There has been a lot of talk about this subject lately, and it is absolutely something you should be thinking about, so I wanted to weigh in on the ever prominent question of “how important is my first salary?”
If you follow my blog posts, you’ll notice that a common strand between most of them is that there is no one right answer for everyone. In this case, I think the answer breaks down based on two major career groups: people starting out at the bottom and working their way up in their career vs people starting at a higher level or specialized position and working up from there.
In many industries you’ll find yourself starting at the very bottom working your way up the ladder of authority. Such industries include marketing, design, and some forms of IT (among many others). In these industries, people often start off as an intern, assistant, or in admin which are known for lower pay grades. If you are starting out with a low authority or unspecialized job, your first salary isn’t very important because you will most likely move on (and up) from there. The most important aspect of this kind of position is to get your foot in the door and gain necessary industry experience. No one started out as a marketing exec or magazine editor without doing a lot of grunt work prior to it, so no one will expect you to be the highest paid person in the company when you’re first starting out.
With that in mind, it is important to be aware of the average salary for your position based on location in order to ensure you are not being under paid or taken advantage of. A great tool for this is the Bureau of Labor Statistics (http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oessrcst.htm) where you can see average wage data based on job, state, and metropolitan area. While your first salary may not be very important in determining your salary throughout your career, it is important to make sure you are being fairly compensated for your time and effort.
Now, on the opposite end of the spectrum, there are a lot of people who go into a specialized career or one that requires extra schooling, (i.e. the medical field, engineering, coding/programming, etc). People in these fields often start out with a relatively high level of authority, meaning that you couldn’t just jump into the position and learn as you go. You need to know what you’re doing and have specialized training or education in order to be in that role. For these kind of jobs, your first salary does matter. The reason behind this is that you are coming in at a higher level than other people, therefor you have less room to grow. Think of it this way: If you start out as an administrative assistant but work your way up to an executive or CEO, you’ve basically gone from 0 to 100. However if you start off as a doctor or engineer, you really can only become more experienced in your role and be given more authority, so instead of going from 0 to 100 in your career, you’re starting off at 65 or 70 and moving up to 100.
Because there is less growth in specialized careers, your first salary sets the tone for all the jobs to come. Companies often ask what your previous salary is so that they can give you a proportional salary increase, and sometimes save themselves a little bit of money. In a specialized career, your first salary does matter, but if you do find yourself underpaid and overachieving, there is a way to remedy the situation. It all comes down to knowledge and confidence.
This actually goes for both specialized and unspecialized positions: Let’s say you find yourself severely underpaid based on statistics and your accomplishments. When you go to interview for other positions, make sure you are armed with facts and evidence to support your desired pay increase. A great way to explain your situation to an interview is as follows: “I am aware that I am being underpaid at my current job, however I have learned x, y, and z from this experience/job, and based off of the bureau of labor statistics which show that the average pay for this position in this area is x, along with my accomplishments of a and b, I’m aiming for a salary of $”. If you give a statement like this, you will come off as knowledgeable, confident, and motivated. Having evidence of your achievements and statistics will also make you appear researched and show interviewers that you have put effort into getting fairly compensated.
So, when you’re sitting there wondering “How important is my first salary?” think about the many different factors that go into it. Are you specialized? Is there room for growth? And if you’re already past the point of a low first salary, do your research, itemize your accomplishments, and show people why you deserve the higher pay!