GagBase Logo Explore

Salary Negotiation Misunderstanding Meme

A two-panel meme using stock business photos. Top panel: A woman in a gray blazer and white shirt speaks to a man in a dark suit, explaining, 'The starting salary is $40k and later it can go up to $80k.' Bottom panel: The man, now facing the viewer with a broad smile, responds, 'Ok, i'll start later then,' misunderstanding 'later' (referring to future salary growth) as a request to begin working at a later time for the higher salary.
Make

Dialogue

Woman
The starting salary is $40k and later it can go up to $80k
Man
Ok, i'll start later then.

Text content

Humorous dialogue misunderstanding about salary and start time

Overview

A two-panel meme using stock business photos. Top panel: A woman in a gray blazer and white shirt speaks to a man in a dark suit, explaining, 'The starting salary is $40k and later it can go up to $80k.' Bottom panel: The man, now facing the viewer with a broad smile, responds, 'Ok, i'll start later then,' misunderstanding 'later' (referring to future salary growth) as a request to begin working at a later time for the higher salary.

Origin notes

Originates from Reddit as a user-created meme. The image uses stock business photos edited with speech bubbles to create a humorous misunderstanding about salary negotiation. Likely created using image editing software (e.g., Photoshop) or a mobile meme editor, and shared on the Reddit platform under the 'Meme' category.

Similar memes

This is a 3-panel relatable meme featuring the same bearded man wearing a light blue button-up shirt, showing three different facial expressions corresponding to three stages of the job process. The first panel shows the man looking tired, frustrated, and unhappy, with the text label 'UNEMPLOYED APPLYING TO JOBS' above him. The second panel shows the same man looking extremely happy, excited, and smiling widely, with the label 'THE WEEK BETWEEN ACCEPTING A JOB AND STARTING' above. The third panel returns to the man looking tired, frustrated, and unhappy again, labeled 'STARTING THE JOB' above. The joke plays on the common experience that the short, stress-free period between accepting a job offer and beginning work feels like it passes extremely quickly, contrasting the unpleasant stress of job hunting and starting a new job against the very brief pleasant in-between phase.

That week goes by too fast

This is a 3-panel relatable m…

A meme featuring a stock photo of a job interview场景. Two hiring managers (one male, one female) sit at a glass desk; the male holds papers, the female holds a clipboard. A candidate with their back to the camera faces them. Overlaid text shows a humorous dialogue: the hiring manager asks, "So, tell me about yourself," and the candidate responds, "I'd rather not. I really need this job." The image humorously captures the awkwardness and stress of job interviews by subverting the expected enthusiastic self-presentation with blunt honesty.

Interviews are rough

A meme featuring a stock phot…

This is a two-panel relatable economic meme using the popular 'reaching for a goal interrupted' format. In the first panel, a happy gray cartoon character excitedly reaches for a large yellow ball labeled 'Good Salary Job', after the caption notes this is after surviving COVID-19 and AI-related job disruption. In the second panel, a large pink character labeled 'Oil price' pulls the gray character back from the goal, so only a smaller ball labeled just 'Salary' remains. The meme jokes that after overcoming multiple major crises (pandemic, AI job displacement), rising oil prices and resulting economic inflation still ruin the chance of landing a well-paying job, leaving workers with only low or stagnant pay.

After Surviving COVID and AI, Oil Price Ruins Good Salary Job

This is a two-panel relatable…

This meme humorously exaggerates a common workplace trope: the stark contrast between a manager's demeanor during a job interview and after an employee is hired. On the left side, a cheerful, relaxed golden retriever sits with its tongue out, labeled **MANAGERS DURING INTERVIEW**—this represents the friendly, welcoming, and accommodating attitude managers often display to recruit top candidates. On the right, a menacing, snarling werewolf prop (with bared fangs and an aggressive posture) is labeled **MANAGERS AFTER YOU GET THE JOB**, symbolizing the perceived shift to a harsh, demanding, or unapproachable attitude once the employee is officially hired. The joke relies on the extreme visual contrast between the two animals to satirize this relatable workplace experience, resonating with employees who feel their manager's behavior changed significantly after they were hired.

Managers: Interview Warmth vs Post-Hire Aggression Meme

This meme humorously exaggera…

This meme depicts a frustrating, absurd job interview scenario. The top section features a three-line dialogue that exposes a contradictory hiring double standard: 1. Interviewer: "Forget everything you learned in college, you won't need it working here" 2. Applicant: "But I didn't go to college?" 3. Interviewer: "Well, then you're unqualified for this job" Below the text is a stock photo of an older bald interviewer (wearing a purple shirt and tie, gesturing with his right hand, displaying a serious, dismissive expression) and a younger male applicant (in a maroon shirt and tie, leaning forward with a confused, frustrated look) sitting at a desk. The desk holds a laptop, papers, a pen, and a glass cup filled with pencils, while a round wall clock is visible in the background. The humor stems from the catch-22 situation: the company dismisses college education as irrelevant, yet requires it as a mandatory qualification, putting the applicant in an impossible no-win position. It satirizes the arbitrary, contradictory hiring requirements many job seekers face in modern workplaces.

Catch-22 Job Interview Meme: College Degree Double Standard

This meme depicts a frustrati…

A two-panel meme featuring a text conversation between an employer and an employee. The top text reads: 'Employer: "You're only here for the money?" Me: "Plus benefits" Employer:'. Below the text are two images of the same person, a real human, displaying increasingly shocked expressions. The first panel shows the person with wide eyes and an open mouth, appearing surprised, while the second panel intensifies this reaction with more exaggerated wide eyes and a shocked expression, emphasizing the employer's astonishment at the employee's honest response about working for both money and benefits.

Employer Asks About Money, Employee Adds Benefits Meme

A two-panel meme featuring a …

This is a two-panel workplace-themed meme. The top panel depicts a standard job interview setting: a female interviewer sits at a desk holding documents, speaking to an unemployed male candidate across from her. The overlaid text reads: "Interviewer: I have three openings" followed by "Unemployed guy: I know". The bottom panel is a close-up shot of the interviewer's face, showing a confused, slightly flustered expression. The core humor comes from a double entendre: the interviewer refers to three available job positions, while the candidate's response implies he is referencing the three unbuttoned "openings" (gaps) on the interviewer's blouse, creating an awkward, pun-driven joke.

Interviewer 'Three Openings' Pun Meme

This is a two-panel workplace…

This is a single-panel stock photo meme depicting a standard corporate job interview scenario. Two interviewers: an older gray-haired man in a dark suit with a light blue striped tie, and a blonde woman in a black blazer with a white collared shirt, sit across a glass conference table from a male job candidate whose back is turned to the viewer. The top caption, representing the interviewers' question, reads "WHY HAVEN'T YOU WORKED IN 6 MONTHS". The bottom caption, the candidate's humorous, defiant response, reads "I WAS PREPARING FOR THIS INTERVIEW". The joke leans into wish fulfillment for job seekers, who often face uncomfortable questions about gaps in their employment history and wish they could give an unfiltered, snarky answer instead of the professionally appropriate expected response. An Imgflip watermark is visible in the bottom left corner.

Job candidate gives snarky answer to employment gap interview question

This is a single-panel stock …

A four-panel comparison meme contrasting the idealized portrayal of quitting a job in movies versus the harsh reality of quitting in real life. Top left panel (movies): A smiling woman confidently carries a cardboard box of belongings, suggesting a positive, hassle-free exit. Top right panel (irl): A stressed woman rests her head in her hands at a cluttered desk, overwhelmed by the aftermath of quitting. Bottom left panel (movies): A man joyfully throws papers into the air, celebrating freedom. Bottom right panel (irl): A dejected man sits on stairs holding a handwritten sign reading 'NEED WORK!', highlighting the struggle to find new employment. The meme humorously exaggerates the contrast between media's romanticized version and real-life consequences of job loss.

Quitting Your Job in Movies vs Real Life: The Hilarious Contrast

A four-panel comparison meme …

This is a remixed stick figure meme parodying the popular 'are ya winning son' template. A stick figure father wearing a hat, smoking a cigarette and holding a mug stands in a doorway asking 'ARE YA hired SON??'. The second stick figure, representing a job seeker, lies on the floor crying, surrounded by scattered job application documents, next to an open laptop marked with the LinkedIn logo, and replies 'NO.'. The meme humorously depicts the common frustration of unsuccessful job hunting after submitting large numbers of applications via professional platforms like LinkedIn.

Are Ya Hired Son Job Search Relatable Meme

This is a remixed stick figur…

This is a single-panel relatable joke meme themed around job interviews. Text at the top sets up the scenario: first line reads "Interviewer: So what are your salary expectations?", followed by "Me:" to represent the candidate's response. The paired image is a photograph taken in a Premier League stadium VIP box, showing two middle-aged men sitting and staring straight ahead with deliberately stoic, unphased expressions, while two women in low-cut black tops stand directly behind them resting their hands on the men's shoulders as a clear obvious distraction. The joke works as a double entendre: the candidate pretends to be calm and reasonable when asked about salary, while they are secretly focused on wanting an extremely high salary that can afford a luxurious, desirable lifestyle represented by the distracting scene behind the unreacting men.

Realistic Job Interview Salary Expectations Meme

This is a single-panel relata…

A meme featuring a dialogue between an employer and employee about minimum wage dynamics. The text at the top reads: 'Employer: Pays minimum wages', 'Employee: Gives minimum effort', followed by 'Employer:' with no additional text. Below the text is an image of Pikachu, a yellow electric-type Pokémon, displaying a surprised expression with its mouth open and ears perked, implying the employer's shocked reaction to the employee's reciprocal minimum effort response.

Employer-Employee Minimum Wage Meme with Pikachu

A meme featuring a dialogue b…