Promotion - should I ask for a pay rise?

tempnam

Bit of a complicated one here, please bear with me...

I'm working with a small professional firm for the past few years. I came in at entry level and started on a low salary. Over the years I've been given more responsibility and I've even gained a qualification (diploma) for the field I'm working in.

I'm also in the middle of furthering my education so as to have a degree in this area. I've been given more and more responsibility over the years but my salary hasn't increased a whole lot.

I'm still earning less than €30K.

Due to the hard times a couple of staff were made redundant recently. One of whom was in a more senior position than me. There wasn't the same volume of work for him as there once was, but some of it still remains - much of it now being delegated to me. Some of my basic responsibilities have now also been handed off to an administrator in order to let me focus on more important matters.

I know for a fact that the guy who was let go earned more than double what I earn. Granted he held a full degree and had about 15 years more experience than me.

I'm due to meet with my boss to go through my new role & responsibilities soon. Now that I've been able to hand off some of my basic 'entry level' responsibilities and I'm now taking on responsibilities of a more senior person - I see this as a promotion.

Am I right in this regard? I'm afraid that it will be played down and they'll simply try to give me this extra work with no reference to any reward. I'm expecting a salary increase to be honest.

I'm not expecting to have my salary doubled or anything, but I am expecting a significant increase. How should I go about this?

Sorry if I'm being a little vague with details - I don't want to give too much away about where I work etc.

Thanks.

3DataModem

Don't use the word "promotion"... just say that in the light of your increased responsibilities you'd like to ask for a pay review. They won't give you it in the meeting, just encourage them to think about it.

markpb

You should absolutely ask! Try to find out what other people in a similar position and company are earning and explain what you've told us about your new qualification and continuing education.

tempnam

3DataModem wrote: »

Don't use the word "promotion"... just say that in the light of your increased responsibilities you'd like to ask for a pay review. They won't give you it in the meeting, just encourage them to think about it.

OK - so leave the word promotion out? what's the reasoning behind this?

Also, (sorry, I should have mentioned this in my OP) the upcoming meeting is both my 2012 annual review (which was never held at the time) as well as a meeting to go through my new role and responsibilities...

tempnam

markpb wrote: »

You should absolutely ask! Try to find out what other people in a similar position and company are earning and explain what you've told us about your new qualification and continuing education.

Other people's salaries can vary in this industry. For example someone coming out of college might start off on €28K - €30K..... However I have more than 5 years experience as I've been working in the field while obtaining my qualifications...

tempnam

Just a quick bump to see if anyone else has any more advice?

Thanks!

tbh

I think it's fair enough that you ask them if they think that your current rate of pay is a fair reflection of the responsibilities and qualifications that you now have. Point out that they pay you're on was set when you were more junior and was fair for that time, but that you've all moved on since then.
Don't (obviously!) put a gun to their head and say you'll walk out if you don't get 15K extra a year, but I think you should have figure to hand to say that others in a similar role get X amount, and you'd like to start bridging the gap.

on my first promotion I didn't get a pay rise, and they told me that they wanted to see how I would do and that they would review in six months. I said a fair compromise was that after six months if they were happy, give me the rise and back-date it three months, so I got a rise and a lump sum at the same time.

tempnam

So I managed to get a 12% raise.

In monetary terms it's only working out at a couple of hundred euro a month in my pocket but in the grand scheme of things it's a step up - especially in today's economy.

I was actually offered less but I managed to negotiate more than double the original figure so I'm happy with that!

Thanks to all for the advice!