Should we hire a candidate who is not satisfied with the salary?

A reader writes:

We are looking for a temporary worker who can replace one of my colleagues, Melissa, who is going on extended sick leave for six months. The staffing agency sent us many candidates, but only one of them had the skills we were looking for.

Anne has several years of experience in a similar role. We loved her until we started talking about salary. Melissa earns approximately €25 per hour, which is average for our region and her role. Because of the costs of Melisandre’s paid leave and the discount the employment agency receives, Anne would earn about half of that.

When we offered her the position, Anne indicated that she thought she would do a great job, but that the salary was not fair given her experience and education and asked if this was negotiable. I told her flat out that this was the budget we had and she could take it or leave it. She asked us to come back a few days later after she had time to talk to her husband, but that it would be a chore for them. I thought that was very unprofessional. We are a large local employer and we told her that after six months it was possible to move to a full-time job with benefits if she performed well. It’s hard to get a job here, and this is a great opportunity to make connections. It’s not like she has a job now either.

She called to accept the position, but now I don’t want to hire her knowing she is so dissatisfied with the pay we are offering. Should I withdraw my offer or accept her anyway?

I’m answering this question (and three others) today at Inc., where I’m looking at letters buried in the archives here from years ago (and sometimes updating/expanding my answers to them). you can read it here.

Other questions I’ll answer there today include:

• Are personal rejections unkind?
• Should I send something to an employee who has been ill for several weeks?
• My employee schedules time off at the last minute