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In its Small Business Questions & Answers section, CNNMoney.com suggests one way to fairly set employee salaries is to rely on third-party salary surveys.
Why? Because relying on independent standards, like a third-party salary survey, (1) gives you credibility, (2) minimizes emotional roadblocks by depersonalizing the issue and (3) provides a good-faith basis for your position.

Wal-Mart recently provided an example of how you can obtain a better deal by making your counterpart's less attractive alternative, or Plan B, a reality. According to a recent CNNMoney.com article, Wal-Mart recently removed Arm & Hammer liquid laundry detergent from stores but brought it back after Arm & Hammer agreed to boost its advertising for the product at Wal-Mart.

In her recent FT.com column, Memory doesn't matter when you have the net, Lucy Kellaway humorously recounts recent memory lapses and multi-tasking failures. She considers several solutions, one of which is to make lists.
When preparing for a significant negotiation, we suggest you make three lists regarding your information needs.
First, list the information you want to get before you meet with your counterpart. Second, list the information you want to get during your negotiation. Finally, list the information you want to initially share and withhold.

In December, GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt disclosed NBC would lose an estimated $200 million on the Winter Olympics. In a New York Times article yesterday, Dick Ebersol, chairman of NBC Universal Sports, said he would have preferred that Immelt wait to reveal the losses until the end of January "so it didn't cause any disruption of sales."