Case study
Encouragement vs Coaching: A Salary Negotiation Field Experiment
Economists tested two ways to get job seekers to negotiate. A short message that employers expect negotiation worked better than discounted coaching, which few people took up.
The question
Many job seekers accept the first offer. Is that because they lack negotiation skills, or because they believe employers will not move? The answer matters: the first problem calls for training, the second for better information.
Who ran the study and how
Economists Zoe Cullen (Harvard Business School), Bobak Pakzad-Hurson (Brown University) and Ricardo Perez-Truglia (UCLA) ran a field experiment, published as a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper.
| Design element | Detail |
|---|---|
| Participants | About 3,858 U.S. tech job seekers recruited through an online platform; about 73% employed |
| Period | May 2023 to February 2025 |
| Profile | Average age about 31, about seven years of experience, high average pay |
| Treatment 1: encouragement | A short message that companies expect candidates to negotiate, with reassurance about asking |
| Treatment 2: coaching | Personalized negotiation coaching offered at a steep discount |
| Control | No intervention |
What happened
- Encouragement worked. 61% of the encouraged group tried to negotiate an initial offer, compared with 54% of the control group, a 7 percentage point increase.
- Coaching did not. Few participants took the discounted coaching, and it had no meaningful effect on negotiation attempts.
- Experts guessed wrong. In coverage of the study, most of the academics surveyed predicted coaching would beat encouragement. The results were the opposite.
- Gains were real for negotiators. Program on Negotiation coverage reports that those who negotiated gained roughly 27,000 dollars a year over the initial offer, in a very highly paid sample.
Why it matters for job seekers
The study suggests the biggest barrier is belief, not skill. Many candidates underestimate how open employers are to negotiation. Knowing that negotiation is expected, and asking politely with evidence, may be enough to change the outcome.
Limits
- The sample was well paid U.S. tech workers, many at large firms, where negotiation is common. Results may be smaller in other industries and countries.
- The tech hiring market slowed during the study period, and employers reportedly made more take it or leave it offers.
- We report the findings as summarized by the Program on Negotiation and HR Dive; dollar figures describe this specific sample.
How to apply it
Read our step by step guide on how to negotiate a job offer, and see the wider negotiation data on our career statistics page.
Sources
- How to Negotiate Pay in an Interview, Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School
- Why employees don't negotiate compensation, HR Dive (2025)