How to Negotiate Total Compensation, Not Just Base
Base salary is one lever of many. Counteroffer helps you negotiate the whole package: bonus, equity, sign-on, and benefits, so you optimize total comp, not just the headline number.
Coaching, not legal or financial advice.
What are you negotiating?
Your offer or current pay
Market-rate band
Talking points
Email template
CopyTiming
Coaching, not legal or financial advice.
Direct answer
To negotiate total compensation, treat the offer as a package, not a single salary line. The main levers are base, annual bonus, equity or stock, a sign-on bonus, and benefits like PTO and remote flexibility. When a company cannot raise base, a sign-on bonus or extra equity is often easier to grant, so ask which levers have room. Counteroffer values the full package and suggests where to push for the most gain. These are estimates for guidance, and this is coaching, not financial advice.
See the whole package
Counteroffer accounts for base, bonus, equity, and sign-on together, so you judge an offer on total value instead of a single number.
Know which levers have room
When base is capped, a one-time sign-on or extra equity is often easier to approve. Counteroffer points you to the lever most likely to move.
Counter on more than salary
It helps you ask for PTO, remote flexibility, or a review-date bump, so you capture value even when the salary line will not budge.
▲ where it is used
Total compensation in the field.
Responding to a counteroffer
You resigned, and now they want you to stay for more money. Before you answer, it is worth knowing that the scary statistic everyone quotes at this moment has no source behind it.
Read more →Tech offer negotiation
Tech offers are packages, not paychecks: base, equity, sign-on, and refreshers all move on different rules. Counteroffer values the whole thing and points you to the lever with real room.
Read more →Remote pay and relocation
Remote and relocation offers come with pay bands tied to geography, and that is negotiable too. Counteroffer helps you handle location adjustments without underselling.
Read more →Signing bonus negotiation
A signing bonus is the easiest part of an offer for a company to say yes to, because it is one-time money that does not raise the salary band. That makes it the lever most candidates forget to pull.
Read more →▲ more of what Counteroffer does
Build your counteroffer in minutes.
Paste your offer or current pay and get a market-rate band, the number to counter with, talking points, and an email template.
Counteroffer is educational career coaching, not legal, financial, or HR advice.