Receiving a job offer can be a very exciting time and once you have been extended employment as a dental assistant, it’s time to begin discussing the dental assistant salary with your prospective employer. As we mentioned in a previous article, the job interview is not the time to ask questions pertaining to the dental assistant salary associated with a particular opening. However, if you are offered the position, here are a few tips for effectively and professionally negotiating the dental assistant salary.
Know What’s Important to You
The first step in salary negotiations actually begins with you asking yourself a few questions about your priorities. Are you interested in a specific amount of income or are you seeking to find good work-life balance? Would you prefer to work a specific shift, have a short commute, or opportunities for advancement? These things all need to be thought through as they may play into your dental assistant salary negotiations. If the pay tends to be slightly lower than you would have preferred, but one or more of these factors are important to you and are an attractive part of the job offer, they should be weighed against pay.
Know Your Worth
If you are planning to negotiate a higher dental assistant salary than you expect the employer to offer, then you need to have concrete reasons for your request and you need to be able to communicate these to the hiring manager or practice owner. You should be able to provide factual examples of how you will add value to the practice in order to justify your negotiations.
Be Honest and Open
It’s very likely that the hiring manager will begin dental assistant salary discussions by asking you what range of pay you expect to receive. If this is the case, be up front about what you had in mind. You might phrase your response as: “I am currently looking for opportunities which pay between $14 to $16 per hour, however, there are other factors which I am evaluating as well so I can be flexible for the right opportunity”.
Remain Professional at All Times
The most important tip in negotiating your dental assistant salary during the hiring process is to remain professional in your discussions. The tone of these salary negotiations will likely reveal quite a bit to the employer as to how you will perform as a part of the staff while on the job and the type of personality you will bring to the practice, so you want these talks to be open and firm, yet positive and professional at all times.