A survey by CareerBuilder published in August found that 49 percent of workers accept their initial job offer without negotiating their salaries, even though 45 percent of employers are willing to negotiate.

Workers over 35 years of age tend to negotiate more often than younger workers (55 percent versus 45 percent), and men tend to haggle slightly more than women (54 percent versus 49 percent).

When candidates cannot get the salary they want, they still may be able to negotiate better benefits.  CareerBuilder reports that 33 percent of employers would offer a flexible schedule to get the candidate to “yes,” 19 percent would offer more vacation time, and 14 percent would pay for the worker’s mobile device.

Michael Homans is a Labor & Employment attorney and founding partner of HomansPeck LLC. For more employment law updates, including news and links to important information pertaining to legal developments that may affect your business, subscribe to Michael’s blog, or follow him on Twitter @EmployLawUpdate.