Who asks and who receives in salary negotiation MICHELLE MARKS 1 * AND CRYSTAL HAROLD 2 1 School of Management, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, U.S.A. 2 Fox School of Business, Temple University, Philadelphia, U.S.A. Summary The influence of individual differences and negotiation strategies on starting salary outcomes was investigated. A sample of 149 newly hired employees in various industry settings participated in this study. Results indicated that those who chose to negotiate increased their starting salaries by an average of $5000. Individuals who negotiated by using competing and collaborating strategies, characterized by an open discussion of one’s positions, issues, and perspectives, further increased their salaries as compared to those who used compromising and accommodating strategies. Individual differences, including risk-aversion and integrative attitudes, played a significant role in predicting whether or not individuals negotiated, and if so, what strategies they used. Copyright # 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Introduction Starting salary inequities can have a compounding effect on individuals’ career earnings. For example, assuming a 5 per cent pay increase each year over a 40 year career, a twenty five year old employee that starts at $50 000 would earn $634 198 less than an employee starting at $55 000 by the time s/he reached the age of 65. In addition to the financial implications of a lower starting salary, the perceptual outcomes of the salary negotiation process are meaningful. The justice literature indicates that receiving less than satisfactory outcomes reduces perceptions of fairness (Colquitt, 2001; Lind & Tyler, 1988), which produce beliefs that one is not being compensated appropriately for contributions they bring to an organization (Porter, Conlon, & Barber, 2004). To date, limited field research on salary negotiation has found that those who choose to negotiate generally increase their salaries. The few studies in this area have examined the effect of gender on salary negotiation outcomes, finding that women are less likely to negotiate (Babcock, Gelfand, Small, & Stayn, 2006; O’Shea & Bush, 2002) and that men receive larger salary negotiation payoffs (Gerhart & Rynes, 1991). A more detailed study of individual differences and choice of negotiation strategy, looking beyond gender effects, should give us a broader understanding of why certain individuals reap more benefits than others in salary negotiation. Despite a call to ‘‘look further at how individual differences are related to process features that determine bargaining outcomes’’ (Barry & Friedman, Journal of Organizational Behavior J. Organiz. Behav. 32, 371–394 (2011) Published online 20 November 2009 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/job.671 *Correspondence to: Michelle Marks, School of Management, George Mason University, 4400 University Drive, 5F5, Fairfax, VA 22030, U.S.A. E-mail: mmarks@gmu.edu Copyright # 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Received 14 October 2008 Revised 1 October 2009 Accepted 5 October 2009