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[Series Vol.2 | The Salary Increase Negotiation!] How to navigate salary requests that go “too far”
ICONIC is currently conducting our annual Vietnam Salary Increase & Bonus Survey 2026.
If you’d like to gain an objective understanding of market trends in salary raises and bonuses, we invite you to participate in the survey HERE.
To accompany this key planning period, we’re releasing a four‑part special series — “The Salary Raise Negotiation!” - exploring how HR and business leaders in Vietnam can navigate real‑world challenges during salary reviews.
If you missed the first article, “Understanding the Structural Differences Between Salary Increases and Bonuses” you can read it HERE.
Today, in Vol. 2, we turn to a common yet challenging scenario: How should you handle conversations when an employee demands a salary that feels unreasonably high?
Simply responding “yes” or “no” often backfires.
The key lies in expanding the conversation — from a single number to a shared understanding. Below, we introduce three practical steps HR leaders and managers can use to guide such discussions productively.
STEP 1: First, “Listen”. Understand the underlying concerns behind the number.
When a request feels excessive, the natural impulse is to respond: “That level is difficult for us”.
But an immediate denial risks shutting down communication completely.
The first step is to listen without judgment. Behind any proposed figure usually lie deeper concerns:
- Feeling under‑recognized compared to expanded responsibilities
- Perceived pay gaps seen on social media or among peers
- Anxiety that contributions are not being fairly valued
Start by asking - “What made you feel that way?”, “Which aspects of your current situation are causing discomfort?” These questions help reveal the structure of the dissatisfaction, not just the number itself.
If you focus only on negotiating the number, the same conversation will likely recur later - or even spread to others with similar unresolved issues. Understanding the background behind the request is the foundation for a fair and sustainable resolution.
Step 2 | Re‑frame the discussion around role expectations.
Once you understand the employee’s underlying perspective, guide the conversation toward role expectations - how your company defines and evaluates each position.
Clarify that while market data is a useful reference, actual compensation decisions depend primarily on the role’s expected contribution and performance standards, not just what “the market says.”
Two common factors often make negotiations difficult:
- Employees’ market data tends to highlight only the highest‑paying companies.
- There is often a mismatch between the employee’s self‑perception and the company’s defined role expectations.
To bridge this gap, shift the dialogue from “Companies out there pay X” to “Let’s review where you currently stand relative to the expectations for your role here”. A practical flow might include:
- What are the company’s expectations for your current position?
- To what extent are those being fulfilled today?
- What additional responsibilities or scope could be developed next?
- What salary level becomes achievable once those developments are realized?
This approach redirects the conversation toward growth, contribution, and future alignment — rather than comparing raw numbers.
Step 3 | Offer options - Go beyond the binary Yes/No
When a salary discussion becomes a simple yes/no question — “Can you raise it or not?” — both sides lose flexibility. HR and managers actually have a spectrum of options to address employee concerns constructively.
1. Short‑term recognition
Provide stronger bonuses or incentives for short‑term results to reward immediate contributions.
2. Development ‑ linked pay growth
Communicate promotion criteria and the salary range tied to the next grade — connecting future growth milestones with compensation.
3. Workload adjustment
If a workload - compensation mismatch exists, consider realigning responsibilities or redistributing tasks.
4. Productivity - funded salary planning
Explore ways to create capacity for raises through efficiency gains or manpower optimization — for instance, allocating part of savings from workflow improvements back into payroll budgets.
By broadening the discussion into multiple pathways, employees perceive genuine consideration. They see that management is not refusing their request, but seeking a realistic, win‑win solution.
The essence of salary negotiations is not the “amount,” but aligning expectations and compensation.
As the three steps have shown, the essence of salary negotiations lies not in arguing over numbers, but in aligning the perspectives on “what level of role responsibility, delivered at what quality, leads to what level of compensation”.
It is a process of connecting role expectations with compensation levels in a mutually understood way.
“Role expectations” may sound abstract, as many companies describe them in generic or high-level terms.
However, the clarity of alignment between manager and employee increases dramatically when these expectations are translated into concrete, role-specific contexts.
This ability to make expectations highly specific is the key to ensuring true alignment—and it is also where a manager’s leadership skills truly come into play.
Are you up to date with Vietnam’s salary & bonus trends?
ICONIC is now conducting the 2026 Vietnam Salary Increase & Bonus Survey (Deadline: December 5).
In any salary negotiation, credibility depends on being able to discuss both role expectations and reliable market benchmarks with data to back them up. Gain updated insights to support your FY2026 salary and bonus planning.
🔔 Next in Part 3 | How to Align “Salary Numbers” and “Role Expectations” at the Same Time
In the next article, we will explore how to translate role expectations into concrete, job-specific language, and how to facilitate negotiation conversations that simultaneously align both the “salary amount” and the “expected role” in a coherent and constructive way.
