Asking For A Raise At Work: Are The Odds Really In Your Favor?
Feeling happy and content at work is essential, and one of the pivotal factors in achieving this is an adequate salary. As an employee, you want to feel like you are being paid what you are worth. If you bring tremendous value to a company, you should feel like you are being compensated properly. This helps to justify the occasional work stress you may feel or the extra time you put in to ensure a project is done perfectly.
As a whole, the amount of work that you do and the skillset you have acquired should be represented monetarily. The frustrating part about certain employers is that some put their employees on a pay scale with minimal salary increases each year. Typically these increases are quite small, around 3 to 5%, and much less than your growing workload.
The longer you are with a single company, the more likely it will be that your responsibilities begin to increase. If extra tasks continue to be thrown your way without a pay raise that matches your new duties, it's known as a "dry promotion" and can leave employees feeling overworked, underappreciated, and underpaid. Instead of grinding to the point of burnout, try to avoid falling for the one work myth that will hold you back from the success you deserve. Once you realize it's time to ask your boss for a raise, you may start to question what the best strategies are.
The best way to approach wage negotiation at work
Talking about money can be a taboo topic. However, when it comes to negotiating at work, it is something you should try to familiarize yourself with so that you can be comfortable articulating what you feel you deserve. The best approach is to understand your worth monetarily in the market you're currently in. Try to document all of the skills, duties, and additional responsibilities you've taken on, then search for other jobs you would be qualified for to see what they are offering.
The goal of a wage negotiation is to ensure you are being paid fairly. Therefore, collecting market research to bring into a possible salary discussion is pivotal. Eileen Sharaga, a career counselor, also explained to Better by Today that timing is important when it comes to money talks. If you have a semi-annual review scheduled for next month, waiting until then would make sense. However, if raises or promotions are never discussed within your company, initiating this yourself might be necessary.
Of course, bringing up why you deserve more money can feel awkward or uncomfortable, but this is your opportunity to humbly brag about yourself. It's advised to keep an active record of your professional accomplishments and responsibilities in your current position. Prepare for a meeting with your boss as you would a new job interview. Talk about your successes, skills, and areas of growth. Be clear and confident regarding your reasons for believing a raise is necessary.
Employers give raises when they see the benefit
The truth is, employers don't want to pay you more if they don't have to. They give promotions or bonuses because they've decided that providing a monetary reward for your productivity and value to their company is beneficial for them in the long run. It keeps you loyal, hardworking, and focused. Plus, higher job satisfaction among employees means better retention rates.
Hiring and training new employees is a lot of work that exhausts vital resources like time, energy, and money. Understanding this may be key in your salary negotiation, because if your boss believes you have other job offers lined up, they'll be incentivized to keep you. According to Indeed, avoiding "pay compression" is essential, especially if you plan on working with one company for many years. Pay or wage compression occurs in many different ways, but one significant example is when new hires start out with salaries much closer to employees that have been with the company longer and acquired more skills.
Experience isn't always compensated within a job, but factors like inflation or minimum wage increases can lead to higher starting salaries in your market. Oftentimes, this is why job hopping every few years will provide significantly higher pay increases than staying with the same company. Therefore, you may need to navigate how to go on a job interview when you're at work. Don't be afraid to interview with various employers. Having a job offer on the table can help you negotiate a huge pay raise. Of course, only use this as leverage if you're actually willing to leave your company, but if you're lucky it can lead to significant salary increases.