The delay you can get on signing the offer letter depends on:

1. The type of institution. Less research-intensive institutions tend to have very short turnaround time and less flexibility with delays.
2. Whether you have another offer. More research-intensive institutions may "wait" for you to consider other offers.

Make sure to let them know as soon as you hear from another institution. The deadline can also be moved multiple times during the negotiation if it isn't finished. To learn more about how to navigate multiple offers, visit our "How to Negotiate an Offer" page.

Note: Candidates have changed their mind after signing the offer letter, but the offer letter can be considered like contracts in some areas, so legal consequences are possible.

Before you even start negotiating, find and read the institution's faculty handbook to:

• Determine whether a tenure-track position is right for you
• Understand salary ranges
• Learn about scale, rank, step, and process of advancement
• See how salary is structured—it can be complicated!

Salary negotiations are limited by institutional policies, but here are some aspects where you can ask if there is wiggle room:

• Salaries can be 9- or 12-month. 9-month salaries can be supplemented with a grant-funded "summer salary," which you can ask for.
• Salary increases reduce the time to tenure in some cases, so ask about it and choose what works.
• The offer typically states your annual salary, but the institution may not cover 100%. You can ask for 100% coverage for 3+ years.

Practice: Build/Write Your Request

1. Ask "if there is wiggle room" or "what is possible regarding salary negotiation"
2. State your expectation
3. Offer evidence (e.g. state-funded schools, personal research, etc.)

Here are our general recommendations for negotiating budget/start-up funds:

• Check your offer for whether personnel salary is paid for by the department. Start-ups are very different from one department to the next. More often, a lump-sum is provided or paid out in multiple installments.  
• You may want to clarify what happens if you get grant funding earlier or later than expected. Start-up funds usually have an expiration date. 
• Don't compare your start-up package to others without detail. Start-ups vary widely, from $5K (RT) to $2 million (R) for high-cost research. They may include extra salary provided by the department in the first years, the salary of graduate students, or not. 
• State your goals and argue for the things you need based on your budget, research statement, and productivity goals. Equipment and supplies budgets come from the budget you submitted. The Chair will work with you to identify cost-saving solutions, like sharing equipment and using core facilities, before coming to a final budget.
• You can ask to have a minimum guaranteed access (number of hours a month/week/day) if you will be sharing equipment you need to use frequently, and on which your results depend. If the shared equipment is in a Core facility, you can ask to pay lower hourly rates.

Space is not always described in the details in the offer and cannot always be included. Having email summaries of your phone conversations will be useful later if the negotiated space is not provided.

When renovations are required, you should be offered a budget. You can discuss the timeline of renovations and how they could affect your productivity. You may be able to set conditions for getting alternate space and even postponing your tenure clock if renovations are late.

At research-intensive (R) institutions, you can ask to be excused from teaching and services for the first year in order to have time to set up your lab and hire personnel.

At research-and-teaching (RT) institutions, you can ask if they allow some minor release time.

If you have a small start-up budget, you can ask for professional development funds (e.g. to attend conferences). 

Note: The language about promotion and tenure requirements is often vague and predetermined by institutional policies, so there is rarely room to negotiate here.

Moving expenses can be reimbursed with receipts, paid directly to the moving company, or paid as a one-time sum. The offer letter usually states a maximum amount, but you can ask for this if it's not in the offer.

Start dates usually align with the start of the semester at RT institutions. R institutions have variable start dates and are usually flexible in the negotiation.

Note: When negotiating a start date, make sure to find out how it might impact your tenure clock (time to tenure).

Anything that matters to you is on the table to negotiate! Here are some things that are very important to some people but don't necessarily matter to everyone:

• Position for your partner: Some institutions will create a faculty position for a (competitive) partner who is on the job market, or help schedule interviews for partners in industry.
• Second or third visit: You can ask to be reimbursed for travel and lodging costs to house-hunt, do partner job interviews, or find childcare.
• Changes to tenure clock: For parental leave or a delayed start.
• Mortgage support: Preferential lending rates, down payment assistance.
• Access to childcare: Priority access to affordable childcare facilities.
• Parking