Interestingly, I haven’t ever seen actual candidate data used to determine compensation. Ie companies almost never use a candidate demanding more to actually change anything. It’s all based on these “professional comp surveyors” as the parent has described.
Unrelated: I'm sure we have our own fantasies of potential employers (or past-employers) begging us to work for them with them increasing their offers or offering other benefits - but I'm curious if that's ever actually happened to anyone.
You should absolutely negotiate salary. Saving a few ten thousands a year on salary for a department doesn't really mean that much to your manager or to the company, compared to filling that slot in the org chart.
