Well, it's like buying a car or a house but in reverse. The employer isn't going to pay you more than they have to so they'll make an offer at the low end of th

Well, it's like buying a car or a house but in reverse. The employer isn't going to pay you more than they have to so they'll make an offer at the low end of the reasonable range. Unless it's some minimum wage job, there is a range of valid salaries and they probably have budgeted 10% or more higher than their initial offer. Now, you may have to convince them you're worth getting paid higher in the range for that role but you should definitely counter-offer. Also, my general rule of thumb while negotiating is to counter with a number higher than you'd be happy with and then negotiate to something near the middle of the two. (I learned all this the hard way in my first job, but fortunately my manager was awesome and I got a 50% raise after a year.)