Saturday, February 3, 2007

SPECIAL TOPIC: Compensation and Negotiation

30 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ok I'll ask the first question. It's about moving expenses. Suppose you are offered reimboursement up to X dollars. Can you negotiate so that you get X dollars cash instead?

Anonymous said...

I don't know, but I believe that this fund can be used for a lot of things other than those that fall strictly under the "moving expenses" head - like buying new stuff, settling etc...

Anonymous said...

Usually this is established on an institutional basis. Some schools reimburse, and some pay for moving straight out. There are different tax consequences, b/c reimbursements are not subject to income tax.

It's always worth asking though, once you have an offer in hand.

Anonymous said...

I think that moving expenses should be covered in the written offer. And I would not sign a written offer unless the matter was covered (with the exception of an offer from a very low state teaching school, and even then...).
I have not heard of anyone taking an offer without it offering some sort of moving cost compensation.

Anonymous said...

What's a standard amount for an annual research budget?

Anonymous said...

My offer had 2/3 of moving expenses, up to a set amount, paid for by the school. How's that compare to others offers?

Anonymous said...

I think you can (and should) negotiate for 100% of moving expenses covered upto a cap. Call some moving companies to get a quick estimate of how much it will cost to move your stuff (including your car(s)) to that location. Remember to add the cost of the air ticket to fly you out there. then ask for that cap. It's very reasonable to say "It looks like it'll cost me $6000 to move there, can you cover that?"

Anonymous said...

For annual research budgets, a lot of respectable research universities don't provide more than around $2000. If you can get a budget of say $4000, that's a pretty good deal at most places.

If you do very expensive work (e.g. you're a development economist who travels to Malawi frequently), you can bargain for a larger amount.

Anonymous said...

In Australia, start-up budgets near 8,000 USD are possible. They expect more and more expensive travel, given the location. I imagine the same might be true for other non-US research universities.

Anonymous said...

RE: Research funds, for a top 10ish Department, I have heard of 10k per year for five years.

Anonymous said...

Some places might offer less research money BUT "free" RAs, "free" software etc, so be sure you take that into account.

Anonymous said...

I heard about some departments giving about 30k for research funds! that's a lot of money.

I got an offer from a top 50 econ dept. and they're offering about 10k for research funds.

Anonymous said...

1:06--when you say 10k, do you mean a one-time startup budget, or a continuing annual budget?

Anonymous said...

just curious about startup budget: after using up as much of the money as possible, if you have some left over money, what do you do you with it? can you spend it for personal expenses?

Anonymous said...

10k per year for five years = 50k.

At a top 10 Department, do bear in mind.

Anonymous said...

6:41-- I mean 10k a year.

Anonymous said...

I am reimbursed 100% of my moving expenses, up to $3K. And I'm not going to a top school, by any means.

Anonymous said...

5:24 pm, can you spend that fund for buying new furniture or it has to be spent on moving expenses only?

Anonymous said...

I get the written offer tomorrow, so I will check and get back to you. I was not thinking it could be applied to buying new furniture. Is that normal to be considered as a moving expense?

Anonymous said...

Usually it's just moving expenses, but I think it depends on whether its given to you or its reimbursement only.

Anonymous said...

you can buy office furniture with your start-up package, but you can't buy personal furniture with moving expenses.

Anonymous said...

anyone has details on the CRA offer?

Anonymous said...

Anyone shed some light on the market rate for econ deptts (public / pvt) this year?

I have 80-85k from a pvt research dept, ranked 30-35 or so.

Anonymous said...

I don't know if there should be a separate section for this, but I was wondering if others would like to share their compensation information here, along with the type of institution (liberal arts vs research university or the private sector), the geographical region (east coast, midwest, the south, etc) and summer compensation and other benefits so that everyone can get a better idea about negotiating. For example, in my case:

Institution: Masters granting
Salary: About 70K
Region: Midwest
Summer Compensation: ~10K
Additional Benefits:
New computer, moving expenses, etc.

Hope to hear from others too.

Anonymous said...

NE SLAC. Low 80s. No summer support. Around 5k in startup money + computer.

Anonymous said...

I just started a wiki page to compile detailed offer and compensation information: http://www.bluwiki.com/go/Econjobmarket_offers

If there are columns to add or substract, feel free to edit it.

Anonymous said...

Institution: Masters granting
Salary: A little more than 70k
Region: Southeast
Summer Compensation: ~15K
Additional Benefits:
New computer, moving expenses, etc.

Anonymous said...

Institution: master's granting
Salary: 9 month - a bit above 70K
Summer support: 1st year - one month, 2nd year- 1/2 month
Other: new computer, software, travel money, moving expenses
region: south-east
---

Anonymous said...

http://www.bluwiki.com/go/Econjobmarket_offers

Tatonnement said...

This discussion has moved to the new message board.

It is a better system and you can still post anonymously.

This link will take you to the correct thread:

ECON JOB RUMOR BOARD