I'm a "he", btw.
In my industry, salary is always an issue unless you work for big MNC or you hold a supervisory role. I think a mistake I made is when I came back from overseas, I joined a company that underpaid me, despite that I've already had 5 years experience at that time. I didn't work very long for that company and decided to leave the company and start my own business and teach part-time for a year. The business didn't really work out as well as I have wanted it. So I decided to change plans and go into full-time teaching instead. Actually what the private school is offering me is already 20% more than what I was getting in my last full time job.
The school asked for my past salaries and I had been honest with them. The thing is, I realized my bargaining power is very low if I were to negotiate for better pay. Some more I'm already in my mid-thirties, I think it's very tough for people my age to find jobs. I've already set my mind to teach as 1) I discovered my interest in it after teaching part-time for a year and I have received quite good feedback from my students and senior lecturer (2) it generally offer better income compared to going back to work in my industry, which is getting very competitive. Also, working hours can be quite bad depending on the projects you do.
So, in term of salary wise, it'll definitely be a gain for me with what I am offered. The only thing that bothers me is that I might be "short changed" if this is lower than the market rate for people with my experience. Btw, I forgot to mention that the company also said that my salary would be reviewed after 6 months of working with them.
So I think better for me to take up the offer first and then try to re-negotiate after 6 months? Would that be better?