How would I go about asking for a salary increase in my yearly review?

June 19, 2009 5:39 PM

How would I go about asking for a salary increase in my yearly review? I came in to this job as the #2 guy on a 2-person contract and then the #1 guy (my supervisor and project manager) quit. I'm now project manager and the only one on site. I feel like I should receive some sort of corresponding raise with this increase in responsibility.

I've been working for a small employee-owned defense contractor since I graduated from college with an aerospace engineering degree in May of 2007. I worked in a different area of the country with this same company until I decided that I wanted to move to DC. I told my company I was going to look for a job in DC and they surprisingly ended up offering me a position in DC that I considered to be out of my league at the time. This position made me the "2nd string guy" out of 2 guys working on-site at a very large, high-visibility Department of Defense program office. I'm honestly in a little over my head due to the scale of this program and the type of working I'm doing but I feel like I'm doing a great job given my age and experience.

The old #1 guy on this project (my supervisor and the project manager) was a retired Marine Corp officer who was old enough to be my dad. He ended up leaving 6 months after I started working there, leaving me to be the only person on our contract in this program office. I did not feel like I knew enough at the time to be project manager but I feel like I've been doing a great job. My company's CEO often tells me how great of a job I'm doing given my age. He's apparently pleasantly surprised.

I had to fight for a salary increase when I came to this job. It sort of bothered me that my company thought I'd be able to get by in this part of the country on the salary I had when I was living in the middle of nowhere. I get the impression my company is very stingy about salary increases.

Now that I've been automatically moved up to project manager on our contract here, I feel like there should be some sort of salary increase since my responsibilities have most definitely increased. I have a yearly review coming up in early July and I want to attempt to ask for a raise. I feel that I deserve one not only due to my performance, but also by my move up to the project manager slot.

Not only am I not totally sure how to approach this, but I wish I had some sort of salary data available to me for reference. I really have no idea where I stand salary-wise. I know there are websites that are used to compare salaries, but I don't feel like this job will be one easily found online.

Do any of you have any recommendations on how to approach this? I'd really appreciate it. I've found some sites about this subject that are listed below, but I'd really like to hear some feedback directly tailored to my issue. Thanks!


Pages I've found so far:
Lifehacker
Lifehack
Lifehacker
Lifehacker
Get Rich Slowly

posted by decrescendo to work & money (6 comments total)

Personally, I'd say: "I came in to this job as the #2 guy on a 2-person contract and then the #1 guy (my supervisor and project manager) quit. I'm now project manager and the only one on site. I feel like I should receive some sort of corresponding raise with this increase in responsibility."
posted by chrisalbon at 6:23 PM on June 19

I figured that would be the first response hahaha.
posted by decrescendo at 6:28 PM on June 19

if you're on a contract, perhaps you can look up their final winning bid and see how much they're billing for your position.

several things could occur though. if the position desc for the job isn't in line with your education/exp, you may not be able to be officially billed at that rate b/c you don't meet the requirements.

it could also be that they contractually cut the position and the rate is no longer available.

i don't see any reason they couldn't give you a cost of living increase (everyone in DC is suffering though) at the time of your review, but you may not be able to get what your former co-worker was getting for a few reasons that don't really have anything to do with your performance.

also, the end of the FY is September. Do you know what type of contract you're on? You may not be able to get anything until the new fiscal year and that would depend on what type of contract it is, what year it's in and a few other things.
posted by elle.jeezy at 7:07 PM on June 19

oh, but i agree with chrisalbon. just ask.
posted by elle.jeezy at 7:09 PM on June 19

Be prepared for the 'be grateful you have a job' attitude. There's probably a hundred qualified resume's sitting in HR just waiting.
posted by Gungho at 5:26 AM on June 20

Yeah, there are probably a hundred qualified resumes sitting in HR, but its massively expensive to hire someone else--and everyone who is more qualified than you is going to want a lot more money to boot! Generally it costs around 2x as much money as the yearly salary to hire a replacement, and this can be in addition to the downtime suffered by lack of someone on the job. Management knows that, so there is nothing wrong with asking for a raise.
posted by shownomercy at 11:43 AM on June 20