Should you negotiate?
How to ask well, and when not to
You’ve received the offer. The role is right, the location works, your family is excited, and the salary is slightly lower than you expected.
Asking a reasonable question rarely has to be confrontational
The good news is that a well-framed question about salary is a normal professional conversation, not a confrontation. But whether you can negotiate, and how much flexibility the employer has, depends heavily on your profession, your employer and your employment model.
So the first job isn’t deciding what to ask for. It’s working out which situation you’re in.
Find out how the salary was determined
Healthcare salaries aren’t all set the same way, and these are different conversations rather than variations on one.
- A public hospital may employ clinicians according to a collective agreement, award or established salary scale.
- A private provider may have considerably greater discretion.
- A GP may be discussing an hourly rate or a percentage of billings rather than a traditional salary.
- A senior specialist may be negotiating sessions, on-call commitments and private work alongside base remuneration.
Sometimes the employer has real flexibility. Sometimes they don’t. Establishing which should come before you decide how to respond, because the same request lands very differently in each case.
Who has flexibility
The public and private answers are different, and so is the question worth asking in each.
Less flexible than you expect, but ask about placement
If you’re joining a public healthcare organisation, your salary may be linked to an established scale. That doesn’t mean there is nothing to discuss. The important question is usually where you enter the scale.
Previous experience can influence placement, depending on the profession, agreement and employer. If you have twelve years of relevant post-qualification experience, it’s entirely reasonable to ask whether all of it has been recognised in determining your starting point.
That is a different conversation from “I’d like another $15,000.” You’re asking the employer to check whether the offer accurately reflects your experience, which is a question they can act on.
More freedom, and scarcity counts
Private healthcare employers often have greater freedom over remuneration, although this varies enormously. It’s particularly relevant in private radiology, general practice, allied health and diagnostic imaging.
The employer may be weighing the scarcity of your skills, local workforce demand, your experience, subspecialty expertise and how difficult the vacancy has been to fill.
An experienced MSK radiologist is entering a very different negotiation from someone applying for a position with numerous suitable local candidates. Your position depends partly on the value and scarcity of what you bring.
Plenty of generic career advice says never accept the first offer. Healthcare recruitment isn’t that simple. If an employer has offered the top of the applicable range and has correctly recognised your experience, pushing further because negotiating is supposedly expected may achieve very little. Equally, accepting an offer you’re uncomfortable with creates a different problem later. The aim isn’t to win, it’s to be comfortable before you move your life to another country.
Know what you’re worth, but use the right comparison
Comparing the wrong two things is worse than not researching at all, because it gives you false confidence.
- A private Australian salary shouldn’t automatically be compared with a public New Zealand one.
- Sydney shouldn’t necessarily be compared with regional Western Australia.
- A contractor rate isn’t equivalent to an employee salary.
- A package inclusive of superannuation isn’t the same as a base salary plus super.
- A role with substantial on-call or weekend work shouldn’t be compared with one built around predictable weekday sessions.
Before deciding an offer is too low, be certain what you’re measuring it against. Our money guide works through the comparisons that hold up.
Salary isn’t the only thing you can negotiate
Sometimes an employer cannot increase the base, and that doesn’t mean the conversation is finished.
Depending on the employer and role, there may be scope to discuss:
- Relocation assistance, flights and temporary accommodation
- Professional registration or licensing costs
- Immigration or visa-related support
- CPD or professional development funding, and professional memberships
- Start date
- Working pattern, or number of sessions
- Flexible working arrangements
- Additional annual leave
- On-call or overtime arrangements
- The timing of your first salary review
Not every employer will offer these, and some organisations have strict policies about what they can fund. But when you’re moving internationally, relatively small changes to the package can make a significant difference.
Imagine an employer can’t move on salary but can contribute towards flights, temporary accommodation and relocation expenses. For someone moving alone, that’s useful. For someone relocating a family of four, it could materially reduce the cost and stress of the move. Consider the total first-year value of an offer. A slightly higher base isn’t the better package if another employer is meaningfully helping you get established.
There’s a difference between negotiating and producing a shopping list
If salary, leave, relocation, working hours, start date and every other part of the offer are challenged at once, an employer may reasonably start to wonder whether you want the job.
So prioritise. Ask yourself one question: what matters to me?
- If salary is the issue, concentrate on salary.
- If the salary is acceptable but the cost of relocating your family is the worry, relocation assistance is the more important conversation.
- If your priority is spending Fridays with your children, negotiating your working pattern may be worth considerably more to you than a small increase.
One clear ask lands. Six diffuse ones sound like doubt.
Be careful about using another offer as leverage
If you have another offer, it can be relevant. Handle it carefully.
There is a considerable difference between saying:
“I’ve received another offer at a higher salary, although this remains my preferred role. Is there any flexibility within the package?”
…and attempting to create a bidding war. Healthcare communities in Australia and New Zealand can be surprisingly small, particularly within specialist professions, and your professional reputation travels with you.
Never invent another offer, or exaggerate its value. It is a small world, the claim is easier to check than people assume, and the cost of being caught is out of all proportion to the gain.
When and how to ask
Usually once you have a clear offer. Trying to negotiate hard before an employer has decided they want to appoint you tends to be counterproductive.
By offer stage, both sides have invested in the process. The employer knows your experience, you know more about the role, and there is something concrete to discuss. If you’re working with a recruiter, this is also where they earn their place. A good one already understands the employer’s salary structure, whether flexibility is likely, and where your experience sits relative to other appointments.
You don’t need a complicated strategy. Something like this is enough:
“Thank you — I’m genuinely pleased to receive the offer and really enthusiastic about the role. Before I formally accept, could I ask whether there is any flexibility on the salary? Based on my experience in [area], I was hoping we might look at something closer to [figure].”
That’s a professional conversation. You’ve expressed enthusiasm, explained your reasoning, and given the employer a chance to respond. They may agree. They may meet you in the middle. Or they may explain the offer is already at the maximum available.
All three are useful answers.
When to stop, and what a “no” tells you
Some limits are real
If the employer has clearly demonstrated you’re already at the maximum available under the relevant agreement, asking repeatedly won’t change the outcome.
Likewise, if an employer has already improved the offer significantly to meet your requests, think carefully before returning with another. The question becomes simply: is this opportunity right for you at the package available?
Then you have information
A declined salary request doesn’t mean the employer doesn’t value you. They may be constrained by a collective agreement, internal parity, budget or organisational policy. None of which is about you.
You can then look at the whole opportunity and decide. If it works, accept it confidently. If it doesn’t, far better to recognise that before relocating halfway around the world.
Don’t accept a salary you’re already unhappy with
If you accept an offer while privately feeling underpaid or undervalued, that feeling rarely disappears once you’ve moved. It waits, and it surfaces in your first difficult month.
So ask reasonable questions before you commit. Understand the salary. Understand the package. Understand what is and isn’t negotiable. Then decide on the full opportunity.
A successful negotiation doesn’t have to end with the biggest possible salary. It might mean having your previous experience properly recognised. Help with the cost of moving your family. Eight sessions rather than ten. Additional professional development. Or understanding that the original offer was already a fair one.
Our role isn’t to push every offer higher. If an employer has recognised your experience properly and the figure is at the top of what they can do, I’d rather tell you that than manufacture a negotiation to look useful. Where there is room, we’ll have the conversation with the employer on your behalf, which is often easier for everyone than doing it yourself in the same week you’re trying to make a good first impression. What I care about is that both sides understand exactly what’s being agreed, and that the opportunity still feels right once the excitement of receiving the offer has passed.
SophieFounder, Ethicare Resourcing
The questions candidates ask us at offer stage
Will negotiating make me look difficult, or risk the offer?
A single, well-framed question asked with enthusiasm for the role does not put a sensible offer at risk. What can cause friction is challenging six things at once, negotiating before the employer has decided to appoint you, or pushing again after they’ve already moved significantly. Ask once, ask clearly, and be ready to accept the answer.
Can I negotiate in the public sector at all?
Often not the rate itself, because it sits on a published scale. But you can and should ask about placement on that scale: whether all your relevant post-qualification experience has been recognised in your starting step. That’s a question with a factual answer, and it’s where most value is found.
What if they can’t move on salary?
Ask about the rest of the package: relocation assistance, flights, temporary accommodation, registration and visa costs, CPD funding, start date, working pattern, leave, or the timing of your first review. For an international move, those can be worth more in year one than a modest increase to base pay.
Should I tell them about another offer?
Only if it’s real, and only framed as a question rather than an ultimatum, making clear this is still your preferred role. Never invent one or inflate it. Specialist healthcare communities in both countries are small, and your reputation outlasts any single negotiation.
Will you negotiate on my behalf?
Where it’s appropriate, yes, and it’s often easier that way, since we already know the employer’s structure and whether there’s flexibility. We’ll also tell you when there isn’t, rather than putting you through a conversation that won’t change anything.
How do I know whether the offer is fair in the first place?
Start with how the figure was set and what it should be compared against, award floor, collective agreement step, or a private-market rate. Our Australian and New Zealand pay guides explain the mechanics of each, and we’ll confirm the specific position for any role we discuss with you.
Got an offer in front of you?
Send us the detail and we’ll tell you how the figure was set, whether there’s likely to be room, and what else in the package is worth asking about. Even if the role isn’t one of ours.
Ethicare Resourcing, healthcare careers across Australia & New Zealand.