I was offered a position verbally over the phone that was a base salary of X with a max bonus of Y. I accepted verbally and today I received my offer of employment.
On my offer of employment has a base salary that is less than what I remember hearing on the phone. If you take 1 + Y percentage bonus that was mentioned on the phone, and multiply it by the lower amount I received on the offer of employment, you get the original base salary of X that I recalled hearing.
My question is regarding whether this is common or not? Is it common to quote a starting salary that includes the max bonus potential to someone when offering a position?
base should be really straightforward. X base is X base.
bonus is generally “discretionary” and frequently is not formally written into the offer except for more senior folks, who may get a guarantee in year 1
If they said base salary is X, then base salary should be X. They can always dick with you on the bonus. Why don’t you call them up and ask them about why the offer letter has different numbers? It seems like a pretty normal thing to ask. However, I suspect they will just say they made a mistake over the phone.
I figured I’d give an update since you both took the time to reply… I was planning on calling but was first looking for some feedback for reassurance that I wasn’t blowing the opportunity. I called, the mistake was on their end and I was correct in what I thought the base salary was supposed to be.
The official offer of employment was modified and I am good to go (I hope anyway)…
I recently had a similar mistake with an internal move but in my benefit, as they sent over a letter that showed a higher percent raise than all previous discussions. I signed it and made copies and it stuck. It was only a 1% difference, but I’ll take it.