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Vacation time, just like your salary, is a form of compensation that can be negotiated. Given the health and creative benefits of vacation time, those vacation days are well worth asking for.
Here are five tactics for negotiating more vacation time.
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1. Research before requesting
Research the average amount of vacation time that someone in your industry, at your level, typically gets.
- Ask colleagues in your professional network.
- If you already know someone else at the company, ask what they get.
- Review Bureau of Labor Statistics data on paid vacations.
- If you’re working with an external recruiter, be sure to ask for their insights about what’s standard at your level in the industry.
2. Compare offers in relative terms
“I would definitely think about it in terms of percentages and how it's going to land for the person on the other end,” says Shonna Waters, and advisor at BetterUp, a behavioral career coaching company. “If they're offering two weeks of vacation and you're like, ‘Can I get three?’, it may not sound huge to you, but that's a 50% increase.” (And keep in mind that you may be asking for more time than what the manager gets, she adds.)
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3. Ask for a “match” rather than “more”
The strategy here is to highlight that the company is lagging competitors or is otherwise not on par with a common standard. Instead of just asking for more days off, tell the manager or interviewer that you've learned other companies give their employees X amount of vacation time and you’re wondering if the company can match it, Waters says.
If you discover that your coworkers have more vacation days than you, share that with your manager. Say that you understand the company is open to giving more vacation time, and you’d like to negotiate your own benefits.
4. Use the anchoring technique
The anchoring negotiation tactic is little more than using your initial proposal (more vacation time) to make a subsequent proposal sound more acceptable. In this case, if the company really can’t give you more vacation time, use that to negotiate something else you might want, Waters says, such as a hybrid or remote arrangement, more pay, more stock options or something else. The company may be more inclined to say yes.
» Comparing job offers with our total compensation calculator
5. Transfer the onus
This tactic entails placing some of the negotiation burden back on the employer. If a negotiation stalls, she says, you can ask, “If you can't do this, what can you do?’” But only use this approach when you know what benefits matter most to you, whether that’s vacation days or something else, and when you understand the “levers” the employer might pull to benefit you, Waters adds.
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