

Many salary sites report salaries in the form of a large range. If the range is $45,000-$69,000, the site will often report that data in 25% intervals. The bell curve is sometimes found within the 0-100% range, and it is important for you to clearly assess where you fit in the range, and make sure you are not below the bottom or too far above the top.

If you perform well at your job, then you know it. Think about your performance critically and honestly, and determine using intuition where you think you fit in, as far as a percentile basis. Don’t worry if you think you’re in the lower regions. It may be lack of experience or tenure. If you are in the top end, you know you’re a high performer and you’re providing a lot of value to the company.

You will find valuable feedback from a colleague you like or even better, ask someone in a similar company what that salary range demands in terms of skills and experience.

Numbers speak loudest when dealing with employers and bosses. If you want to earn a larger salary, you need to make them understand you are worth it because you either cut costs, improved business efficiency, or drove profits. You know the work you do, and if there are quantifiable facts, use them to your advantage. If you don’t relate directly to the bottom line, think of other quantifiable facts (e.g. a teacher with a high rate of students on the honour roll). This is the best way to communicate your value.

Best of luck to you in your next salary negotiation.

Trevor Davide Grant is a project manager in the IT field and has extensive experience in salary negotiation. Trevor has worked for global telecom, electric utilities, software development consulting, and a prevalent web 2.0 site. He has learned salary negotiating in the most effective way. Learn great tactics on the topic of negotiating salary at www.HowToNegotiateASalary.com.

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The salaries of Plumbers are often talked about in the national press. Salaries of 30-70k p.a. are often discussed, along with the lack of plumbers within the UK. So, is this really the position or is this basically untrue? To be certain, for the correctly qualified and experienced plumber, this level of salary is achievable and indeed attainable. Whilst salaries of 70-100k p.a. are possible, it remains chiefly for self employed people, rather than those working in the customary routes.

If you enter the traditional work environment, primarily working for an established employer, then working hours of Monday to Friday, 9am to 6pm are standard. Indeed salaries of between 15k and 30k p.a. form part of what is expected from employed status in this area, along with the added reward of holiday pay and sickness allowance. However, if the self employed person is willing to work longer than the normal working hours then more money can be earned. For example in the domestic sector where clients are often at work during the working day, self employed plumbers are regularly required to work during evening and weekend visits.

Around which is the question of self employment which appears to fit some people. By using \’good business sense\’, including getting your own cost per hour correct, items such as advertising and marketing can also be worked out. Similarly, to cover additional elements such as legal and accountancy fees and materials and transport, will require the planning of most self-employed people. Although it is expected that these can be relatively small in relation to the earnings overall they can mount up, but then so can the benefits. And the benefits nearly always far outweigh the downsides!

Often customary work from employers attracts Student Entrants especially if it meets their needs training in working knowledge and experience. Equally the Self Employed Entrant needs to increase their list of qualifications within a reasonable time frame. That noted the main drive of self-employed workers is towards the \’domestic\’ market and not that of the commercial sector. (Well the majority do at least)

The certification units, needed by each part of the industry keeps a similarity in terms of Plumbing education. A key debate however comes into play when considering the issue of NVQ\’s (SVQ\’s in Scotland.)

To begin with, the Student Entrant appears to rely more heavily on the NVQ structure than the Self Employed Entrant. Therefore many Self Employed Entrants will meet their clients\’ needs through the use of a wider range of certifications. In order to be able to meet the needs of the typical household, self-employed persons will need to rapidly gain key domestic-centred qualifications. The Student Entrant will often carry on their studies in the workplace under an apprenticeship where the NVQ element can be assessed. Considering that it is a cheaper way to study then the Student can make practical savings from the start. It is often by gaining certifications faster, by being motivated by a more commercial standpoint that the Self Employed Entrant will achieve considerable financial benefits before a Student Entrant.

Clearly this illustrates the need for a careers discussion that covers certifications and study alongside those of financial returns. It is extremely difficult for adults with a family to look after and needing 20kp.a. to consider going back to college and spending 3 years on low paid-apprenticeship work. Equally, many self-employed students fund the courses themselves whereas the Student Entrants often have their studies paid for them as part of their overall apprenticeships. The level of certification sought by the student drives the course structure and can result in costs of between 3k through to 10k+.

Self Employed Entrants can consider a wide range of private technical colleges as opposed to the reliance on further-education colleges and that differentiates them from Student Entrants. It is the lead into familiar skill-sets and qualifications that commercially fixed plumbing course companies offer as part of their training paths. One of the main advantages of this method is the opportunity for evening, part-time, and self-study classes – allowing Self Employed Entrants to train whilst continuing with their existing job, thus maintaining their financial situation. Using the range of sources, it makes sense to gather as much detail as possible and through this be able to work out the training college that suits you best. We\’ve provided links and a book mark to this page (CTRL-D) so you can come back whenever you wish and review the adverts and options available to you.

To increase their \’marketability\’ many plumbing students will go on to utilise extra courses. Courses in areas such as Gas, Electrical and Green Energy can provide added certifications. A typically popular route for Plumbers is Gas training, especially as this forms part of the usual commercial and domestic heating system.

With core subjects followed by NVQ\’s, Gas Training is a thorough and exact training program. For those who trained as a plumber these schemes offer many options for further development and can clearly seen to add additional skills to the table. It could be said, from that viewpoint, that a hybrid of Plumbing/Gas training would be more suited to the mature student. Indeed, the path for the Mature Student seems to be to drop the NVQ elements and to focus on the core subjects.

The self-employed professional appears to benefit from this distinct training mixture. There is a great empathy for earning money whilst learning a wider range of work skill sets. It is by removing the reliability on third party sub-contraction that results in the increase of the industrial package. Sub-contraction needs to be handled carefully as the erosion of customer satisfaction by having to wait for key work to be completed by third parties can result in a serious reduction in potential earnings. To be fair the more talent a Plumber has in their own job then the more they have to offer their client base.

In conclusion, the Self Employed Entrant can enjoy a much higher (and more quickly achieved) income than a Student Entrant, but they would have to work at developing a broader range of certifications (and consider the business side of things too.) Note: This information refers to the UK industry requirement and their policies alone.

Copyright Scott Edwards. Try City & Guilds Plumbing Courses or Plumbing Training Courses.

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