Submitted by Mattias on
in
Forums
My main question is wether it is justified for me to put forth a request for a salary increase of ~$7 714 a year from a starting salary of $38 571.
The background is the following:
While still going to school to aquire my B.Sc. in business(accounting) on januari 19th 2010 i was a temp in entrance level position at a electrical utilities company to work as part of the billing team and two months later got hired by the company. The title is basically administrator and i started out with just registrering customer data and correcting invoices. It is still a administrator position in essence but we have gotten some new responsibilities and as a team increased productivity in the billing process alot during this past year. Among other things we have taken on the billing of two other groups in the company without really having to increase our staffing. The issue is thou that now that i am almost finnished with my studies i am contemplating weather or not i should be actively looking for a new job. Even thou its better to have this job then to be looking for a job without already having a job its something i know i will not want to be doing in 1-2 years from now. When i took the position at the company i didnt tate a salary expectation that would be fine today, rather i based my salary expectation out of the fact that i still had very little experience as well as the fact that i still hadnt listened to the salary expectation cast on career tools.
I got a starting salary of $38 571 a year. I have done a search of starting salaries for my position and it ranges from $38 400 to $49 028. I also know that a coworker that started after me (new graduate) got a starting salary of about $41 142. The coworker works at the same level as me and since he got the salary as a starting salary it did not have anything to to with him being more effective. He basically just asked for more then me and got it.
I am looking to request a salary of $46 285 but considering it represents a 17% salaryincrease im thinking it might be difficult. Am i being unreasonable? One has to consider that if i did change jobs i would without a doubt be able to get at least $42 857 and thats without experience of that company.
I would not make the assumption that you can make more
Mattias
What is your relationship with your boss? You need to start having discussions with him/her about this. Do you have annual reviews? There are not a lot of people getting 17% raises right now. If you are sure you can get a job that pays more, go out and do it. But until you get it in writing, I would not leave this job. And I absolutely would not start telling people that you are going for interviews or thinking of leaving if you don't get a raise.
Thank you for your
Thank you for your response.
Well i feel i do not want to ruin any bad will. I did agree to my current salary and for the title i have it isnt a bad salary but considering the responsibilites it probably is. I do realize that 17% increase is a lot but at the same time i do have to point out that in our team i am more then twice as productive as some people. By productivity i measure the speed at which one is able to finnish a task or how difficult a task one is able to handle. We do have annual reviews of salary. I do pan on being smart about this thou. Any job is better then no job at all so i plan to at least get another job in writing before i sit down for salary review. I wont tell anyone if i would be going for interviews. I have learned that at least from MT.
I think you have a case, and
I think you have a case, and if you approach it properly it won't generate any bad will.
When you joined the company, you were brand new to the field and not out of school yet - so a starting salary at the bottom of the range was appropriate. In the last year you have gotten a degree, gotten valuable experience in the role, are performing more duties than the role originally required, and have been outperforming your peers. You have now proven that you are worth more than the base salary.
Yes, it's a 17% increase, and from that perspective it sounds like a lot. But you are really only asking for $8,000 over the course of a year, and that is still in line with the overall salary range for the industry. The job description is different now, too, so that may be an angle you can work. That kind of increase is probably not huge for the business, but it would make a gigantic difference in your quality of life.
I would NOT go the route of getting another job offer in writing and then going in to ask for more money. At that point, it's like you are holding them for ransom, and a lot of managers would be inclined to let you go since the fact that you have an offer in hand must mean that you are not happy there - in which case more money doesn't really solve it.
If you lead with your accomplishments and what you can continue to offer the business, you may have a shot. Use the Preparing for Your Review cast as a guideline - go in with documentation about all you've accomplished since joining the company. Approach this as a loyal employee who wants to stay and grow with the company... you simply want your compensation to be in line with the value you are bringing. If they don't come through, then you might consider looking elsewhere. But I bet they will at least meet you half way.
Thank you for your response
Thank you for your response MAURA. It really helped.