Negotiating a first salary and the following ones isn’t an easy part of the interviewing process. It’s no secret that talking about how much a job pays is taboo whatever the industry. Fashion has the reputation to see a huge discrepancy in salaries. In London, a new fashion professional starts earning between £16,000 and £18,000 gross which is nothing considering the city’s cost of living.
When getting our first job in the company we always dreamed of working for, as fashion newcomers, we are often tempted to either say yes to the first offer we get either not daring asking for more. And if you are a new graduate it’s even more difficult to know if the offer you are getting is worth it or not, that’s why, to help you, we interviewed lots of fashion professionals asking them for their salaries, age, job title and city they’re current working, you may check the post out to have an idea of the salaries of the fashion industry. Honestly, most companies will try to hire you at the lowest cost, so you will need the confidence to ask for what you deserve. A first working experience doesn’t mean you have to be underpaid.
Companies will either ask you to give your salary expectations when sending your application or will make you a salary proposal. Whatever the case, ponder well your decision.
What to take into account before giving your salary expectations
Fashion is one of the most global industries and most workers in the sector have traveled the world. For this reason, when negotiating a salary, it is essential to know how the tax system is in the country you are going to work. Germany taxes its workers 40% so when negotiating my first salary I took this percentage into account. To find out if your salary expectation matches with all your requirement check Google as many sites offer the possibility to calculate your salary after taxes.
The second thing to take into account is the cost of living. As a newcomer, it is a thing we don’t pay enough attention to. Most of the fashion students live in the fashion capitals and thus have an idea of how much they will need when starting working, it’s not the case for people coming from the province. When you accept a job, look at how much you need to invest in housing and negotiate your salary accordingly. Munich is one of the most expensive cities to live in Germany. If doing your groceries is cheap and the health system is one of the best I have experienced so far, housing is horribly expensive and difficult to find. I almost invested 4500€ in the house I rented, between paying the first month, the deposit and the kitchen. In Germany, flats on rent have no kitchen or when there is, you need to pay for it. It’s a detail I wasn’t aware of that put my savings in jeopardy. So be sure to check everything you need to for housing before giving your salary expectation.
Other than housing, you should also include transports, bills, groceries and how much on average you spend when you go out in your calculation. In other words, create a budget plan i.e an average of the amount of money you’ll have to spend monthly to gauge your salary. We create different templates that our members can download for FREE, including this one to create your own budget, check out our Membership Program
When you get a salary offer
When a company makes you an offer, it’s to give you an estimate of their salary expectation on the position you applied for. Most of the time, as newcomers we make the mistake of immediately saying yes without evaluating if this offer is right for us.
Remember, when making an offer a company always starts from the lowest point. You’re not entitled to immediately say yes. You can send a message to HR and tell them you need time to think about the offer. Nonetheless, don’t take too much.
Take that occasion to check sites like Glassdoor or Payscale which offer the possibility to see the average salary of an employee by field, experience and the city where you’re living. Even Linkedin now enables its Premium members to do the same with a tool that helps seeing how much a position is paid hourly and monthly.
Before saying yes or no to an offer, verify everything related to bonus, healthcare and retirement to evaluate better the offer you received.
As a new fashion professional negotiating is a tricky process because you have no experience to back you up. Nonetheless, if you have a unique skill that could benefit the business mention it as an advantage to get a better offer. This said, if you have done many internships you must have acquired some specific skills that can help you get a better offer.
Lastly, you can try negotiating once but not twice, don’t forget it’s your first job, if you receive a negative answer to your request, don’t insist.
When you are asked your salary expectation
Freshly out from uni, it’s difficult to know your value as a fashion professional. Whatever the type of studies you did, no class taught you to gauge your value in the working market. That’s why you should do your homework. Like aforementioned, you can visit sites like Glassdoor, but you can also reach out to seniors working in a similar field as yours and ask them advice on salary expectation. Your email could be like this:
Dear X,
My name is [….] and I just graduated from [name of your school] in [name of your degree], I have recently been offered a job for a [state the role]. As a newcomer in the industry, I don’t have a clear idea about my worth in the market. As we have similar paths and you started in a similar position as mine, I would like to know if you had any advice regarding salary expectations. I have done my research but I wanted to have the feedback of an experienced fashion professional hence why I contacted you.
Kind Regards,
Daring isn’t it? I know this kind of move is daunting and scary but some people will be happy to answer you. Once some people have reached a certain level, talking about former salaries becomes easier. Again here Linkedin will be the platform to contact people.
Negotiating your salary without underestimating yourself
When I moved to London, I was more aware of my value as a fashion worker. I had some experience under my belt and above all, I learned from working abroad that translating was a skill that could change the balance of my salary. After looking the cost of living in the city, I did some research on the internet to know how much on average the position I was offered was paid. I looked at salary estimations on sites like Glassdoor and kept on looking at similar job offers since some would give an idea of the salary they would offer.
When I said what I wanted, I was first told that there were a lot of French people in London, for a top-notch company like they were, candidates were flocking. I guess the HR wanted to intimidate me to lower the bar. The remark didn’t destabilize though as I answered politely giving the reasons why I won’t lower my expectations. Don’t think that because an HR tells you, you are asking too much, you should go with it. Instead, explain why you think your skills are worth such a salary emphasizing on your most distinctive qualities and how you think it will benefit the company.
Negotiating isn’t easy but if you think you deserve a better salary, ask for it by backing it up with data. For example, analyse the whole package that is offered to you and you could explain that coming from another country there are many things you need to consider. Of course, when negotiating you should always bring everything back to the company. Instead of talking about how much a move is expensive, explain having the money to find a place to stay without struggling will make you a better worker. From my experience in Munich where it was really hard to find a house, some of my colleagues kept moving from a sublet to another one and it wasn’t easy focusing on their job because of that. If your company is keen on understanding that paying you well guarantees a better quality of life hence a productive and motivated worker to them, they will be willing to pay you more.
I hope with this you will be armed to negotiate your salary. If you have more questions on the matter leave your comments below, for a more personalized help check our Membership Plans
This post was originally posted on Feb 2018
