Rate this article:
Average rating:
Total votes: 13
Monster member Rhona73 posts: I work for a large nonprofit in Boston. I’ve been here eight years and have moved up the ranks during that time. For various reasons, my pay has been slow to increase, despite years of scoring above average on my performance reviews and being one of the key, go-to people in the agency.
Recently, I came across the list of everyone’s positions and salaries in the agency. I wasn’t looking for it -- my boss gave it to me, I’m assuming unknowingly. Come to find out that several people who have worked here less time than me and who work in less or equally critical roles make far more than I do.
Our company has a yearly review and performance plan structure that ended in July. I got a $1,000 raise. Yet my base salary after eight years just barely clears $38,000. I know some people would say get another job, but I like where I work and have paid healthcare and flexible time. (My total compensation package costs the company $42,000.) All that is great, but it’s not paying the bills, and now that I have confirmation that I am underpaid, I feel undervalued and a bit resentful.
How do I approach my supervisor about my desire for higher compensation given that 1) I just got a raise and 2) I have hard facts about others’ pay? I’ve read your advice about listing the skills, accomplishments and benefits I bring to the company, but can you offer any more advice given the specifics of this situation?
The Negotiation Expert responds: If you’ve read my advice about scheduling a performance and salary review and presenting a comprehensive list of your responsibilities and accomplishments, then you know how to handle a request for an upward salary adjustment.
If you want to really go out on a limb, you could carefully explain that through no fault of your own, you saw the list of what others are paid and add that the list supports your request for a salary adjustment.
But there are some downsides to doing this. Somebody’s probably going to get in serious trouble for inadvertently showing you that list -- he might even lose his job. You could also get a very bad reaction from the person you’re meeting with to discuss your performance and salary. I can imagine this person saying you shouldn’t have looked at that list at all and that you should have immediately returned it to whomever mistakenly gave it to you. And I can imagine this causing you some problems for bringing it up at all. The “it’s not fair” approach usually doesn’t work nearly as well as the “my responsibilities and accomplishments have earned consideration for an increase in compensation” approach.
What I’m saying is that this is a very risky approach that could backfire on you and perhaps on others, even though this was an honest mistake. So think twice about using your knowledge of what others are being paid to justify an increase you’ve probably earned on the basis of your performance alone.