How To Negotiate A Pay Raise As A Dental Assistant
We’ve received countless messages from dental assistants saying that they’re just not paid enough for the work that they do. So in this guide we’ve pulled together some of the best free training available to help you negotiate a pay raise as a dental assistant.
But before we dive into the step-by-step details, let’s talk about the tension in the industry. In our experience, the tension between dental practice owners and DAs is higher than in many other industries. There are vocal DAs who rant online about how awful all dentists are. There are dentists that rant about how entitled dental assistants can be. And then there are the top performers. The top performers aren’t wasting their time on social media complaining about their employers. They enjoy the work they do, they want to get better, and they’re not looking to blame others.
So before we dive into the negotiation strategies, it’s important that you come into any negotiation with the right mindset. If you sit down in an adversarial way and try to ‘demand’ what you think you’re worth, you set yourself up for failure. It’ll be a fight, and no one will feel good about it if the negotiation is handled in an adversarial way.
Also, if you’re an average performer who only does the minimum amount required and has a questionable attitude while doing it, you won’t be able to negotiate a top tier salary.
The DAs earning top salaries do so because they’re worth their weight in gold. They’re highly skilled, working on complex implant cases and other high production treatments, and the dentist knows that those DAs directly impact their production. They work in sync, with the A-player DA always three steps ahead of the dentist. They know that their role is critical, and they embrace learning and growing in every single domain that the role requires.
And as one dentist shared with us, “I get to the end of these big cases and the patients don’t want a photo with me, they want a photo with my assistant.” Those are the DAs who command top compensation.
With that said, there are a lot of dental assistants who are currently receiving below market compensation. If that’s you, you have two options: negotiate a higher salary where you are, or negotiate a higher salary at a new dental practice.
The approach that you take will often depend on the practice that you’re currently in.
If you love the team that you’re part of and you’re treated well, you’ll want to try to negotiate a raise where you are. But if you’re miserable in your current practice and can’t stand the team culture, you’re probably better off trying to find a position at another practice and negotiating a raise throughout the process. We’ll start with strategies to negotiate a raise in your current role, then look at how to negotiate a raise when switching practices.
Negotiating A Pay Raise In Your Current Dental Assistant Role
There are some helpful negotiation videos online, like this one from Leila Hormozi (the CEO of a portfolio of companies that does over $100,000,000 in revenue every year), and this one from Simon Sinek.
However, I have a couple of reservations about these videos. First, Leila mentions considering company finances as you put together your request for a raise. While this is something you do want to be aware of and sensitive to in the discussion, it’s not your responsibility to be underpaid because the company isn’t doing well.
And in Simon’s video his core point is excellent - if you walk into your employers office demanding a pay raise of X amount, you force them into a yes or no position. And once they’ve said no, a lot of employees simply don’t know where to go from there. You can end up either stuck and frustrated, or simply moving on to another practice because you don’t know how to approach the conversation beyond that ‘no’.
However, the way Simon frames the “ask” leaves you wide open to being taken advantage of. And, it also puts all the work onto your employer. Asking them to “figure out a path to get you to X salary” could easily lead to employers simply pushing the pay raise further and further into the distance. So how can you leverage a similar strategy, without leaving yourself wide open to being taken advantage of?
Ramit Sethi has two excellent free videos on this (embedded below). One on how to negotiate if you’re underpaid and want market rate, and another on how to negotiate if you’re a top performer and want top tier compensation.
Ramit is a best selling author and has his own Netflix show called How to Get Rich. It’s sort of like one of those personal life rescue shows like Super Nanny or Hoarders, but for people’s finances.
How to negotiate if you’re a top performer as a Dental Assistant and you want top-tier compensation
The strategies in the above video are dramatically different from the ones below, so make sure you watch both. Particularly if you’re a top performer who is also being underpaid, the video below will help you a lot.
How to negotiate if you’re underpaid as a Dental Assistant and you want to be paid market rate
This video is brilliant. If you practise the negotiation strategy and follow it, it could be worth thousands of dollars a year to you in extra income. So take the time to watch it. In fact, study it. Watch it 2 or 3 or more times until you feel confident using the techniques.
What we’ve done is create a printable worksheet for you based on this video. We’ve outlined the conversation structure that Ramit shares, but related it back to dental assisting. Just click here and you can download the worksheet for yourself.
Negotiating A Pay Raise By Changing Dental Assistant Jobs
If you want to switch practices, changing employers can lead to dramatic increases in salary that may be difficult to negotiate at your current place of employment. However, it takes a lot of preparation, and you need to handle the interviewing and negotiating process well.
Leila Hormozi has an excellent video on how to answer the top 10 most common interview questions. And right at the end (12:58) she talks about how to answer the question “what is your goal salary?”. She has a brilliant approach, and you can hear her explain it here.
Just note that Leila says employers aren’t allowed to ask about your salary history. This is true in some US states, but in Australia there is no legislation preventing a potential employer asking you about your salary history.
Even so, you can still apply the strategy that Leila recommends which is not all that different from how to negotiate a raise if you’re underpaid. You do your research, both online and in-person. Ask other local DAs what they’re getting paid. You don’t want to come in saying “my friend gets paid X” because a potential employer doesn’t have any context around how skilled a particular person is and why they might be receiving a higher salary. However, if you can speak to enough people directly, then you’ll have a range of figures to confidently discuss market rates.
If you’re a top performer and you want to negotiate a wage at the top-of-the-range, you’ll need to have evidence of top performance that you can draw on during the negotiation.
The other video I highly recommend is “How to negotiate your salary” which is, again, by Ramit Sethi. This video is a different format. It’s a mock interview style where they SHOW you what it looks like when salary negotiation is done well during interviewing. Then they discuss what they did. It’s brilliant.
One of the elements of negotiation that this video highlights is the fact that you can negotiate additional types of compensation above and beyond just your salary. This can include negotiating for paid parking to be part of your salary package if it’s required where you work. Or you could negotiate an educational/upskilling budget. Even if CPD/CE training is not required in your country, you can still try to negotiate for this during the interviewing process.
Ultimately, if you’re serious about negotiating a raise by changing jobs, then you need to prepare well.
And as both videos warn… beware of shooting too high. If you set expectations too high, you may set yourself up for unnecessary tension and frustration within the practice. Ultimately, you need to have the self-awareness to know whether you’re truly a top performer and understand what expectations come along with negotiating top-of-the-range salaries.
Conclusion
Dental assistants have been in short supply since 2020, and the market rate for wages has increased dramatically. If you’re being underpaid, you can negotiate up to market rate. But you want to be prepared, and be respectful.
You don’t want to walk into this discussion saying “I want to be paid more” or “the cost of living is so high I need to earn more”. If you make it about your wants, it becomes a battle of the wills and is far more likely to receive a “no”. An effective negotiation hinges on your research. Find out what the market rate is in your local area, and have a respectful conversation with your employer about it using the scripts shared in this resource.
If you missed it, here’s a link to the printable worksheet that you can use as a reference to prepare for a salary negotiation if you're an underpaid dental assistant.
And don’t forget to join The Dental Assistant Network (for free) to stay up-to-date with the latest job opportunities in your local area. Not only will you see job openings that might interest you, you’ll also be able to keep up-to-date with market rates so you know if your salary is fair.
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