I finally got a job after 180 applications, but now they're changing the salary we agreed on.
I was genuinely excited. After months of rejection emails, unanswered applications, and interviews that went nowhere, it finally felt like things were turning around. Well, something happened yesterday, and I'm honestly not sure what to do. During my final interview, the hiring manager offered me a salary of $58,000 a year. We discussed it pretty clearly, and she even mentioned that the position would come with health insurance and two weeks of paid vacation. I accepted verbally and was told HR would send the official paperwork. Yesterday, I finally received the employment contract. Except the salary listed was $49,000. At first, I genuinely thought it was a mistake. That's a $9,000 difference from what we'd discussed. I emailed the hiring manager asking whether there had been an error in the contract. She responded a few hours later. Apparently, after reviewing their budget, the company decided they couldn't offer the original salary anymore. She said the new amount was still competitive for the position and hoped I would understand. I was honestly speechless. What bothers me is that nobody mentioned this change before sending the contract. If I hadn't carefully read everything, I could've signed an agreement for significantly less money than I thought I was getting. I explained that I'd accepted the position based on the original salary. Her response was that the verbal offer wasn't final and that the written contract reflected what the company could currently afford. She also mentioned that they had other candidates interested in the position. I don't know whether that was supposed to pressure me, but it definitely felt that way. Here's my problem. I've been unemployed for almost four months. My savings are getting low, and I genuinely can't afford another three or four months of job searching. The $49,000 salary would still cover my expenses, but it's considerably less than what I expected. Part of me wants to accept it, start working, and continue looking for something better. But another part of me feels like accepting this would mean ignoring a pretty serious red flag before I've even started. I was so happy when I got the offer. I told my family, celebrated with friends, and finally felt like I could relax. Now I'm back to feeling anxious about my future. Has anyone experienced a company lowering the salary after making a verbal offer? Would you accept the position because you need the income, or would you walk away because of how they handled this? I genuinely don't know what to do.