The Brief — sample
A complete, unsealed brief for a fictional subject: Software Engineering, Austin, 9 years in, $138,000 base. Every number below is real — computed from the cited federal record. Only the person is invented.
LEFT ON THE TABLE ANNUALLY
$42,863
vs. the negotiated line (75th percentile) for Software Engineering · Austin
Base at the 44th percentile · median $145,218 · negotiated line $180,863 · top decile $220,367
You are priced below the negotiated line for this role in this metro. The public filings say so; the federal survey says so. This is not a judgment of your work. It is a statement about your price, and price is set at the table, not at the performance review.
The gap between your base and the 75th percentile is not an anomaly to be embarrassed about. It is the standard discount applied to anyone who has not re-priced themselves recently. The sealed sections below contain the exact language, the counter, and the timing for the conversation.
THE SCRIPT — WORD FOR WORD
Open plainly, in a scheduled conversation — not in the hallway, not by chat: “I want to talk about my base. I've pulled the federal wage data for software engineering in Austin — the negotiated line sits at $181,000, and certified employer filings corroborate it. My base is $138,000. I'm not asking for a favor. I'm asking to be priced correctly.”
If the answer is “there's no budget this cycle,” the script does not argue — it documents: “Understood. Then let's put the number and the date in writing, so the next cycle opens where this one closed.” A deferral in writing is a position; a deferral in the hallway is a shrug.
YOUR EQUITY, DECODED
$15,000 a year in equity is a number your employer wrote, not a number the market cleared. In a private company it is illiquid, junior to every preference above it, and repriced at the board's discretion. Count it as intent, not as compensation.
The negotiation consequence is simple: equity buys the future, base pays the rent. A grant refresh is worth asking for — after the base is corrected, never instead of it.
THE COUNTER — EXACT NUMBERS
The ask is $186,000. The target is the negotiated line: $181,000. The floor — the number below which the conversation converts into a documented deferral — is $170,000. Every one of these figures traces to the sources below; none of them is a feeling.
The gap being recovered is $42,863 a year. Spread over the tenure already served, that is the discount that was applied for never asking with evidence in hand.
TIMING — WHEN TO STRIKE
The window is the four weeks before budgets close for the next cycle — asks land while numbers are still soft. The worst timing is the week after a performance review: the file is closed, and reopening it costs someone a favor.
A competing offer compresses all of this to days and moves the conversation from calibration to retention pricing. This brief's script works in both markets; only the tempo changes.
SOURCES
- [1] U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025.
- [2] U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Foreign Labor Certification — LCA Programs (H-1B, H-1B1, E-3) Disclosure Data, Fiscal years 2024–2025.
- [3] U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC), National Compensation Survey, 2026 Q1.
- [4] U.S. Census Bureau — Core Based Statistical Area (CBSA) delineation files, July 2023, July 2023.
This one is fictional. Yours is $49.
MARK ME TO MARKET