"I did not negotiate my first salary. I was completely shocked that anyone would pay me $60,000 for my first job, when I felt like I had nothing to really contribute. As I've moved up at my firm, negotiating my salary has never been an option unless I was prepared to leave the firm, and I've never wanted to leave, so I haven't negotiated. When I first started working, I had no idea that negotiation was something I should consider, but when I learned that the structure of my firm doesn't allow for negotiations (compensation is set by the partners of my firm months before I'm able to know about it), I felt really angry and a bit slighted. I'm generally a positive person, but when I think about how little choice I feel like I have in my salary, I seethe and feel taken advantage of. No one else seems to have more control, though — men and women, all races equally. Unless you are hired with a specific, highly technical set of skills, you have no leverage because the field of accounting is so crowded."