Negotiating starting pay - local council

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I have been offered an admin job with our local council. I am way over qualified and experienced but due to time out of work for caring responsibilities I am starting again. In my favour they also let slip I was by far the best candidate.

It is advertised as "starting salary £24 - £26452".
I currently earn £24, 500 so wondering how I approach pay negotiations.
I understand the local councils pay bands are pretty rigid but given this is a starting salary pay band there must be room for negotiating. Ideally I am looking to start on at least £25, 5000.

Any advice much appreciated

I work for the LA.

They say starting salary because that is literally it, the salary you're starting on. You work your way through the pay spines for your grade then apply for the next position.

Local government pension schemes are generally a gold mine, they offer one of the most flexible approaches to working I've ever seen and once you're in, the ability to move positions is good. They offer far more positions internally than externally under the guise of secondments and then making you permanent.

The numbers you're talking about aren't enough to look a gift horse in the mouth.

There's a reason you meet people who've worked for the LA for 30 years.

Yes it is. In my experience (HR) if they are advertising a salary range they have permission to go to the top of it. If they were only able to offer the bottom they'd have stated that salary point only.

So YES, ask for the top of that advertised band and see what they say. If they so no, negotiate down to the next spinal pint down (ask what that is).

Now, at job offer stage, is your one chance to negotiate. Once you are working there it will usually be annual service based increments only, so go in high now. Honestly, there is absolutely no downside to an applicant trying to negotiate (so long as not stroppy or unrealistic), the worse that can happen is they say no.

@LemonGelato thank you! I have no qualms at least trying

This is new territory for me, I have only had a verbal job offer from my line manager - nothing formal as yet from HR. How do I handle next steps? Tell my LM I am interested but need to discuss pay first with HR (I don't have any direct contact details for them)?

If the manager called you to offer it, then go back to them. Did you 'provisionally accept'? Was salary not mentioned?

If not then I'd go back via email and say you would love to accept, are very excited etc etc, And then add something like "as we didn't confirm the starting salary, I just wanted to check that with you. Obviously as the role was advertised with a salary band, I was understandably looking for appointment at the top of the range, based on my skills and experience. I look forward to hearing from you and assume a formal offer letter will be sent out in due course."

Also one negotiating tool is to suggest you accept a slightly lower starting spinal point with and increase to the top after successful completion of probation. This MUST be in writing though, not just a verbal promise. I've often done that as it's an incentive for good performance if noting else. But only suggest that if the offer isn't good enough.

Just a point - women do not negotiate job offers anywhere near as much as men. Hence one of the many reasons for the the gender pay gap. Don't feel uncomfortable, just be clear, concise and polite.

Good luck!

No salary wasn't discussed over the phone. Was in a very noisy shop at the time, plus I was so shocked didn't think to ask!

Also didn't even provisionally accept, just thanked him and said I would have a think over the weekend.

I would suggest asking for an increment on successful completion of your 6-month probation. That gives you the opportunity to demonstrate that you are worth it. Then you should get a further annual increment, and that's probably your £1k ask taken care of.

Also ask if there is an annual pay award due on 1st April and if this LA follow the national pay award. For the last two years the annual award has been £1925, which is a significant % on the lower pay scales.

Not LA but public sector - there's usually an incremental progression around the 6 month point depending on the time of year you start (can't remember now when that is!) and then once a year afterwards until you reach the top of the scale.

I very much doubt you will get anywhere with negotiating as it's just not a thing with public sector employers. You can but try!

Speak to the manager who offered you the job. S/he can check it out with HR.

@ObliviousCoalmine (love your username!!) - that's really not the case any more, certainly where I work. I'm in the 30+ bracket but I've noticed with younger employees they seem to stay 5/6 years and then move elsewhere. Our team has such a turnover of staff and that was unheard of years ago! They may go to another public sector body but there's definitely much greater mobility.

I was immediately brought in at the middle of payscale so it’s not a given you start at the bottom. And pay isn’t bad at all especially once you reach Principal Officer level.

Starting salary = the salary you start on in the job. Then the higher figure given is the top of the pay band, which is what you could theoretically progress up to. It would be worth asking do they have increments or not. I've been doing my job 7yrs and until a recent pay review was only £400 off the 'starting salary'. No increments, pay freezes and 1% rises for years. Performance bonus might be £200.

I worked in a marketing role for our local council. I applied as an external candidate with good experience, and when I was offered the post I emailed the HR person and hiring manager and said that given the expertise I would bring to the role, was there scope to consider the spinal point I would start on? There was a bit of a gap while they must have been seeking permission or something, but they offered me the next one up which I happily accepted. Shy bairns get no toffee.

In LAs, probably 99% of people start at the bottom of the scale. There's possibly room to negotiate if you can show you're currently earning more than the bottom of the scale, but asking on the basis of your experience or qualifications or previous earnings is unlikely to get you anywhere.

The whole grade scale get advertised to show you where you'll get to, because automatic annual incremental progression applies, it's not performance-based and it doesn't require management approval. You move up an increment every 1st April until you reach the top of the scale, unless you don't have 6 months at that grade, in which case a 6-month increment applies instead.

If you do want to try negotiating your starting salary, speak to the hiring manager, not HR. It's the manager who's motivated to persuade you to take the job. And it’s the manager’s budget, not HR’s budget.

Former LA manager here. In my LA the policy was to recruit to the bottom of the scale unless moving from another LA or internal department, when salary was matched. If we had problems recruiting to a post, it was up to managers to make a business case for an additional increment, which we had to present to a scrutiny panel (finance and senior officers from department). It was a lot of work and not an easy task to get approval.

I've recruited for and been recruited to roles, it is possible to negotiate if a role is hard to recruit to.

Are you moving from the private sector? If so don't forget to factor in much better pension contributions, decent sick pay, decent leave, a lot of scope to move upwards, Flexi working options etc

I managed to negotiate to start at the top of pay band for my first council job. My second council job I managed to negotiate to middle of pay band. So not impossible, worth asking

Ok so the room seems split between jog on and go for it!
Based on that gotta be worth a push.

Appreciate working for LG has other benefits but when you're on a lower wage any extra you can claw is very welcome.

I will be moving from the private sector where pay progression is much more "fluid" but I can't afford to accept less than I'm currently on even with the other benefits.

I always ask for the top figure when a pay range is quoted. This usually, after all, the range they are saying themselves is available. If their budget only allowed them to offer the lower figure they would not be quoting the range.

Does this email set the right **tone?

Hi xxx
*
It was great to meet you on xxxx and I’m thrilled to have been offered the post of xxxx.

As we didn't confirm the starting salary, I just wanted to check that with you. Based on my skills, experience and current salary, I am understandably looking for appointment at the top of the advertised pay scale, £26,421.

I look forward to hearing from you and assume a formal offer letter will be sent out in due course.*

That's fine. It makes your position clear. Have a figure in mind that you would accept and mange your expectations. And follow up with my suggestions upthread.

Thank you...will request this if there's no movement on the starting pay

I was appointed at the top of the scale in local authority. I had to show my current salary was in the middle of the scale and that my experience and qualifications meant I could hit the ground running. For me there was a £6k difference from bottom to top, so worth negotiating. Your email sounds fine, if they say “no” try explaining you’d be losing money to go to them, which obviously you knew when you applied but any wiggle room on salary would be appreciated.

I've been a hiring manager in different public sector bodies and it is very rare to negotiate pay in non-senior roles. On the one occasion we did negotiate the person was asked to provide proof of their current salary - so make sure you don't fib! Good luck.

Have also remembered that as of today my current pay increases to reflect alignment NMW rise, even though I'm not on the minimum,

Creates even more of a disparity - pretty sure LG will only increase pay of those on NMW

You can ask can’t you? You may be the best candidate for the job. I moved councils after 10 years and for the same job title the first council pay band was higher. New council popped me on the pay scale for the role above to match/ slightly up what I was on (I was going to have to travel further and I guess they needed a bum on a seat). When they offered it I just told them my current salary etc and asked if they could match it and left it with them.

They can only say no can’t they?