Considering changing jobs, advice requested

[ncornilsen]

I've been wanting to get away from the Portland area for a while now, and would love to get back to the area I grew up. Unfortunately Engineering jobs are pretty rare in that area.  A opportunity has presented itself with a company that a family friend works at. He's their chief engineer, and I'd go work for him. The job sounds interesting, so that part's all good. I'm being asked to name my salary requirements.

I currently earn 72K base salary, with quarterly bonuses that are typically 18-22%. On top of that, I get decent health coverage, and a stock purchase program. My total compensation is about $85K.

Does anyone have a good source for cost of living index's, that's pretty comprehensive and would include smaller, more rural areas?

I don't want to go backwards on "real" compensation, so once I've calculated an equivalent salary in that area, should I ask for an increase? It's not a huge company, and I don't want to be a money grub, so I'm trying to figure out how much to ask for.

Salary negociations always seem daunting to me.

[mak1277]

Googling "cost of living" will give you a bunch of choices.  I've never used one of these calculators so I can't really recommend.

It sounds like you're going to a lower COL place, which is nice.  In that instance, if you don't want to be a money grub, my suggestion would be to just lay out your current salary + bonus + benefits as a starting point.  Even if I was moving down in terms of COL, I wouldn't ever start a negotiation lower than what I'm currently making, unless you know that amount is already out of the range for the company.

[frugaliknowit]

I politely disagree with "...just lay out your current salary + bonus + benefits as a starting point..."  This is guaranteed to land you a bad deal and could "paint you into a corner".

Figure out your market value in the city you are relocating to using salary.com or similar.  Make that your salary "target" in your negotiations.  Another good way is that if your potential employer has entries in GlassDoor.com, see if you can find salaries of those in similar positions. 

[mak1277]

I politely disagree with "...just lay out your current salary + bonus + benefits as a starting point..."  This is guaranteed to land you a bad deal and could "paint you into a corner".

Figure out your market value in the city you are relocating to using salary.com or similar.  Make that your salary "target" in your negotiations.  Another good way is that if your potential employer has entries in GlassDoor.com, see if you can find salaries of those in similar positions.

I'm assuming with my suggestion that he's moving to a place with a lower COL...obviously if the job market is higher/better OP should be asking for more (commensurate with the market).  My only point was that I would use current salary/benefits as a floor and not go lower just because the area is lower COL.

[ncornilsen]

Salary.com happens to match my current income, with my experience factored in. It's about 8K lower in the area I want to go.

I'm going to ask for my current salary plus 2500 to give myself some negotiating room.

[YTProphet]

Salary.com happens to match my current income, with my experience factored in. It's about 8K lower in the area I want to go.

I'm going to ask for my current salary plus 2500 to give myself some negotiating room.

I think that's a great idea. You should never take a paycut when switching jobs and I think the lower COL in the area you're moving to makes that $2,500 bump a good target.