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Salary negotiations: exploitation or personal responsibility?

Were you taken advantage of, or do you only have yourself to blame?

A company was prepared to pay 6,500, but the candidate asked for 5,000 and received exactly that amount. Did the company simply accept the candidate's terms, or did it exploit its informational advantage? Read arguments from both perspectives and vote. The results will be shown after your vote.

I'M RESPONSIBLE - I named my price

  1. If I said I wanted 5,000, I can hardly accuse the company afterwards of offering me exactly that amount.
  2. A company isn't a charity. If it can legally buy the same work for less, it is acting in the interests of its owners.
  3. Anyone can research market salaries before an interview and prepare for the negotiation.
  4. Maybe someone earns more because they negotiated better, showed greater confidence or did a better job of demonstrating their value.
  5. The employer doesn't know whether a candidate will accept the offer either. Asking about salary expectations is a normal part of a negotiation.
  6. If I sell a car below its market value, the buyer isn't obliged to voluntarily pay me the difference.
  7. When I sign an employment contract, both the company and I voluntarily accept its terms.

THE COMPANY TOOK ADVANTAGE OF ME

  1. I don't see this as an equal negotiation. The company knows its budget, what other employees earn and what is happening in the market. I know only my own situation and needs.
  2. If I'm unemployed and urgently need an income, I don't have the same bargaining power as a company that can interview another fifty candidates.
  3. If two people perform the same job equally well, a difference of 1,500 in their salaries doesn't reflect their value. It reflects the difference in the information available to them.
  4. The company knows the position is worth more, yet it deliberately pays me less simply because I asked for less.
  5. The people who lose the most are often those who are modest, young or in a difficult financial situation - not those who perform worse.
  6. Keeping salary ranges secret isn't about fair negotiation. It's about finding out who is willing to do the job for the lowest amount.
  7. Saving money because the other person didn't know how much the company was prepared to pay may be legal, but that doesn't necessarily make it fair.

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