Asking for a pay rise

Jugs82

Hey guys,

Just a little bit of background:

Im 25 and have been with the same company for the past 4 years (3 years working as i took a year out to travel) I have been back almost a year now.

When i left i was on 25k and when i returned a year ago i got a small increase to 26k - i was just happy to have a job after getting back

Its a small company where we have been extremely successful over the past 3 years in no small part down to alot of the work i am involved in and at present we have begun to expand and:) i have been given alot of added responsibilty.

Now as i said we are a small company (5 people) and as we have been successful over the past few years, our annual bonuses have been large - 11k last year.

Now my question is - i want to ask for a pay rise on my monthly rate but have previously been told that the bonus should replace any pay increase

Now thats all well and good but i have been working hard and have gotten great results so i feel that this answer is whooly unsatisfactory as in a bad year or should anything unforeseen happen, our bonuses may be considerably less or maybe 0, as in us receiving a bonus is not set in stone.

So really i was asking for some advice as to what i should do or to see am i been reasaonable or not??? Comments would be greatly appreciated

AARRRGH

You're being reasonable, but it's up to the employer whether or not they are going to give you a raise.

I think 26k, without a bonus, is quite a poor wage. As you have pointed out, you may not always get a bonus.

Ask them nicely.

jimmycrackcorm

This is an underhanded tactic by the company. They are asking you the employee to take on the company risks without having real ownership. The argument that the bonus makes up for it does not cut the mustard whatsoever.

Point out that it is ok for a company shareholder to accept 42% as an earnings bonus but not for a PAYE worker. Ask them to ring up the ESB, Bord Gais , dunnes stores etc and see if they will wait to the end of the year to get paid from you...

Giruilla

They might give you a monthly pay rise but say that you will have to have a cap on your bonus which would be sh*t

Monkey61

It definitely sounds as if you deserve one but whether they want to agree to it or not is another thing.

If they say no, ask them what you can do to improve and deserve one in 6 months. They can't very well say that there's no way at all for your work to be better.

shantor

prove how much you are worth and then ask for a rise or b) keep your head down and keep stum as we are in economic recession :P