It’s never easy to ask your employer for a raise – but it’s even more difficult if you don’t really deserve that pay increase. Perhaps you’ve only worked for the company for a short time or maybe you haven’t been pulling your fair share of the workload. Regardless, there are still ways you can present a convincing case resulting in that coveted raise.
For starters, arm yourself with information. While you’ll likely never convince your co-workers to divulge their own salaries (that’s just bad manners anyway), thanks to the Internet, there are a number of resources available to help you determine an average salary for your job, in the market you work in. Check out job web sites or online employment classifieds. Do a search using your current job title. A lot of companies list pay ranges with their job advertisements. Take notes so you can offer your boss concrete examples.
Other helpful information found on the Internet may include professional organization sites or trade publications. A lot of these industry-specific resources conduct salary surveys and publish their results – some even break the surveys down by major metropolitan area or state for a clearer picture.
There are some websites specifically designed to tell people what their job is “worth”. However, a number of these sites have been found to be inaccurate and actually overestimate median salaries. This isn’t the most reliable information and should be taken with a grain of salt. Most employers have been confronted with a well-meaning, researched job seeker who has turned to an online salary calculator, but odds are, those job candidates weren’t extended positions because they were simply asking for way more than the average pay for that particular job. There are too many other reliable sources available, so skip these sites.
Off the Internet, make a visit to the local library or the career center of a college or university. Libraries and career centers can be great resources for survey studies and job postings with realistic salary ranges to serve as your guide.
Once you’ve researched salary ranges for your particular job, be prepared to share this information with your boss in a non-demanding way. Once you’ve arranged a meeting, present your research and ask if you can discuss bringing your own salary up to par with that of others who live in your area and have the same job.
To help your case, you should also be prepared to point out your strengths – regardless if you’re using those strengths to capacity or not. If both you and your employer are well aware or all that you are doing wrong, if you hope to get a raise, you need to prove you’re worth the extra dough.
We all have things we’re great at, but some of us are more seasoned at putting positive “spins” on everything we do. For example, if you’re always the first to suggest a celebratory drink when a co-worker lands a major account, that’s really your positive team attitude at work. Your obvious support of your co-workers is a definite plus. If you have a penchant for staying chitchatting with an easygoing client on the phone, couldn’t that be considered attentive client service AND excellent communication skills? You have to be prepared to really sell yourself, even if it means doing a little exaggerating. Remind your boss why she hired you in the first place, even if lately you’ve been a less-than-perfect employee.
As an absolute last resort, send out a few resumes and line up some interviews with other companies – whether you’d actually consider leaving your current employer or not. Having another job offer can be a great bargaining tool, but be prepared for it to just as easily backfire. Once you’ve secured another job offer, approach your boss by explaining that you don’t want to leave your current company, but you have to give some thought to the larger salary. Only go this route if you actually have other offers, because there is a chance your boss will refuse to counteroffer and will instead send you on your way. Another danger in this method is that it makes you appear less loyal. If you’ve easily been tempted by money, how likely are you be to stay in the long run? Unfortunately, people who stay with their companies that have counter-offered don’t tend to stay for long. And employers know this. For many, the counteroffer merely buys them a little more time until you go elsewhere.
Everyone could use a little paycheck boost. You may not be employee of the month, but you can still offer compelling evidence worthy of a raise. And once you get that bigger paycheck, do yourself and your boss a favor – get out there and really earn it.
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