Job Offer Negotiation Script for Canadians
If the posting is in Ontario and the employer is large enough, the range should already be public: pay transparency. How a raise inside a job you already have differs from a new offer is the raise article. What you give up by leaving, including unvested equity, is raise and promotion math. Equity tax is RSUs and stock options.
- Negotiate total compensation, not the base in isolation. A higher base with a worse bonus, no match, and ten days of vacation can be a pay cut.
- Say one number, tied to the posted range or to the job you are leaving. Then wait.
- Get the revised offer in writing before you resign. A verbal "we can probably do that" is not an offer.
- Employer budgets around Normandin Beaudry 3.1% for 2026 are for people already on staff. A new hire is not locked to that pool. Do not quote it as your ceiling.
The checklist, before you speak
| Line | What to write down | What people skip |
|---|---|---|
| Base | The salary or hourly rate, and whether it is the bottom of a posted range. | Accepting base because the title sounds senior. |
| Bonus | Target percent, whether it is discretionary, and when it pays. | Counting a target as cash. Withholding on a bonus is a tax article, not a reason to ignore the target. |
| Retirement | RRSP match, pension, and when you are eligible. | A match you cannot use for a year is not this year's cash. |
| Time | Vacation days, personal days, and whether stats are on top. | Trading a week of vacation for a small base bump without doing the hourly. |
| Place | Remote, hybrid, and which province they will put on payroll. | Assuming a laptop means you can move. That is geographic arbitrage. |
| Equity | Grant, vest, and what you forfeit at the old job. | Adding the grant's face value to base as if it were salary. |
A script you can say
Thank them. Restate the role so you are negotiating the job they described, not a job you invented. Then: "The offer is $X base, with a target bonus of Y and Z days of vacation. To join, I need $A base. The posting's range runs to $B, and the scope you described sits in the top half of it. If base cannot move, I need the vacation or the match to move instead. Can you revise the letter?"
Then stop. Do not fill the silence with a discount on your own number. If they ask "is that flexible?", answer with what is flexible: "Base is the line I need. Vacation is the line I can trade." One flexible line. Not five.
If they will not move base and the other lines are thin, the honest close is that you are declining, or that you need a day. Resigning on a verbal promise is how people discover the letter does not match the call. The comparison to staying, after tax, is the raise-math page. Use it before you give notice.
Frequently asked questions
Should I name a number first?
If a range is posted, you are not naming a number first. You are picking a point in their range. If nothing is posted, ask for the range before you give a number. Naming a low number to seem reasonable is how offers stick at the bottom.
Is it rude to negotiate in Canada?
No. It is how the range got built. A calm, specific ask is ordinary. A threat you will not carry out is not. If you will not walk away, do not say you will.
What about a signing bonus?
It is cash once, and it is taxed as employment income. It does not compound the way base does, and it does not raise next year's RRSP room the way a full year of higher salary does. Take it when base truly cannot move and you have priced that. Do not take it instead of a base gap you will feel for years.
Sources
- Ontario: job posting compensation rules
- Normandin Beaudry: 2026 salary budgets, for people already employed
