Here's exactly what to say to find out how much money other people make

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Before setting your heart on a salary, talk to other people in your industry.

• Job-search websites shouldn't be the only way you perform salary research for a potential job.
• In a recent article, The Cut's Alison Green suggests talking to other people in your industry to find out if a salary is appropriate - and even what they're earning.
• You can start by asking: "How much would you expect a job like X at a company like Y to pay?"

One of the first things many of us do before a job interview or negotiation is check out the company online. Among other things, we're eager find out how much money we could be making in the new role.

While job-search websites like Glassdoor are helpful to get a snapshot of the company, they rely on self-reported data for individual employee salaries and often don't account for factors like a specific company's size, or disclose a person's level of experience, writes Alison Green in an article on The Cut.

It's a helpful tool to get you started, to be sure, but it shouldn't be your only salary research for a potential job.

"Instead, one of the most useful ways to narrow down your true market value is to talk to people in your field," Green writes. However: "What do you make?" tends to feel intrusive, so there's a better way to ask from a more neutral standpoint, she suggests.

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As Green says, people are often eager to talk about their industry and some may even offer up their salary after the conversation is already initiated, but pose one of these questions to start: "How much would you expect a job like X at a company like Y to pay?" or "Does a salary of about $X sound right to you for a job like this, or does that seem too high or too low?"

The answers to these questions should provide a baseline, at the very least, and give you a more complete picture of the company at best.

Lynn Taylor, national workplace expert and author of "Tame Your Terrible Office Tyrant: How to Manage Childish Boss Behavior and Thrive in Your Job," previously told Business Insider that a good rule of thumb is to ask for 10% to 20% more than you're currently making.

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At the end of the day, most hiring managers won't write a candidate off if they ask for more than is budgeted for the position, Danielle Dayries, founder of career consulting firm DMD & Associates, Inc., told INSIDER.

"I've never had a hiring manager tell me they were shocked at someone's salary demands," Dayries said. "You know what they are really thinking? 'I hope we can pay this person enough' or 'I'm nervous this candidate has other offers in the wings' or 'I really hope this works out.'"

Read the full article on The Cut »

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