Have you asked for a raise?

Post Reply New Topic

If so, how did you go about it and how did it go?

I wish I had thought to ask this on my survey. I'm just curious now. I'm wondering because I know an aspie who is probably making significantly less than he would if he had ever negotiated for raises. But I know this person hasn't because it would be so stressful to do it that it wouldn't be worth it.

As a former boss, I can say that most people in white collar jobs would get a pay increase if they asked for it and sounded serious. Not a ton, but you'd get something. Employers would toss you between 1000-5000 more a year if you were already at, say, 35,000-85,000/year. Some people think to negotiate and move up quickly. Others don't and end up making less than the person right next to them, even if the person who didn't negotiate had seniority.

It's interesting that you should mention this right now - it is an issue I've been dealing with at work lately. So there's this metric called range penetration, which shows how close you are to the maximum salary for your particular job. Because it's my job to work with this kind of data, I saw my own range penetration one day and noticed that it was extremely low. I actually knew I was paid on the low end for my job title before seeing the exact number. This actually made sense - when I took this job it contained several lower level, very simple duties. They basically made up a job for me to convert into from my internship once I got my MBA, so it was a hodgepodge. Anyway, that lower level stuff had been taken off my plate and replaced by higher level analytical and consulting duties after only a couple of months, and so it no longer seemed appropriate for me to be low in the range.

So I went to my boss and said "Hey, I was doing some compensation work for a coworker here and I noticed that I have the lowest range penetration of any person in HR. Can you explain that to me?" I approached the conversation in this particular way because I was in no position to "demand" a raise as I had only been in the position for eight months and some admins were already grumbling about me advancing so quickly. Skip ahead to this Wednesday, and... I just got a 10% equity increase

Pushing for a raise is uncomfortable, sure, but the discomfort is really a passing inconvenience. Due to the way salary tends to follow a person around, getting a raise can affect your earning potential for literally the rest of your life. Because of this I strongly recommend asking - the worst that can happen is that your boss can say no.

My boss is talking about increasing my responsibilities, so I'm thinking I should ask for a raise in the near future.

But, I'm not really sure how to go about it.

When I was still working for a major library automation firm, it was quite well known that I was grossly underpaid, along with everyone else in a non-managerial position in that company. It didn't take long for the company's clientele, especially when I worked telephone support, that I had the same training as them (as most of them were librarians/media specialists) and had a general idea of the issues they faced when it came to supporting a school's curriculum (which is the primary focus of any academic library, whether it be in a pre-school or library in a major university). The company did come across with across the board raises for everybody. However, one vice-president, who was nothing more than a bean-counter, made it his mission to either silence me, or get rid of me, in one way or another, since I was still making noise because I still was not making the same amount of money as my counterparts at the company's competition were making, especially since I was figuratively working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, since I was bringing work home with me to keep the company's clients happy. It, and me taking sick days at least once a month or more, due to being overwhelmed with work (something Mom and my brothers never understood, even when they saw me in action working the phones), as well as telling this bean counter what I really thought of him, in no uncertain terms, is what caused me to lose that job.

Now, working for DoD contractor, I couldn't tell the brass what I thought of them, since the brass usually were too busy to notice. The few times I interacted with the brass, they told me exactly what they wanted, and with the exception of the year 2000 fiasco, and the document management system/archival requirements fiasco, I had no problem delivering what they wanted. It was my immediate supervisors that gave me fits, since they were ass-kissers extrodinaire, and did anything to undermine my work and reputation. Now, I'm not the most organized person around, never was, never will be. (My checkbook will bear that out.). I was, and still am, of the opinion that a clean desk is the sign of a sick mind. As long as I can find the information I needed, who cares how I organized the actual raw data I needed to write up my recommendations? Again the same issues with attendance reared its ugly head, again being overwhelmed. Ditto for when I worked for Apple as a contractor.

This is interesting. I guess I thought this kind of thing would come up from asking if people were treated the same as their co-workers, but I should have asked more directly.

Unfortunately, I was limited in the number of questions I was allowed to ask.

I may email those of you who participated in the survey with a few specific questions.

Just to add-

When I was working, I asked to adjust a star employee's pay up to what it was supposed to be, and was denied. I was told that because my employee hadn't asked for a raise, I couldn't ask for her. I told her to ask me for a raise after that, but it was too late. I was never able to get her up to fair pay. She eventually left, and I didn't blame her.