Where I live it’s common to negotiate the take-home amount of salary you’d get.

So common in fact that for many years I didn’t actually know exactly how much I earned, as I’d negotiated my net salary, and that would always be what I’d hear back from recruiters and managers.

Some time ago I came to realise you should actually care about the total amount you get paid, prior to withholding any taxes.

Why:

• It increases the worth the organisation has assigned to you. They actually pay you this whole amount, and then you pay the government what it is due.
• It gives you agency. You are paying your taxes, thus enabling the government to act on your behalf. You don’t reside outside the system.
• It makes you responsible. Now it isn’t your employer who is paying taxes for you. It’s you who is paying, and thus you have a stake in whatever the government is or isn’t doing. You can now hold it accountable for the trust you have extended to it.

Perhaps using net amounts is plainly easier, as you don’t have to do the calculations yourself. Yet net is still vague—it’s the amount the organisation transfers to you. It doesn’t include your accommodation fees or VAT or sales tax. Does it indicate your disposable income then? No.

Hence the total amount that is included as compensation (and that might also contain non-monetary benefits) is in fact far more meaningful. It will let you better gauge the impact you have on your community, and it will make you feel more included in what is going on.