The Cost of Never Negotiating: A Small Raise, Compounded Over a Career
beginner Two people take the same job offer. One accepts it as given. The other asks for a few percent more, and gets it. Both then get the exact same raise PERCENTAGE every year for the rest of their careers. The gap between them looks like it should stay small and constant — it's the same percentage difference, forever. It doesn't stay constant: because every future raise is a percentage of an already-larger base, the SAME percentage gap turns into a bigger and bigger DOLLAR gap every single year, with no further negotiating required. This lesson prices that one conversation over a full career — the simulator races both salaries and totals the real cost of never asking, a number that routinely runs into six figures from a starting ask of a few thousand dollars.