Asking for a pay increase.

[Machismo]

Wrong. At least in the setting of a small company (35ish people), I've found myself giving raises to people who performed so well I couldn't afford losing to the competition. Without them having to ask, and with them being quite surprised. I'll admit I tend to do this only with those who are highly specialized and thus would be very hard to replace, but I've done it with an excellent factotum, who never even went to university, but is an excellent and versatile receptionist and "handyman", so while it would be in theory very easy to replace someone whose position requires pretty much no qualifications, I wouldn't want to.
That being said, I already pay all of my employees substantially more than all of the competition. Not because I'm such a wonderful and altruistic person, but because I'm positively convinced that happy employees make for more productive employees, and I also enjoy how the overall atmosphere doesn't reek of people feeling wageslaved, but of satisfaction and accomplishment. And it's an approach that works, because we're the smallest company in our field, and despite that, we secured the most important customers, and get more work than the competition. The only downside is that we get so much work it's pretty much never over, and we can never take a breather nor hire more than the current amount of personnel for legal/taxes reasons, but that's good for business and it's also extremely satisfying to have a literal queue of people from the competition willing to drop them and join us should a position open up.

- - - Updated - - -



This is typically enough for a good employer to take notice and keep track on his own. At least that's how it works for me. Again, this is probably because I can oversee every single employee personally; in a bigger setting (or with less... observant employers) it would probably be best to do as you suggest.

Sadly, I'd say far too many employers are not very good. In reality, most managers don't have much of a say when it comes to employee pay, and that's usually two or three steps higher. This seems to be true in retail and service fields, where such things are dictated by pay bands and corporate policy. I know my manager for the large tech company I work for has to go to his manager for my pay increases. The company I own is quite small, so my employees just shoot me a quick e-mail.

[Coolthulhu]

Sadly, I'd say far too many employers are not very good. In reality, most managers don't have much of a say when it comes to employee pay, and that's usually two or three steps higher. This seems to be true in retail and service fields, where such things are dictated by pay bands and corporate policy. I know my manager for the large tech company I work for has to go to his manager for my pay increases. The company I own is quite small, so my employees just shoot me a quick e-mail.

That's why I wouldn't like the idea of expanding (other than a raise in taxes, as mentioned above) to the point of needing managers. I like owning a company because, while there's a board of select few - people that have been around since the very founding of the company - whose advice I take into consideration, and more often than not end up following because I'm lucky (or smart) enough to have surrounded myself with very competent people, I'm not really bound by anything our informal board meetings decide, and my word is final in any and all decisions. There's only been one instance in which a distant cousin of mine was once employed, and thought she could act like a manager, ordering people around without even asking me, and sowing discord among employees out of her personal antipathies. We're now an even more distant kind of cousins because I obviously had to fire her.

[Mormolyce]

OP, make sure you do ^ after actually talking to them, that is, of course, if you want to keep working there. In my opinion, going to management with an alternative job option on your hand without a prior meeting that you had addressing your monetary concerns is unprofessional.

I kind of assumed that anyone looking for a pay rise has been saying as much in performance reviews. Not that that does anything.

[Logwyn]

OP, make sure you do ^ after actually talking to them, that is, of course, if you want to keep working there. In my opinion, going to management with an alternative job option on your hand without a prior meeting that you had addressing your monetary concerns is unprofessional.

- - - Updated - - -



If you are underpaid for the work you are doing, you might want to get a bit more than just a raise, more like a salary rearrangement. I am talking about > 30% raises. This may happen without you asking for it, or may not. I wouldn't blame it on "greedy corporate mind" right away as people tend to assume you are perfectly happy, unless you raise your concerns, be it monetary or something else. However, once it is established even by your manager that you outperform or perform similar to seniors, and then you still do not get a compensation for it, that means they are considering you a cheap labor. That's the time to act, imo, not before. I am not saying you shouldn't look for a job beforehand, of course. This is something I have personally experienced.

It all comes down to if you are expendable or not. If you can be replaced by the next random person, chances that you will not get what you want is high.

I'm worth way more than I get paid. But I don't do it for the money. I love my job and honestly I'd do it for free. Only profession that I've never woken up in the morning or went to bed at night not wanting to go in the next day.

[Celista]

The 100% best way is to spend at least 6 months prepping for asking for it. Going above and beyond at work, kissing your boss's ass, etc. Ideally one should do that all of the time but I personally have a limit as to how much ass-kissing I can do before I become nauseated at myself.

Then update your resume and surreptitiously start interviewing with other companies. Spend a lot of time thinking about what you bring to the table at your current job. Really see if you can quantify it numbers-wise.

Then sit them down, act all sad and tell them how you have 1-2 great offers that you didn't expect to get (bullshit here if you want, say someone offered to take you out for coffee and you had no idea they were looking to recruit you) and they're offering such a great salary and perks but you love your current job and are torn, you never expected to be in this position and you'd normally just shut the offer down cold but what they're offering is just so great.

Then outline what you've brought to the table and ask what your company can do to keep you, you'd really hate to leave but it's such a great offer...

Don't do this more often than once every 2-3 years and be prepared to walk if they can't offer you what you want. If they try to sadface you and say that they don't have the money to offer you a raise, then you should interpret that as a slap in the face and you really should leave because you're not going to grow professionally where you're at. They don't know your value.

Good luck to everyone.

[breadisfunny]

The 100% best way is to spend at least 6 months prepping for asking for it. Going above and beyond at work, kissing your boss's ass, etc. Ideally one should do that all of the time but I personally have a limit as to how much ass-kissing I can do before I become nauseated at myself.

Then update your resume and surreptitiously start interviewing with other companies. Spend a lot of time thinking about what you bring to the table at your current job. Really see if you can quantify it numbers-wise.

Then sit them down, act all sad and tell them how you have 1-2 great offers that you didn't expect to get (bullshit here if you want, say someone offered to take you out for coffee and you had no idea they were looking to recruit you) and they're offering such a great salary and perks but you love your current job and are torn, you never expected to be in this position and you'd normally just shut the offer down cold but what they're offering is just so great.

Then outline what you've brought to the table and ask what your company can do to keep you, you'd really hate to leave but it's such a great offer...

Don't do this more often than once every 2-3 years and be prepared to walk if they can't offer you what you want. If they try to sadface you and say that they don't have the money to offer you a raise, then you should interpret that as a slap in the face and you really should leave because you're not going to grow professionally where you're at. They don't know your value.

Good luck to everyone.

draenei don't deserve raises. couldn't resist.

[Celista]

I have yearly performance meeting with the boss. That's when we discuss my pay. I can ask for a raise. I usually get a raise.
I think employers who don't give a yearly raise can go fuck themselves, because everything goes up in price on a yearly basis. Food, rent, gas, etc.
Although, useless employees shouldn't get a raise, but those who do their job should.

Yeah, if you get annual performance reviews then this is the way to go and I agree.

- - - Updated - - -

draenei don't deserve raises. couldn't resist.

I get paid in grasses and clover so.

[breadisfunny]

Yeah, if you get annual performance reviews then this is the way to go and I agree.

- - - Updated - - -


I get paid in grasses and clover so.

oh yeah well i've burned it all.

[mariopepper]

Ofcourse you should do it