Negotiating Beyond Salary: Fringe Benefits Can Sweeten the Deal
You’ve tailored and tweaked your resume one hundred bajillion times. You’ve sent polite follow-up emails. You’ve interviewed and been ghosted… But now you’ve got an offer.
Yesssssssssssssssssssss.
Sick, dude. Congrats!
But now it’s time to negotiate, which is an expected and regular part of the hiring process. For the rejection-sensitive among us, let me say it again:
The company makes an offer expecting you to counter.
You might go back and forth on salary, benefits, and perks a few times, and your final compensation will land somewhere in the middle.
Don’t make any commitments until you get the offer in writing. Usually, you’ll receive an emailed offer letter that details the role and compensation, including benefits. When you get the initial offer, reply and offer a timeline for your decision—like the end of the week, or the following Monday.
Here’s a script you can tailor to your voice:
Thank you so much! I’m excited to get the offer and talk about next steps about my future with [Company]. I’ll take some time to look over everything and let you know if I have any questions about the offer, and I’ll get back to you with an official decision by [date].
Then your job is to sleep on it and look at the offer again with a clear head in the morning.
Compensation is more than salary
When you review your offer letter, obviously check out the salary. But in addition, dive into the benefits and perks offered so you can compare apples to apples.
For instance, if your current job is remote and the insurance plan covers all your meds, how does it compare to a job that has a big pay raise but would come with a commute and a high deductible? It’s not just about the money.
Consider the usual benefits, including health insurance, parental leave, paid time off and sick time, etc., but you may be leaving a lot on the table if you don’t get some fringe benefits in writing too.
Fringe benefits are additional perks like half-day Fridays in the summer, paid volunteer days, a cell phone stipend, a company car, wellness incentives, or flexible hours (plus a lot more—the sky’s the limit). Let’s explore some of the most common fringe bennies.
Remote or Hybrid Work
Remote work is becoming a must for modern workers. Pew Research Center reported in January 2025 (wistful sigh) that nearly half of remote workers would look for a new job if they lost the option to work remotely. This is especially true for workers under 50, of which 50% said they’d look for new work, compared to 35% of workers over 50.
The data suggests that hybrid work environments are ideal for most workers.
Buffer’s State of Remote Work report in 2023 reveals that a whopping 98% of respondents would prefer to work remotely (at least some of the time) for the rest of their careers.
I highly recommend getting any remote or hybrid work perks in writing before you accept the job, if working remote is critical for your work-life balance.
In-Office Perks
Snacks! An espresso machine! A ping pong table!
Check out the careers page on the company website to see if they tout any “fun office culture” perks. A culture where you aren’t chained to your desk or have a micromanager breathing down your neck is worth a lot more than money to a lot of workers. It still freaks me out when my boss at my part-time job reminds me to take a break and get away from my desk, or when they ask me what kind of K-Cups I want for the office Keurig.
Other on-site perks, like a company gym, a hired massage therapist, or a weekly food truck to provide free lunch can improve employee satisfaction and motivation. Some companies even have on-site daycare, which is a game changer for working parents.
This stuff is less important to get in writing since it’s more of a culture vibe than a specific perk.
Employee Wellness Programs
Your new gig might come with some wellness initiatives too, like covering the cost of a gym membership, providing subscriptions to mental health and meditation apps, or offering cash bonuses for getting an annual physical. When employees feel like their overall health and wellness matters to their employer, rather than just feeling like a cog in a machine, they’re more satisfied at work and stay with the company longer.
Depending on the importance to you, you might want wellness perks included in your official offer letter. But if you can take them or leave them, it doesn’t matter as much.
Unlimited PTO
Unlimited time off feels like a fairy godmother thing rather than a real workplace benefit, but this kind of vacation policy can make a hell of an improvement in productivity and worker satisfaction. It’s not truly “unlimited” (as in, you can’t just call in on vacation and never come back), but this flexible approach means workers can take breaks when they need to and come back to work refreshed and energized.
This is a tricky benefit, though, as some companies might offer it to bring in new talent and not do the work of making sure it’s applied fairly between all employees. If unlimited PTO is part of your compensation, ask for details on the average days off employees take to make sure the culture actually supports work-life balance with this policy.
I would definitely ask for details about the PTO available to you in writing.
Making a Counter Offer
Let’s say your offer letter comes in at $60,000 with two weeks of vacation and healthcare that’s basically the same as your current job. There’s no remote work written into the offer, but in your interview the manager said that the department works a hybrid schedule.
Get that shit in writing.
Now for the fun part: you don’t have to have the perfect answer! You do not need to craft the exact counter offer you think the company wants. All you need to do is write back and tell them what would make this offer an easy yes. Your Wish-Want-Walk list can help you here—remember that you have skills and expertise that this company wants.
If your dream salary is $70,000 with three weeks of vacation and a dedicated hybrid schedule, let’s see how close you can get.
The gentle counter offer formula I like to use goes something like this:
Thank them for the offer
Identify the gap between their offer and your needs—if you’re nervous about being direct, ask a question like “is there any room to increase the salary?”
Tell them what would make it an “easy yes” for you to take the offer
Close with your excitement to get these details handled so you can say yes
Dear [Person making offer], I appreciate the offer to join [Company] as your new [Job Title]. The salary offered is a little less than I anticipated—is there any wiggle room in the budget for salary? It would be an easy yes for me if you could move the needle on that closer to $70,000 and increase the PTO to 15 days. Additionally, when I spoke to [Manager], they described a hybrid schedule with two days in the office and three days remote. Could you include that detail in the official offer? I look forward to hearing from you and finalizing these details!
Happy Negotiating!
With a little practice, negotiating a job offer will feel easier over time. You can also practice these negotiation skills when asking for a raise or pitching your services to a freelance client. Negotiation is a really useful skill that a lot of us are afraid of, but it’s not as scary as you might think.
If you need help countering an offer, preparing for a final interview, or just organizing your job search to find what you’re looking for, our career coaches can help. Book a vibe check with Liora or Caitlin today.
