Changing jobs is the single most effective lever you have for increasing your salary. Internal raises in most European companies average between 2% and 4% annually — barely enough to keep pace with inflation. When you move externally, the rules change entirely. But walking into a negotiation without knowing what to ask for is how professionals leave thousands on the table every year.
This guide gives you specific numbers, the logic behind them, and a clear process for figuring out exactly how much salary increase to ask for when changing jobs — based on your role, your level, and your market.
The Baseline: What Kind of Increase Should You Actually Expect?
The commonly quoted figure is 10–20%, and it holds up reasonably well as a starting anchor. But it is a starting point, not a ceiling — and whether 10% or 30% is the right number depends on several factors that most salary guides ignore.
When you move from one employer to another, you take on risk. You give up accumulated leave, institutional knowledge that protects your position, and often the security of a notice period that your employer would be reluctant to trigger. A new employer gets your skills at market rate with zero onboarding loyalty. The premium you ask for is compensation for that risk and transition cost.
For junior professionals — roughly zero to three years of experience — the realistic external uplift sits between 10% and 18%. At this level, your salary range is more compressed, and employers are less willing to deviate far from their internal bands for roles they can fill from a deep candidate pool. That said, if you are moving from a small company into a larger organisation with structured salary bands, you may jump further simply because your starting point was below market.
For mid-level professionals — three to eight years of experience — the bandwidth opens up. Increases of 18% to 30% are common, particularly in technical, commercial, or specialist roles where supply is tighter. This is the sweet spot where your skills are proven but you are not yet so senior that the company needs multiple budget approvals to bring you in.
Senior professionals negotiating moves — eight-plus years, director-level or above — often see the headline salary increase compress back down to 10–20%, but the total compensation picture changes significantly. Bonuses, equity, pension contributions, and long-term incentive plans become the real negotiating terrain. A senior hire moving for a 12% base increase but doubling their bonus potential has made a very good deal.
How Company Type Changes the Equation
The company you are moving to matters as much as what you are moving from. Salary bands are not universal — they are shaped by the funding model, the sector, and the competitive pressure a company faces for talent.
Early-stage startups (Seed to Series B) often cannot compete on base salary. They compensate with equity and the narrative of growth. If you are moving from a stable corporate role into an early startup, you should expect to either take a slight base haircut in exchange for meaningful equity, or to push harder for base than a typical corporate candidate would — because the risk is yours, not theirs.
Scale-ups and growth-stage companies (Series C and beyond) are where the external salary jump tends to be sharpest. These companies have capital, they are moving fast, and they are competing for talent against both corporates and Big Tech. Engineers, product managers, marketers, and commercial roles at this level routinely command 20–35% above what a traditional corporate would pay at an equivalent level.
Large corporates and multinationals tend to have rigid salary bands, but those bands are often more generous at the top of the range than candidates expect. If you are entering negotiation with a corporate, the goal is to land at the top of their band for your level, not accept the midpoint they will initially offer. That difference alone can be 8–12%.
Public sector and government-adjacent roles operate on their own logic. Pay scales are largely fixed, and the negotiation room is limited — but pension contributions and job security are part of the total compensation picture that private sector comparisons routinely undercount.
Location Still Determines More Than Most People Admit
In Europe, location is one of the most significant variables in any salary conversation. A software engineer in London earns materially more than the same role in Manchester, and both earn more than an equivalent role in Warsaw — though the Warsaw figure may go further in real purchasing power terms.
The software engineer salary London market illustrates this clearly. Mid-level engineers in London typically earn between £55,000 and £80,000, depending on specialism and company type. The same profile in Amsterdam sits between €55,000 and €72,000, while Berlin runs slightly lower at €48,000 to €65,000. These are not arbitrary ranges — they reflect cost of living, tax structure, local talent supply, and the concentration of high-paying employers in each market.
When you are negotiating a salary increase during a job change, you need to benchmark against the destination market, not your current one. If you are relocating from a lower-cost city to London or Amsterdam, your percentage increase will naturally be higher — and it should be. You are not getting a windfall; you are repricing to reflect where you are actually working.
Remote roles complicate this further. Many European employers still geo-adjust salaries even for fully remote work. If your new employer is based in London but you are in Lisbon, expect them to apply a location multiplier that reduces the headline number. Push back on this where you can, particularly if the role is senior enough that physical presence is genuinely optional.
How to Know If You're Starting From Below Market
Before you set your target increase, you need to know your current position. If you are already underpaid, the calculation changes entirely. A 15% increase on a below-market salary still leaves you underpaid. You are not solving the problem — you are just reducing the gap.
There are clear signs you are underpaid that most people ignore for too long: peers in similar roles earning materially more, your salary growing more slowly than your responsibilities, or simply a gut feeling that has never been verified with data. That last one is more accurate than professionals give it credit for.
The cleanest approach is to run a proper market check before you start any negotiation. Use our free salary checker to see where your current salary sits as a market percentile — if you are below the 50th percentile for your role and location, you are not negotiating for a premium, you are negotiating to reach fair value. Frame it that way internally, because it will sharpen your confidence in the conversation.
For a deeper read on this, how to know if you are underpaid walks through the signals and the data sources worth using.
How to Negotiate If You're Underpaid
Knowing you are underpaid is only useful if you do something with that information. Here is how to turn market data into a concrete increase when changing jobs.
Step 1: Set your anchor before you disclose your current salary. In many European jurisdictions, employers cannot legally require you to disclose your current salary. Even where they can ask, you are not obligated to answer with a number. Pivot to the market: "Based on my research into this role and level in this market, I'm targeting a base of X." This decouples the negotiation from your current situation entirely.
Step 2: Build a three-number framework. Know your target number (the realistic figure you want to land at), your walk-away number (the minimum you would accept to make the move worthwhile), and your opening ask (5–10% above your target to allow room to move). Never open with your walk-away number. Never open with your target. Open above it.
Step 3: Use percentile data, not anecdote. Saying "my friend at a similar company earns more" weakens your position. Saying "Eurostat and ONS data for this role at this level in this market puts the median at X, and I'm targeting the 65th percentile given my experience" is specific, hard to dismiss, and signals that you have done serious preparation. Our salary methodology explains exactly how those benchmarks are constructed.
Step 4: Negotiate total compensation, not just base. Once you have the base anchored, shift the conversation to the full package: bonus structure, equity or profit share, pension match, additional leave, remote work flexibility, and professional development budgets. Some employers have more flexibility in these areas than in base salary. A £3,000 annual training budget or an extra five days of leave has real monetary value.
Step 5: Get a verbal confirmation, then wait for paper. Do not accept verbally and then allow terms to erode during the written offer stage. If the written offer does not match the verbal agreement, go back immediately — politely but without hesitation.
Red Flags That Should Make You Ask for More
Some situations are signals to push harder, not softer. If you are replacing someone who left because of pay, the company already knows it has a problem — use that. If you have competing offers, use them directly: "I have an offer at X from another business, and I would prefer to join here — can you match it?" Most hiring managers have more room than their opening offer suggests.
If a recruiter tells you the role has been open for a long time, that is leverage. A company that has been trying to fill a position for four months is more motivated to close the deal than one that has a pipeline of candidates. Urgency almost always favours the candidate who knows it exists.
Watch for employers who respond to any negotiation with "this is our final offer" within the first exchange. That phrase is deployed to close down conversation, not to describe reality. In most cases, a calm and specific counter — "I understand that's your current position, but given my background and the market rate for this level, I'd need X to make this move" — reopens the discussion.
FAQ
What is a reasonable salary increase when changing jobs in the UK?
For most UK professionals, a reasonable external salary increase sits between 15% and 25%, depending on level and sector. Junior professionals might see 10–18%, while mid-level specialists in competitive fields — technology, finance, data, and commercial roles — routinely achieve 20–30%. The key variable is how well your current salary matches market rate. If you are already at or above market, a 15% increase is a good outcome. If you are significantly underpaid, you should be targeting enough to reach a fair market percentile, even if that means a 30–40% jump. Use benchmarked data to frame this as a market correction, not an inflated demand.
Should I always negotiate salary when changing jobs?
Yes, always. The hiring process is designed with the expectation that candidates negotiate. Companies routinely make initial offers below their actual budget because they expect some back-and-forth. Accepting the first offer without any discussion is statistically the most expensive thing most professionals do in their careers. Even if you accept a final number that is only 5% higher than the initial offer, on a £60,000 salary that is £3,000 a year — compounding from every future raise and pension contribution forward.
Is 20% a lot to ask for when changing jobs?
No, 20% is not excessive for a lateral move to a competitive market or a step up in responsibility. It is a common outcome for mid-level professionals changing employers. What makes a request seem excessive is not the number itself but the lack of justification behind it. If you can point to market data showing that 20% brings you to the 60th percentile for your role and level, it becomes a calibrated ask, not an aggressive one. Know your number and know why it is your number.
How do I negotiate salary if I don't have a competing offer?
You do not need a competing offer to negotiate effectively. Market data is a substitute for the competitive pressure a rival offer creates. If you can demonstrate, with specific figures, that your ask is in line with what the market pays for your experience and location, you are making a rational argument that an employer cannot easily dismiss. Our free salary checker gives you exactly that data — your current percentile, and what the market looks like at higher benchmarks for your role.
What happens if I ask for too much?
In most cases, the employer counters rather than withdrawing the offer entirely. Offers are rarely pulled because a candidate negotiated assertively — that happens almost exclusively when a candidate behaves unprofessionally in the process. A reasonable ask, stated calmly and backed by data, almost always results in a counter, a conversation, or an approval. The real risk is not asking for too much — it is asking for too little and locking yourself into a below-market rate for the next two to four years.
Check Where Your Salary Actually Sits Before Your Next Move
Before you enter any salary negotiation, the most useful thing you can do is benchmark your current position with real market data. If you do not know what the market pays for your role in your city, you are negotiating blind.
Our free salary checker lets you enter your role, location, and current salary to see your exact market percentile — built on data from the ONS, Eurostat, BLS, Destatis, INE, and Levels.fyi, covering 34 roles across 50 locations. You will know in under two minutes whether you are already at fair market value or whether your next move needs to close a much larger gap than 15%.
Know your number. Then go get it.