Hashing out the terms of a new job is often a mystifying experience, and there’s no part more vexing than the dreaded salary negotiation. It often feels like figuring out that magic number that suits your needs but also won’t get you laughed out of the room requires you to be a mind reader. But according to one expert, it’s a lot simpler than we make it — in part because the whole thing is a “game.”

A career expert said workers should always ask for at least $10k more salary than they need.

Beverly Dines calls herself a CEO — Corporate Empowerment Officer — and leverages her long career in the corporate world, including in the C-suite, to teach others how to navigate what she calls “the corporate game.” Because that’s what it is, ultimately: An elaborate game of power plays in which all too many of us workers just automatically assume the less empowered role.

Dines’ work is all about teaching others how to switch that up, and her salary advice is a perfect example, starting with telling the unvarnished truth of corporate salary negotiations.

“Yes, we lowball you,” she plainly said in a video on the subject. And perhaps even more important: “Yes, there is often at least $10,000 more that you could be requesting. Yes, it is on purpose.”

This is because it is literally in a company’s best interest to squeeze you for all your worth, of course, and it’s easy to feel like you’re simply at their mercy. But Dines said that changing the typical approach to salary negotiations can give you the upper hand.

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The expert said your salary negotiations should be guided by your needs, not what the company wants to pay.

Beverly explained that the typical advice of asking the interviewer, “What’s the salary range for this position?” is usually ineffective, because it automatically puts you on your back foot. You put yourself in a position of playing by their rules, right from the jump.

Instead, Dines said that you, as the worker, should lead this process, starting with doing the usual salary research that all experts suggest. But Dines said this research needs to be much more granular than simply Googling the job title and finding comparable salaries.

She said to find four to five job descriptions and salaries that are as close to identical to the one you’re applying for as possible, with similar titles in the same sub-industry — so “fintech” or “healthcare tech,” not just tech, for example — at companies of similar size. Make sure these jobs are from the last two years max to account for inflation.

The salaries for those four or five jobs are your “salary range” — no need to ask the hiring manager. Then, calculate your must-have yearly pay to cover the basics of your life, including your social life, savings, extras like vacations, and whatever your needs are.

This sum is your “floor” in Dines’ parlance. It’s the minimum you’re willing to accept. But this is the key: This is NOT the minimum you’re going to ask for. That’s where the extra $10,000 comes in.

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Then add $10,000 to that ‘floor’ to get the number you’ll begin negotiations with.

Once you’ve calculated your “floor,” Dines said to add $10,000 to it, and THIS becomes your negotiation starting point. Why? “Because we as humans, historically, especially as Americans, undervalue and undersell ourselves all the time,” she said.

“We are used to being beat down. We are used to being given less than what we deserve,” she went on to explain, and this makes us automatically revise our quote downward out of fear, especially if we have any kind of marginalized identity. Adding $10,000 cushions against all this.

But crucially, it also gives you the upper hand for the actual negotiating, which now starts at a place that is already $10,000 above and beyond what you actually need to live comfortably.

This strategy also gives you the psychological upper hand in the actual negotiations.

Dines said the actual negotiations themselves are all about psychology, and the first step is to thank them for the opportunity and then tell them how much you’re looking forward to the job or the project. “Psychologically, you want them to be associating you with the role already,” Dines said.

Then, you tell them that based on your extensive research into comparable positions, your salary target is that figure you calculated with the extra $10,000 tacked on, but that you can be somewhat flexible. Negotiations will then commence from there.

You may get talked down a bit, of course, but as Dines put it, that $10,000 pad ensures “you’re not negotiating within a space that impacts… your ability to thrive and live.”

She said it creates a win-win. You let the employer know you’re excited about the role and flexible on pay, so they feel like they’re getting the best deal, but you’re also letting them know that you know your worth. “This is how you can get what you deserve,” she said, all without having to play the mouse in the cat-and-mouse game. A win, indeed.

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John Sundholm is a writer, editor, and video personality with 20 years of experience in media and entertainment. He covers culture, mental health, and human interest topics.