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I am expecting an offer in the next few days but also anticipate this being low based on discussions with my future manager. I think he simply wants to throw my current salary through a currency converter and call it good.

I have spent a while doing multiple calculations based on factors such as

  • Current salary; converted and weighted based on new location / tax rules
  • Similar roles in a similar location on Glassdoor and Salarys.com
  • Intra-company charges for my time over the past year - i.e. what I have been worth to the company I am transferring to

All come out within 10k of each other, which I take as a pretty clear indication that my expectation is reasonable.

Assuming I do get a low offer, how should one approach this?

  • Walk future manager through the above calculations? I am concerned that each calculation on it's own can be pulled apart, but they all end up within 10k of each other which I think paints a pretty strong case.
  • Respond with a figure ~15% higher than my target (as per this answer)
  • Simply respond saying the salary is lower than expected/desired and ask for it to be revised, noting the research I've done above but without going into specifics.

Equally; this will be part of a wider relocation package and should be considered alongside that. I'd expect the whole package to be laid out before I can accept.

I would be happy not to accept if the package isn't right, but I would still need to work with this manager and team in the future. Even if I left my current role for another company, I would want to do so on good terms.

EDIT - Just to clarify the relationship between employers; I currently work for a child company. For legal/tax purposes (as we are in different countries), this is a separate company. Therefore, if I work on a project for a direct client of the parent company, the child company has to invoice the parent for my time and vice-versa. It works out significantly more expensive (and hits the project's bottom line) to use staff from other offices. So this is encouraged in principle but avoided by project managers. I've been used a number of times by the parent in the last year and those are the intra-company charges I mention above.

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  • It's a child company to parent company / head office. You're right, it should be described as an intra-company transfer though, I'll edit.
    – San
    Nov 4, 2018 at 11:59
  • What country would you be moving to and what expat benefits would you be getting as part of the transfer?
    – Eric
    Nov 4, 2018 at 12:31
  • I would really keep it simple. "It would be difficult for me to take on that role for less than $X".
    – Fattie
    Nov 5, 2018 at 8:32

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I admire your thinking and approach to this. Companies respond a lot better when you provide data to back up your assertions. (In God we trust, all others bring data.)

This data could be very useful to your future manager if the manager is interested in going to bat for you to ensure you join their team. The work is already done and all the manager has to do it to forward it.

Don't worry too much about them feeling confrontational about it. You are simply stating facts which will be hard to ignore. The intra-company accounting situation is understandable, but from your perspective, It's not a small thing that they are asking of you to move to another country and should be professional enough to hear the word "no" without losing their minds.

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