Csdrhrt

I just accepted a job but still have a question. Online salary range was saying 55K with a minimum associate degree and they are willing to train the person they will hire.

After two long interviews, the company offered 45K and I accepted. I am a junior student and will have my bachelors next year. The only reason I didn't negotiate is they will train me for a while and he said after my training is over salary will increase. I had another offer paying higher but I wanted to work in this local company. I didn't want to negotiate because they don't know my skills plus I am in school. Is it a fair job offer? I didn't want to look crazy about money since they will train me and I am in school. I told him I will accept this offer and I want you to see how I work for a while then we can talk about salary.
I believe to ask salary increase again at least 6 months later, right? Seemed like they were impressed with me though. I just didn't get why they offered almost 20% less than what they posted.

Is it a fair job offer?

If you are a student, and an offer feels fair to you, then it probably is.

When you're early on in your career, you often can't know if something is a fair offer until after the fact, because you don't know enough about the industry, hiring practices, negotiation, or competing offers.

This can be mitigated somewhat by doing research and informational interviewing, but the main problem is you have no leverage. This is the nature of being new to the work force -- you have not had the chance to prove yourself, and as a result are pretty much at the mercy of the employer.

At the same time, if your employer is going to train you, your employer has an incentive to pay you a reasonable amount, in order to get a return on their investment. Employee turnover is expensive for employers.

Good employers know that if they pay well below market salary, an employee will jump for a new opportunity immediately. Bad employers don't care.

I just didn't get why they offered almost 20% less than what they posted.

Because they can, for the reasons mentioned above. Another applicant might have been able to negotiate for more than 55K by having more experience, and multiple, equally attractive job offers.

But you are not that person. You did what you could do, by taking the offer available, and making a promise to show you are worth more than 45K after you've done actual work.

In the meantime, do some research on salaries in your industry, in your specific geographical location. That way you'll know, at the end of six months, whether their new offer is indeed a fair offer.

Maybe you're a less qualified candidate than one that would get a salary the top end of their range.

Or maybe it's because you say you "didn't want to negotiate". Perhaps you could have got more if you had tried, there are lots of answers about negotiation on this site already.

Probably a bit of both. Probably a lot more of the first reason, since you sound pretty junior.

Yes. It's okay to ask for a salary raise earlier than normal, because you've been promised one after your training. 6 month seems reasonable. It's a shame you didnt agree on what that increase would be before accepting, but that's in the past. ... Unless you want to go back and re-open the negotiations (which is probably an unacceptably high risk for you).