I've been working as a remote IT contractor since last August on a contract to hire basis. My manager loves me, my co-workers welcomed me and got me up to speed pretty quickly and all is well.
So when February rolls around I start bothering my manager about converting to full time. He goes back and forth with his boss and we have to wait until April, the new fiscal year. Then more bouncing around for various approvals, and finally it's in the hands of HR. A recruiter will reach out to me and does so as we're in the middle of a 400 mile drive for our summer vacation.
After dancing around with the various benefits (actually a pretty decent package, and including our preferred health care provider), he gets to the numbers. He offers to cut my salary by $15k/year from my current wage. I tell him if that's what I have to accept, be ready to fill my position in 2-3 months cause I'll start looking. And I hit him with the fact that the month before I was offered the same salary from a major aerospace company, so if I was OK with that he wouldn't be speaking with me.
He said he'd talk with my boss and get back to me when we get back from our vacation.
So Monday morning I text my manager and he's already spoken with his boss about it and they approved a higher salary. The recruiter calls me and gives me what I wanted: $5k/year more than what I'm making hourly. And the $1400/month I've been paying for health insurance goes WAY down.
I know my worth, I stood up for myself, and was prepared to walk away if necessary. Now I'm secure for the foreseeable future, and my employer doesn't have to spend the money looking for a replacement. Win-win.
PS: I told my team how much I'm getting paid, and one guy is already going to talk to our manager about a raise, cause he's making what they offered me at first. I guess that's their “formula”: offer the new guy what the lowest paid guy is making.