
Ask HN: how do I ask for a raise in my salary? - bking
I have an engineering degree, and I was offered a job after a few months of searching. They offered me $45,000 and I took it knowing that I would have to do a bit of training to get acquainted with the sector. I adjusted a lot faster than expected. It has almost been a year, and I was poking around our network and found the job descriptions for the company. Low and behold my title and job description gave a salary range of $55-70,000. I have been doing my job as well as helping to automate a lot of the procedures and tasks, improving the speed and efficiency of all the members of a team that I manage, who all have more experience in the sector than I have been alive.<p>My title is Analyst but I am also our tech expert/support and team leader of 4 others.<p>I feel I far exceed my job description and would like to renegotiate my salary to the base of the specturm ($55,000) plus a %10 raise for exceptional work for the past year.<p>Is that too much to ask, and how do I go about it without seeming like a self-righteous/greedy ass?
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NonEUCitizen
1\. Go interview and get a competing offer.

2\. "It's been a year since I've started working here and I'd like a raise to
bring my salary in line with market rates, please." Note that #1 will give you
a more accurate sense of market rates.

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bking
Base pay for engineers is around $55,000. I took the $45,000 because the
economy sucks and I was scared about the job market. I should have negotiated
better, but that is more or less my fault.

~~~
dllthomas
Also, the $10k could be said in part to be compensating them for the risk they
took in taking you on, given their uncertainty about your abilities. That
uncertainty should now be cleared up.

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rynes
One time I took a job at the offered salary. I was contacted by another
company I had done some part time work for and they offered me a full time job
at a considerably higher salary. I told my current boss and he said there was
a company policy of max 15% increase in any year, but he gave me the 15%. I
think the point is that you need to give your boss some numbers based on
current rates at other companies. You don't have to give the company names
unless he presses you very hard.

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jwynia
The best way to get paid $55,000 is to prove to them that you make or save
them $110,000 a year.

Asking for a raise makes it all about you. If you can make it all about THEM,
and what THEY get from your continuing to work there, it's amazing how many
"rules" can be made to disappear.

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bking
the unfortunate side of things is that I am not privy to the knowledge of the
money they make off their contracts. There isn't very much transparency. What
I can say is that I took a project that was about to sink and would take the
better part of a year to do and turned it into 2 months of work and removed
most of the human error elements. All this while working on two other full
time projects.

~~~
ImprovedSilence
Are you a contractor? If so, you can be sure they are charging the client at
least 2x your current cost to them, probably more if they pay you so little.
This multiple they use also gives them room to pay you more. As someone state
above, it might be tough to just ask for a raise, but it's much easier
negotiate when you have better offers in hand. Also, have you had your yearly
review/raise yet? If not, I'd wait until after that happens, and see how it
goes, to make some noise/moves. Maybe they are planning a big raise after the
first year (my company did), and if you complain now/ask for too little, you
may hurt your ability to negotiate after the fact.

~~~
bking
I am a salary worker, and my company is a mix of consulting and deliverables
to address our customers needs. I definitely understand how the charging works
(my father is a cunsultant elsewhere and I grew up at least partially
understanding that side).

I had quarterly reviews, and each of them has been glowing and pushing me into
more responsibility. The timing is off for my year end because my old manager
is now a consultant and my new manager has only been here for a month,
although I am pretty sure he would die if I weren't here. The quarterly review
system was a product of my old manager, so I think those are over with now.

My company is small (<50) and I have not seen any formal raise system like
most big box companies, where if you get the highest rating you might get a
%20 raise and on down.

I am at a loss for when I should expect my year end if at all, because
everyone else I know outside the company has already had theirs over the past
month.

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dllthomas
I think that if your self assessment is accurate, they should be happy to pay
you the higher rate; the alternative is training up someone else, who they'd
likely have to pay more anyway.

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yashchandra
Before we get into the discussion about what you _should_ be worth., pure
numbers show that you are asking to go from 45,000 to 55,000+10% = 60,500.
That is almost 35% raise from your current base. I have been in your situation
before and it is very unlikely in the US to get that kind of a raise usually.

Having said that, if you really feel that you are worth that much, have a talk
with you boss. But most likely, you might have to look outside your current
company and even then, a 35% raise is very tough to negotiate in current
market.

~~~
pasbesoin
I received raises like that, in a very conventional corporate environment and
with strict cost controls in place, because I was basically saving my
manager's bacon -- as I was internally hired to do -- and doing it a
significantly less cost than the "conventional" (big iron) route. He had
significant seniority within our part of the org and used it to get this done.

But, that was fairly exceptional.

In another role at another corporation, I was repeatedly lauded by my
coworkers -- the ones with whom I actually worked and who had real technical
chops. But my immediate org structure was more than a bit political, and my
role was defined by corporate as a fairly mundane and low-level role. 4% was
the cap, and almost no one got that. Ability didn't rule the decision:
Executive-level budgets and politics did.

So... You've better assessed your value. Be prepared to move one, before and
when asking for it. You may have to. If you have a solid competing offer, this
may also strengthen your argument/negotiation with your existing employer.
Don't "threaten" them; rather, an offer shows that someone -- an "independent
party" or even a "competitor" -- considers that valuation to be fair.

A final caveat: If you get to the point of having that offer, it may be best
to leave and take it. As others, I seem to recall, have pointed out, here,
causing your existing employer to match a competitor's offer may breed
unexpressed resentment on the part of your management. And, regardless of
that, they will worry about whether they will end up having to explain and
justify the bump to other employees if and when asked about it and without
facing wholesale escalation in their wage structure.

TL;DR: Having stuck out assignments having low raises, I'd say you may have to
-- and ultimately want to -- change jobs/employers.

~~~
bking
I definitely do not want to burn a bridge by attempting to force management to
pay me more. I would like to show them that I am worth more than what I am
receiving. The last thing I want to try to do is "bully" management into a
hostile relationship.

As I do that, my networks are fairly active and they understand my
capabilities. I will continue my search outside for other opportunities to
cover the worst case scenario.

My only logical unemotional hindrance for leaving my company for greener
pastures is that I would like to build up good foundation of credible
experience over more than just one years time. I want to have a longer record
that shows my continuous improvement and dedication to innovative solutions,
such that future employers or top tier MBA programs will have no problem
realizing my potential.

Thanks everyone for the multiple points of view. I have been taking everyone's
opinion into consideration.

