Most negotiation advice assumes a salaried office job with a pay range and a recruiter who expects a counter. Most jobs are not that. What you can move depends on what kind of job it is. Here is how it works for four kinds.
First, know the range
In California, Colorado and Washington, the job posting has to include the pay range. California and Washington require it from employers with 15 or more employees. Colorado requires it in every posting (California Labor Code 432.3, Colorado Department of Labor and Employment, Washington RCW 49.58.110). In California you can also ask for the pay scale of any job you applied to. The employer may not ask what you earned before. Anywhere else, ask for the range before you name a number. If they won’t say, ask again by email so the answer is in writing.
Hourly jobs
Fixed, usually: the rate, if it is posted or sits on a step scale. Pushing on a posted rate rarely works and can cost you the offer.
Movable: your start date, your shift, which days you work, how many hours a week you are guaranteed, and when your first raise review happens. Ask about all five before you accept. Most people only ask about the rate, which is the one thing that won’t move.
Check: whether the job comes with health coverage and when it starts. Once you are eligible, a group plan cannot make you wait more than 90 days (29 CFR 2590.715-2708).
Salaried jobs
Movable: more than in any other kind of job. Pay within the range, a signing bonus, start date, remote or hybrid days, title, paid time off, your first review date, equipment, relocation. Pick the two that matter most to you and ask for those. A list of nine reads as indecision.
Fixed, usually: anything above the top of the range. A posted range is usually the budget for the role. Getting above it means a different role, not a better argument.
Check: whether the job pays overtime. “Salaried” does not mean “no overtime.” Under federal law the duties decide, not the title or the pay type (U.S. Department of Labor, Fact Sheet 17A).
Union jobs
Fixed: the rate, the raises, the hours and most of the conditions. They are in the contract. The employer bargains those terms with the union, and neither side can change them for one person without the other’s consent (National Labor Relations Board). That is the point. It also means the employer cannot cut your rate on its own.
Movable: where you start on the scale, if the contract gives credit for prior experience. Your start date. Sometimes your shift, depending on how the contract handles bids. Ask the steward, not HR, which of these the contract allows.
Check: get a copy of the contract before your first day and read the wage schedule and the probation clause.
Contract and freelance work
Movable: everything. The rate, the scope, the deadline, who owns the work, who pays expenses, and how fast you get paid. Payment terms are the one most people forget. Net 15 and net 60 are the same rate on paper and a very different month.
Fixed: nothing, and that is the problem. Contractors do not get minimum wage, overtime or the other protections employees get.
If the “contract” job comes with a set schedule, a manager and the company’s tools, it may be an employee job with the wrong label. The U.S. Department of Labor calls that misclassification and treats it as a serious problem (U.S. Department of Labor). Ask to be hired as an employee, or price the contract for what you are giving up.
Whatever the job, ask for the range first and get the final offer in writing. Do not give notice anywhere until you have it. Once you start, federal labor law protects most employees’ right to talk about pay with coworkers (National Labor Relations Board). That is how you find out whether the range you were given was real.