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I'm a new grad from college and I've recently received an offer letter from a company for a full-time position. Upon reading the offer letter, I see that no salary was included in the offer letter. I then went ahead and emailed HR, asking for a salary specification. The HR replied with a salary amount in her email but did not mention anything about adding this section to the offer letter.

I'm planning on emailing HR again to have the exact salary added to the offer letter before I sign it.

Should I reconsider working for them? I'm sure this is a legit company, but not having a salary on an offer letter seems a bit strange to me.

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    You don't sign offer letters. You sign contracts. Worry about what's in the contract.
    – Philip Kendall
    Commented Oct 14, 2022 at 21:32
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    @PhilipKendall I recently signed an offer letter for a job I'm starting soon. The letter includes things like start date, title, summary of benefits, etc. (I'm in the US, specifically California, if that makes a difference.)
    – Keith Thompson
    Commented Oct 14, 2022 at 21:52
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    Don't be too eager to accept. If you're too eager to accept, they will get buyer's remorse and change some conditions on you. Get all the details upfront. If they insist that you accept, write that you tentatively accept pending a review of the final contract. In other words, you leave yourself room to refuse the offer until you see the final contract and any related document. This is important, this will insure that they make getting a written contract to you their top priority (whether they do it through express mail overnight delivery or email with an e-signature).
    – Stephan Branczyk
    Commented Oct 15, 2022 at 4:35
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    @PhilipKendall: in the US you typically sign the offer letter. That's all the contract there is.
    – Hilmar
    Commented Oct 15, 2022 at 10:01
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    You haven't received an offer so much as an invitation to negotiate.
    – A. I. Breveleri
    Commented Oct 15, 2022 at 19:42

4 Answers 4

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I'm planning on emailing HR again to have the exact salary added to the offer letter before I sign it.

Yes email them again. Without all the key information: start date, title, work location, salary, there is nothing to sign.

You will also want to know if the offer is conditional on a background check, drug test, or anything else.

Should I reconsider working for them? I'm sure this is a legit company, but not having a salary on an offer letter seems a bit strange to me.

Until all of this either is provided and you return the signed unconditional offer, or you give up in frustration, keep looking. Keep Applying. Keep interviewing.

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Depending on where you are in the world, it may be that they will draft a contract for you (which will have all of those items specified) once you accept the Offer Letter.

Which does seem strange to me. But then being in NZ we generally operate on a lot more informal word-of-mouth basis until the point where a Contract is signed (Basically work contract > Everything else)

I would definitely email HR and say something like "I am thinking about accepting the offer, however I am uncomfortable accepting anything that doesn't have these items specified - can you re-draft the Offer Letter and include these so that I can accept?"

Or

"I'm accepting the offer on the understanding that when I receive my contract it will have the salary that was discussed ($100,000 Per Annum) specified" (insert the actual amount that they advised)."

That way, if they try and pull any shenanigans, you can simply back out and say that your acceptance was conditional on the salary that was discussed.

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I have never gotten a offer letter without salary specifications.

In my opinion salary is really core to an offer letter so I would be a little more cautious about why they forgot about it. Maybe it’s the company norm, and they will include all details in the contract. In that case just ask the HR if they can send you their contract even if it might not be finalized yet so you can see what kind of details are included in that.

Since you mentioned it’s legitimacy, go on LinkedIn to find people who already or have in the past worked for this company (you wanna make sure they are real people). Also if the salary you got in their email is too good to be true then it it’s good to make sure.

I am sorry this must be stressful, just remember that asking for something respectfully is always okay. You should feel free to even ask your recruiter to set up a call with you and explain how their hiring process works after getting an offer letter, specially when do they plan to give you all the details about compensation.

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When I get an offer, and it is very good, then I accept it now. If the offer is less good, I will try to get a better offer somewhere else, and if I fail, I’ll accept the offer later.

These people make an offer but withhold critical information about how good the offer is. I’ll tell them that I like the offer in principle, but they need to add a salary. And I tell them the salary at the high end of my range.

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