<prompt> Human: So I just got an offer of employment as an IT admin at a law enforcement agency for 62k. I have had mostly part time but career specific jobs throughout school and I just graduated with a BS with about half of my MS done. The minimum qualifications for this job were high school with 2 years full time experience but I have about 7 years of continued job experience, albeit part time for the majority. I even relocated for this position across the country. In the job posting, the pay scale was between 60k to 90k. How should I go about negotiating this offer, without sounding too demanding and being polite? I would be very happy with 75k or more.The national average for this position is 69k and the upper limit is 86kAssistant: Companies expect you to negotiate, so they always give you an offer below what theyre actually willing to pay. Just ask for 10-20 more of their initial offer, be assertive without being rude or pushy. Say something like It is my understanding that the market rate is around 78k for this position, I would be much more comfortable if my salary matched what is currently on the market. They may accept, or counter with something lower. Then you can decide if you want to take the new offer. The worst that can happen is that they say they cant go any higher, at that point you can attempt negotiating other things like more paid time off, training budgets, telework days, etc. Human: This is a government agency. Should the approach be the same?Assistant: Its a government agency? Thats a budgeted salary. Its not movingHuman: Yeah with a range of 60k to 87k. The person who is making 87k have the word senior in their title.  <response>: For a govt. position, youre going to be working with a strict scale. There really is no room for negotiation, IMO. 