Enter the gap between what you were offered and what you could have asked for. See the compounding cost over 5 and 10 years.
When you accept a salary without negotiating, that number becomes your baseline. Every raise, bonus, and future offer is typically calculated as a percentage of where you are now. A modest gap at the start quietly grows larger each year, because the percentage raise is applied to a lower base than it could have been.
This calculator assumes a fixed annual raise rate for simplicity. The real-world effect is often larger, because employers making new offers also anchor to your current salary. A lower baseline follows you across jobs, not just within a single role.
Enter your current or offered salary in the first field. In the second field, enter a realistic target — what you would ask for if you were to negotiate today. Use market data from LinkedIn Salary, Glassdoor, or sector-specific surveys to anchor that number. If you have no data, a 7-10% ask above the offer is a conservative starting point for most UK professional roles.
The annual raise rate defaults to 4%, which is close to the UK professional sector average. Adjust this to match your industry or employer's typical raise cycle.
The output shows the gap compounding year by year, plus cumulative lost earnings over five and ten years. This is the real cost of skipping the conversation.
Knowing the cost is one thing. Knowing exactly what to say is another. The discomfort most people feel in salary negotiations is a skills gap, not a personality trait. Word-for-word scripts, practised in advance against a realistic response, make the difference between leaving money on the table and walking away with a number that reflects your actual market value.
For a step-by-step guide on what to say, read the salary negotiation script that gets a yes. To understand the compounding cost in more depth, see what happens if you don't negotiate your salary.