Are You Worth More? How to get a real raise

It isn’t often discussed that there are two types of raises you can get. There is an inflation raise, and a performance raise. Most people strive to get one raise each year and are satisfied with just that. What they don’t realize is that the majority of their raise was just to offset inflation and had nothing to do with them personally. Their raise could have been larger if they had the right approach to requesting it. The annual inflation raise is not all that great. Every year, employees have an expectation that they will receive an annual review, and in turn be compensated based on their performance. However, most times the ‘performance’ factor is such a small consideration in the raise as a whole. The majority of employees are getting the approximately the same percentage of their salary increased. The differences are minuscule from one person to the next.

In addition, an employee’s annual raise rarely keeps pace with the cost of living. Whereas, a hire usually get hired at the market salary level, which is higher than those who are have been with the company for a few years doing the same work. That is because, new hires come on board with a salary level that takes into account the real cost of living. Due to that fact, companies know that there is pretty much an economic obligation for businesses to help offset the inflation costs by increasing existing employee’s salaries annually. Otherwise, to replace that person will cost them more money, as a new person will want a higher salary. However, companies don’t like to advertise that fact. Therefore, the company will throw in a performance evaluation on top of it just as an opportunity to give the employee feedback on performance, and make them feel they are getting special consideration. In reality, though, their performance doesn’t hold that much weight in their annual raise. That is, unless you make it a factor that they have to consider. There is always an opportunity at any time of the year to get a higher salary if you have the right approach and look at things from the companies perspective. Here are 5 things I recommend you do, if you want to go after the real performance raise.

Research Your Market Salary

You have to understand how much your employer will have to pay to replace you. If you have been with the same company a long time that cost difference could be quite steep. After discovering that salary, understand that if you were to decide to go work somewhere else, that is the salary range you should expect to receive for doing the same job. Now, if your salary is higher than what the market average is, than maybe you are not in the right position to ask for a raise unless you are also asking for a promotion as well. Asking for a promotion means that you will be requesting more responsibilities in order to justify why you want more money. Once you understand what your personal price is then you can move to the consideration factor.

Determine What Value You Add

What do you do personally that improves the company? If you can’t come up with anything that you do that adds value to the company then you will have a harder time justifying why they should pay you more. Ask yourself this question, “What makes me a better employee than an average employee”. Perhaps, you have a unique customer satisfaction and retention technique. Have you been consistent and reliable with your deliverables? Maybe you have a way of making the team perform better with your cheerleading. Whatever it is, companies want to know their money is being well spent. They won’t dish out raises to average employees, except for the annual ‘inflation’ raise. If you want the real performance raise, you have to be able to bring value to the table as leverage. “Why would the company have a hard time replacing you?” Replacing any employee isn’t fun, but it is definitely possible. Everyone, even the CEO, is expendable and replaceable. However, if you are adding value that the average person doesn’t, than the company may agree that they would like to pay you more to retain that added value.

Determine Your Achievements

What specific thing(s) have you done that proves you went above and beyond what your role expected. Or was there some aspect of you work that turned out to be more challenging than anyone expected, and you managed to work through it? Did you meet the KPI’s that the employer set forth? Did you provide a solution to a problem? Were you able to save the day by retaining a high profile client? Did you improve a process by suggesting or implementing a change to it? There needs to be some sort of measurable achievement that you can point to and be able to boast about it. A ‘look what I did’ helps employers feel more justified compensating you. Especially if the thing you are boasting about saved the company money, improved their reputation, or improved down the work flow. If you feel you are worth more money, you should look at yourself as needing to be an ‘A’ student. A ‘C’ student meets the expectation of the role. An ‘A’ student supersedes the expectations in some way.

Be Solution Orientated

Mentoring and problem solving traits are highly sought after. Try to make a habit of finding ways to help all team members perform better. If the whole team is performing better, the smoother your personal contribution will be. If your contribution is smoother, then it will open up the opportunity for you to stand out. Be a problem solver. Don’t just complain about something that is going on in the company, see what you can do to fix it. This shows that you are committed to the company’s success. Turning a blind eye, ignoring an issue, thinking someone else will take care of it, is not the right attitude or approach. Implementing a habit of looking for solutions, and helping the team be the best they can be, will make you stand out in a positive way. You can then use those traits you have to demonstrate how you add value to the company.

Ask for Raise

Don’t expect your boss to know you want a raise. Trust me, the last thing they are thinking about is how to spend more money. However, that doesn’t mean they won’t give you one. You will never know if you don’t ask for it. Be specific when you ask. Tell them exactly what you feel you deserve. If you feel you would be better off asking for a promotion, make sure you are specific with that as well. Tell them what additional responsibilities you want to tackle. Now that you have supporting data justifying why you deserve a raise, asking your boss should be easier. You will also now have a higher chance of succeeding.

A possible approach could be simply stating, “I know it isn’t the typical time of year to be requesting this but I believe that I deserve a raise because…” then list out why. You can tell them some of the following general remarks: You could make what dollar amount more by changing companies, but you love that company so much and want to stay. You are valuable because not everyone would do these specific things you can do. You have proved you deserve the raise by achieving what is it you achieved. And the whole team loves you because you are a great team player always trying to make the work easier. Your boss will be impressed with the level of thought you put into the request. They will likely tell you they will need time to think about it. Taking your strong supporting evidence, your boss will now be armed to go ask his boss for a higher budget for salaries because he has this amazing employee that he doesn’t want to lose.

Whatever you decide to do, though, make sure you at least ask for it. Don’t assume you know what they will at or do. Good luck!

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