How Do I Negotiate A Pay Rise?

LegacyUser

Hi,

I'm in a slightly strange situation. Some background info:

I work in a small company where I recently came across some information relating to all staff salaries. I was not snooping or anything like it. I was genuinely searching for another file when I got sight of this document.

Anyway, I now know what everyone earns.... and I am the lowest paid. I'm one of the youngest in the company, and most of the other staff have the relevant college degree & professional qualification for their position. Fair enough.

There are a couple of others however who are at the same level as me regarding qualifications, experience etc. but are earning more. I'm currently working towards attaining my college degree and when I do I'll be on the same level as everyone else (and a higher level than the couple I just mentioned).

I'm finding day-to-day living a struggle as it is. Once I pay bills, mortgage, buy groceries etc. thats my salary for the month gone. If something un-expected happens (dentist / doctor visit / car repairs / washing machine breaks down etc.) I have to resort to the credit card. I've also had to resort to the credit card for groceries on some occasions and to put petrol in the car (I need the car for the job).

Now, my review is coming up in a couple of weeks - and I don't know how to approach negotiating a raise. I obviously can't mention that I know everyone's salary or that I came across this document - as it will reflect poorly on me. I have always had positive reviews and there has never been a problem with my work, attendance, time keeping, attitude etc. In fact, I've always been told by the boss in reviews that I am exceeding expectations. However, it was indicated at a recent half-year review that there is no budget for any salary increase.

I feel that this is slightly unfair on me as it is saying to me "although we're happy with you we don't value you enough to pay you as much as everyone else"...

How do I get a pay rise without bringing everyone else's salary into the conversation?

Sorry for the long rant but thank you for reading!

tatli_lokma

first off - are these people you are comparing yourself to there longer? if so that could be affecting their salary.

secondly, if you are due a pay review and want to have a chance of an increase you need to be able to quantify the benefits you bring to the company. If the boss says you are exceeding expectations, then you need to use this as a starting point. But first you need to set out what the expectations of your role are (use your job spec and sit down and write your day-to-day duties and responsibilities) and then list how, where, why you exceed these expectations. Quantifiable statistics really help here - not knowing your role its difficult to say how you can do this, but an example might be if you had increased productivity. Or if you manage to not only hit but exceed SLA targets. In addition to cold hard statistical facts, you then need to assess your qualitative contribution - did you bring in any initiatives which improved or streamlined processes, for eg? have you helped in some way to improve morale in the team?

You need to have exact examples of when, how and where you contributed more than was expected and then you have a shot at a pay rise.

If you can't wangle any more money out of them (and it might be that others were hired on a different salary, but even if they wanted to they might not be able to match your salary with theirs) then perhaps try for some other form of benefit, such as perhaps extra annual leave days, or as a compromise you could agree to set various targets and if you hit or exceed these targets you get a bonus with the view that if you continue to hit or exceed targets for more than 12 months you then get a pay rise in line with your performance.

LegacyUser

Thanks for the tips. I'll be sure to use them so I'm well prepared when going in to this review.

I am actually there longer than most, with the exception of management. I'm in a unique situation in that I've never had a 'specific' job roll. I was initially hired as a kind of general dogsbody - bit of this bit of that type of role. That was years ago. I was just happy for the opportunity at the time.

Since then I've been given more and more responsibility. But I've always had my hand in almost all sections of the business. Admittedly I started off at a very low level, but I've gradually worked my way up. I've also gotten a professional qualification for the industry I'm in - and as I said I'm working on my degree at the moment. In fairness to the company they covered the cost of the professional qualification; and they are covering the cost of the degree, while I'm contributing towards it also (however this still leaves me below others).

There are only 1 or 2 areas of the business that I don't have an involvement in; whereas other staff all have specific rolls. They were hired for a specific position. I could be working on various unconnected areas on a daily basis. I've become the person that management depend on - as in, they will bypass more senior staff to ask me to perform a task, as they know I will perform, on time. This has been indicated to me on a couple of occasions.

It's not my business to get involved in management's management of more senior staff.... but it doesn't always feel fair that I am asked to do things that more senior staff should be doing - and the only reason is that there isn't the same confidence in them as me (for example, when a senior manager was on annual leave he put my contact details on his out of office email, but it really should have been a more senior staff member, directly below him). But other staff don't seem to be challenged about this, and they are making more money than me!!

On the other hand however... I've always tried to make myself indispensable, and I've encouraged the reliance on me, as I feel it will strengthen my position. All I need now is the salary to reflect this!

tatli_lokma

time-for-a-raise wrote: »

I am actually there longer than most, with the exception of management. I'm in a unique situation in that I've never had a 'specific' job roll. I was initially hired as a kind of general dogsbody - bit of this bit of that type of role. That was years ago. I was just happy for the opportunity at the time.

Then perhaps it would be worth asking for a review of your contract. If you were taken on as a more general and less skilled worker your contract may not have changed despite your responsibilities and duties having changed. I would point this out to management, making it clear that you are more than happy to continue on taking additional responsibility and that you want to be an integral part of the team, but that it would mean a lot to you to have a job title and contract (with the equivalent pay grade) that reflects this.

Had you just stayed in the role you started in your salary would probably be commensurate with what you do. But as you point out you have developed further outside of this role so now it makes sense for your job spec etc to be reviewed. This is probably why your boss says you exceed expectations - because your official job spec doesn't call for you to do as much as you do. So it is only reasonable for you to ask that you now be reassessed based upon what you actually do now. Make it clear that you are not planning to do less work if you don't get the review, but you simply would like a contract, job spec and salary that reflects your contribution to the company. But on the other hand, if you don't get the review you may have to limit the amount of extra work you do - in particular in relation to management duties.

The fact that another manager listed you on his out of office is good proof of your reliability and the faith others have in your abilities.

Be prepared that if you get a new contract and official job title, you may have to complete a new 6 mth probation, but if all is as you have said, I would have no concerns on that score if I were you.

Finally, if they do not agree to give you a new job title and salary, perhaps pull back a bit on what you do...if you are not paid to manage, then don't. I know it is easier said than done when you have a strong work ethic, but equally if you work for free you will always have a job! And the others are probably happy to let you do it, cos they get paid for the work you do! don't be a mug either. Flexibility up to a point is reasonable.

Mucco

Little Ted wrote: »

Make it clear that you are planning to do less work if you don't get the review, but you simply would like a contract, job spec and salary that reflects your contribution to the company.

I think this is bad advice as this type of positional negotiation leads to a similar reaction from the other side and no-one gets anywhere.

I think you have to appeal to fairness. You want fair pay for your job. It's very difficult to argue against. The problem is, what is fair pay? You know what you colleagues get, but can't admit it, so you have to establish this a legitimate way. Can you find out the salary for a similar role in other companies? Through a union? Anyway you can legitimately find out what your colleagues earn? You can then use this in negotiations.

You could instead have an open discussion with them. List the reasons you need more money as you did above, say you are highly motivated, and ask them what it takes to get a promotion / higher salary and ask them for help to get there. This might depend on your relationship with the boss.

You could explore other areas the company might help you. Eg working from home twice a week would save petrol money and could be equivalent to a small pay rise. Getting many potential options is a plus for negotiations.

Finally, in negotiations, you should think of both your and the other party's best alternative to an negotiated agreement (known as BATNA). This could be staying in your old job, moving jobs etc..... It needs to be realistic, so moving jobs may not be feasible.

krd

time-for-a-raise wrote: »

I work in a small company where I recently came across some information relating to all staff salaries. I was not snooping or anything like it.

Do not mention to anyone that you have see that information. It's the kind of thing that could get you fired. Even if you stumbled on it, it's hard to argue if you let it be known that you weren't snooping.

Bandana boy

As a rule I usually respect Little Teds advice on here but i have to disagree this time.
I don't think you will present an argument on your contribution that convinces them to give you a raise neither do I think a work to rule approach will work.

The reality is that they have assigned a value to what you produce against what they can procure the same service.They will increase your pay in line with this value if they believe they will lose you and not if they do not believe they will lose you( or seriously affect morale/performance).

So you need to understand not what somebody else negotiated on their way in but what you can negotiate if you were to leave.Knowing this or at least a ball park figure of this number and being willing to leave then you approach.

If you earn 20% less than your value (in trading terms not compared to what other folks in the same company earn) then a good conversation will get you some of that 20%.
If you earn 20% less than your value and you talk about meeting your valuation in the market, with the possibility of leaving to find it, then you should be able to get the full 20% and depending on recruitment costs, your negotiating skills and your flexibility in the past you can go past the 20%.

It is important to word this correctly and not as an out and out threat.

A large part of this is not your valuation of yourself or in fact reality but their valuation of you and these things often do not align, especially if you have come through the ranks.

In most cases you increase your value by moving companies be willing to do this and you will find the company more enthused to meet your correct valuation.

best of Luck

tatli_lokma

Mucco wrote: »

I think this is bad advice as this type of positional negotiation leads to a similar reaction from the other side and no-one gets anywhere.
.

Sorry - absolute typo on my part - I meant make it clear that you DO NOT intend to do less work, but would like recognition of this extra work. Again apologies, I was replying via phone and obviously the most important word in that sentence got left out!

tatli_lokma

Bandana boy wrote: »

As a rule I usually respect Little Teds advice on here but i have to disagree this time.

ta! and we all disagree from time to time! it is only right that OP get a fair and balanced set of replies. Sometimes I change my own view on things based on what others advise.

Bandana boy wrote: »

The reality is that they have assigned a value to what you produce against what they can procure the same service.

agreed, but OP hasn't said if they have ever received a pay rise, but does mention they are there a while - it could be a case of if you don't ask, you don't get, not necessarily that they value OP at that rate, but perhaps are simply glad to be getting away with not paying extra!

Bandana boy wrote: »

If you earn 20% less than your value and you talk about meeting your valuation in the market, with the possibility of leaving to find it, then you should be able to get the full 20% and depending on recruitment costs, your negotiating skills and your flexibility in the past you can go past the 20%.

this is also true, but it can be quite difficult to get a fair benchmark against the market, particularly at the moment when the jobs market is so erratic.

Bandana boy wrote: »

It is important to word this correctly and not as an out and out threat.

agreed

Having said all that, I still believe that when asking for a pay rise its not enough to value yourself based on the market or purely financial terms. As a manager I appreciate a common sense approach of these are the things I do that are outside my remit...I would like to get some recognition of this (obviously worded more tactfully, but you get the gist).

OP says they work in a small company - a lot of times lack of pay rises and the neglect towards updating job specs and contracts is due to complacancy. Both on the part of the employer and the employee - they just keep plodding along never questioning or reassessing roles, pay grades, conditions of service - if it ain't broke don't fix it sort of thing.

At the end of the day, whichever angle you take on this OP, the most important thing to remember is your value - if you don't know your own worth, no one else will either!