More work = more money?

June 25, 2007 11:43 AM

How much should a technical team lead be making relative to a developer?

So I've been here for two years. A few months ago I've been promoted to a technical team lead (out of the blue!). This has increased my level of responsibility/stress significantly. In addition to writing code (which was my primary duty) I now manage a small team, I have to attend meeting and provide estimates - the whole 9 yards. I was initially placed on "probation", finally last week I've had my "review". After a lot of hand waving and no specific complaints, I've been told that I'm not getting a pay increase for another 3 months (in fact I'm still on probation). It seems to me that I'm doing a good job (since there are no complaints). I also think that I should be compensated for the additional duties that I'm doing. The question is how much? I realize that different geographic regions are going to have different absolute amounts, but should I ask for a 5% raise? 10%?

I'm in Vancouver, Canada if that helps.

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

Were you given a raise when you were initially promoted?

Just thinking through software engineers VS team leads, it seems to be around 10% more than the engineers. So I think that would be a reasonable thing to ask for, assuming you've been doing a good job.

Just make certain you have your projects documented, any positive emails you've gotten, etc. It would also help if you could find any job descriptions for a similar position and a salary around what you're looking for (so that they can have a comparison in the market)
posted by ceberon at 11:56 AM on June 25, 2007

10% is not at all unreasonable - especially if you have not received any (or very little) raises since you started two years ago. Even if you have received small inflation-based raises for the last two years, I think 10% is reasonable. Just shoot a little higher than you'd be happy to settle for on the off chance they counter-offer.

Of course, I have no idea if you are very underpaid or overpaid.. I'm presuming you aren't.
posted by mbatch at 1:40 PM on June 25, 2007

About a year and a half ago I was in about the same spot, promoted up from a worker to manager of a small group. I got a 2.5% raise. It sucked, and I almost didn't take it, but I saw it as a good opportunity/experience.

About a month ago I used that experience to get a new job with a 30% raise. Also, due to relationships formed (as well as expertise shown) while in that leadership position, I expect within a year to have started a company to bid and hopefully win a multi-million dollar contract. (all looking good so far).

So, while you may not get the raise you want, don't forget to factor in what this can do for your career in a year or two.
posted by blind.wombat at 5:02 PM on June 25, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

Making 10% more than the other engineers is entirely reasonable, but you may already be making that. Unfortunately, a lot of organizations try and make up for a high initial salary by freezing your raises. Other organizations are more enlightened. Certainly in any case it's reasonable for you to push for a raise.
posted by BrotherCaine at 10:16 PM on June 25, 2007

You aren't paid for taking on responsibilities. You're paid for producing results. What have you done that's better than just another warm body? _THAT_ is justification for a raise.
posted by bfranklin at 9:07 AM on June 26, 2007

Well, the issue bfranklin is that you're paid for different results than when you were an engineer. So lets say as an engineer you can say:

Finished XYZ lines of code.
Hit your deadlines for your assignments.
Didn't have any major bugs reported in XYZ timeframe.

As a manager, it's a completely different measurement. Plus, as an engineer you affect a single request, while as a manager you can make a large number of engineers more efficient.

Released your project on time.
Didn't go over budget.
etc.

Anyway, it is hard to compare them. If you wanted to go with just results, I could say that we're getting 20% more done than the previous manager. So that's 7 developers at +20% productivity.. my salary should go up by 140%. However, that's just not how things go :)
posted by ceberon at 5:35 PM on June 27, 2007