If you are offered a job for lower pay than you’d hoped, or if you are working in a job and there is a wage freeze, you still can negotiate. If you can’t get more money, you might be able to get better benefits. But you have to ask.

        “I am a strong believer in nothing comes to you unless you ask for it,” says career coach Gail McDaniel, whose McDaniel Coaching LLC is based in Scarsdale, N.Y. “In general, organizations don’t offer all they can at the start. They expect you to negotiate.”

        Do not accept a job offer on the spot. Get the offer in writing. Ask the interviewer to send you an e-mail that spells out what the company offered you in pay and benefits, and tell them you will get back to them in a few days.

        “That buys you a little time,” McDaniel says. “I’m sure there are some people who are so eager they will jump at the first offer, but everyone is in charge of their own process.”

        Then, ask for more. Start with salary.

        “Go back and say, ‘I love your organization, I really want to be part of it, but your salary is 20 percent lower than what I was making,’” McDaniel says. “Give them a number. Say, ‘Can we do $5,000 more?’”

        If they say no, ask if they can offer you a bonus in a year. Maybe they can give you a performance review in six months or a year.

        Then move on to benefits.

        Certain things might not be negotiable, such as the amount of money they contribute to your 401(k) plan or how much health insurance you can get. Try asking for something that doesn’t cost the company anything. If it’s a corporate job, ask if you can work from home one day a week. Some companies offer paid time off to volunteer. Other perks such as flexible work schedules are becoming more popular.

        “Many corporations thought flexible scheduling was an anomaly,” McDaniel says. “They would complain that Generation Y wanted to come in at 10 a.m. because they had a yoga class. Now baby boomers are going to retire, and corporations know they do not have enough people in the pipeline to replace them, so corporations have to rethink things like flex schedules.”

        You can also ask for more vacation time. If you work a salaried position, the company won’t lose anything because you will probably work harder before and after you leave for your break.

        Ask for something that will also benefit the company. See if they’ll pay for you to take a class in food safety, effective sales techniques or the newest software your office is using.

        If the employer does not yield on anything, maybe they are having serious financial trouble.

        “They may say, ‘In this economy we are lucky to be offering you a job,’” she says. “If the company is not doing well, do you want to be there at all?”

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