Your salary and benefits package is essential to you today. You have bills to pay and food to put on the table, and hopefully, discretionary funds to spend and save. But did you know that a $5,000 increase in annual base pay can lead to an additional $650,000 in lifetime earnings? That's why it's so important to know your worth when looking for a job and negotiating pay.

Resources To Research Salary

How do you know you are being paid what you are worth? The first step is to conduct research. There are a plethora of resources available online to help you determine appropriate pay ranges for your job title:

• PayScale.com is one of the most popular cloud-based services that gives real-time access to compensation data based on job title, skills, education, geography, and responsibility.
  
  
• Indeed Salary aggregates salaries from postings on the site, providing accurate data based upon job title and geography. However, it omits educational and skill-based data.
  
  
• Salary.com is one of the oldest salary tools out there and provides reasonably accurate pay ranges.
  
  
• SalaryExpert.com offers free salary reports for job seekers.
  
  
• Cbsalary.com is CareerBuilder's free salary calculator. It is powered by Salary Expert, so it offers similar functionality.
  
  
• The Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment Statistics provides this survey on occupational wages for localities, broad geographic regions, and the nation. The BLS is fairly accurate but can be slightly behind the times.
  
  
• PrideStaff is an expert staffing and recruiting firm that can ensure you get paid what you are worth, and they offer a free salary report, as well.

Research your job title or target job title, your level of experience, education and geographic location on at least three tools. No single tool is 100 percent accurate, so you'll want to check a few reports to get the most accurate picture.

What To Do After You've Researched Salary

Sometimes, when you research salary information, you find out you are being underpaid by your employer. While this can be a devastating discovery, you can use the information from your research to look for jobs and negotiate pay that is more in line with what you deserve.

Negotiating salary can be difficult. Asking for more can sometimes feel awkward or even greedy, especially if you are asking for much more than your current employer is paying you. If negotiating salary isn't your forte, consider an option where you will get paid what you are worth, without negotiation. How? By working with the expert recruiters at PrideStaff.

When you work with PrideStaff, you'll discuss your salary requirements at length before you ever go on a single interview. That way, you know when you find the right job, you'll be earning exactly what you want and deserve. Contact PrideStaff today to learn more.