Someone on your team has another offer. What do you counter?
Counter against the market, not against the rival offer. Enter the role, the current package, and the competing offer, and see where each sits on the verified band for UAE or Saudi, with a counter you can defend to the rest of the team. Free, no signup.
What you get
- Both numbers on the market bandWhere the current package and the competing offer each sit, as a percentile of the verified band for the role.
- A recommended counterThe figure that keeps the role competitive without resetting the band, anchored at the band's P60.
- An above-band warning when it appliesIf the rival offer clears the band's P75, the tool says so and advises against a straight match.
Free, no signup. Built on verified primary sources, refreshed quarterly; no band publishes on fewer than three.
How to price a counter-offer without breaking the band
The instinct in a counter-offer conversation is to react to the rival number. That is how bands break: match one above-market offer and the premium becomes the reference point for the next renewal, the next internal-equity complaint, and the next hire into the same team. The discipline that holds is to price the counter off the market band for the role, and to treat the rival offer as one data point sitting somewhere on that band.
Three positions matter. Where the current package sits tells you whether the resignation risk was priced in before the offer ever arrived; a package under the market median was exposed with or without a rival bid. Where the competing offer sits tells you what kind of offer it is: inside the band, it is a market-rate approach you can answer with a market-rate counter; above the band’s 75th percentile, it is a premium you should think hard before chasing. And the band’s 60th percentile gives you the working anchor: high enough to be competitive, low enough that the rest of the team’s range still makes sense.
The calculator runs exactly that read. Both packages are converted into the band’s currency and positioned on the verified range for the role in UAE or Saudi, and the verdict follows the band: hold when pay already meets the market, counter inside the band when the offer is beatable, and a clear warning when the offer is above band and a straight match would reset your structure.
One check prices one role. When counter-offers start arriving monthly, the underlying question is whether the whole team is banded to market, and that is a benchmarking exercise, not a negotiation. The salary review calculator tests whether a planned raise keeps a role at market before an offer forces the conversation, and the promotion salary calculator prices the step up when the right answer to a counter-offer is a bigger job rather than the same job at a higher price.
For the bands themselves, the GCC Pay Report puts every published band across 12 sectors and both markets into one licensed document, and when the role you are countering for is one we do not publish yet, a Custom Band Request builds a verified band for it in 5 business days.
Common questions
Counter against the market band, not against the rival offer. If the competing offer sits inside the band for the role, a counter at the band's 60th percentile, or a match if the offer already clears it, keeps the role competitive without resetting your pay structure. If the offer sits above the band's 75th percentile, matching it re-prices the role above the range the rest of the team is paid on, and that premium becomes the new floor for every future negotiation.
Rarely, and never as a straight match for the same job. An offer above the band's top quartile is either a different role in disguise, a market you do not want to compete in for that seat, or a signal the hire matters more to the other side than the role does to you. If the person is genuinely critical, attach the premium to expanded scope or a bigger role so the number has a reason the rest of the team can see.
The same dataset behind the paid Tenure Comp Intelligence product: verified primary sources across 12 sectors in UAE and Saudi, refreshed quarterly. No band publishes on fewer than three sources, and the methodology is public end to end at /methodology.
Because the gap between two absolute numbers says nothing on its own. A 15 percent premium can be a below-median package catching up to market, or an above-band offer you should not chase. Positioning both figures on the same verified band turns the negotiation into a market question with a defensible answer.
A cash counter fixes a cash problem. When the resignation is really about scope, progression, or the manager, a matched salary typically delays the exit rather than preventing it. That is why the tool tells you when the current package already meets the market: if pay is not the gap, the counter should not be cash.
Yes. Pick the market the role sits in and enter both packages in AED, SAR, or USD; the tool converts into the band's currency and positions both figures on the verified band for that market. UAE and Saudi are the two markets the Pay Index covers.
One counter-offer is a negotiation. A pattern is a pricing problem.
Tenure Comp Intelligence bands every role you hold against verified primary sources across 12 sectors in UAE and Saudi, so the next offer lands against a structure, not a scramble.