Re-negotiate salary of your current job
Posted by: Trevor Davide Grant in Career, tags: CareerA newsletter subscriber inquired whether or not it was possible to negotiate salary at a job your are already working at. After some investigating the local job market, they realized that they were quite underpaid and wanted to level set with their coworkers. Someone had advised them to quit their job and try to negotiate a higher salary elsewhere.
Absolutely! You can definitely negotiate a pay raise in your career. I recommend people start considering a number of things in order to approach their bosses for a raise.
Its not a good idea to ask for a raise too soon after accepting a job or receiving a pay raise. It is important before these events that you know your value to the company and you negotiate based on your knowledge of the job market.
There are many ways to increase your total compensation. Think about things like stock options, improved benefits, more days off, or pension plan contributions as other value adds to your compensation. Sometimes it is easier for the employer to give you what you want if you aren’t looking at the hard cash bottom line.
Consider taking these steps before you ask your boss for a pay raise.
1) Know your market value - do not rely on just one salary survey source. Also, make sure you trust their data. Self-reported salary surveys are far less reliable than those that are reported by the human resource departments in the industry in your area.
2) Know your value in terms of the contribution you add to the business. Also be aware of value adds you do in terms of saving company costs, delivering projects on time, and delivering quality in your work.
3) You will need to discuss with the boss that you know the salary range for the current market. Be prepared with facts, and also prepared to approach this conversation with tactfulness.
4) Having done your research and having an intuition for where your performance falls within the percentile range, you will need to have a conversation with your boss and agree on the level you are performing at.
Salary negotiation is a complex art that requires both skills, knowledge and good timing. One thing is for sure, you won’t get ahead as fast as you can unless you be proactive about negotiating your salary!
My preference would be to negotiate salary in a job that I was happy with rather than go through the effort of finding a new job in hopes of a higher salary.
Having a job offer from another employer is a great tactic to give yourself an upper hand when asking for a pay raise. It is a trump card that you should only play if you feel you need to.
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