Help me write a statement supporting my request for a pay rise

t0astie — Mon, 05 May 2008 00:13:21 -0800

I recently got promoted. Hurrah for me! But I badly need help with how to word a statement supporting my request for a payrise. I applied for a job, which was a position that had been vacant for about six months, knowing that it paid lots more than the job I was in. Other people who have done and/or are doing the same job take home over $200-week more than I do after tax.

But when I got the job, I was told that, no I would not be getting a pay rise.

At the time I said, politely but firmly, that I thought it was reasonable to expect my significantly increased responsibilities to be reflected in my remuneration. My boss said he agreed and that I would get a pay rise in the middle of the year.

And he asked me to write him a short statement supporting my request for a raise.

I think I’ve got a pretty good case, but I’m not sure exactly how to word the statement. Especially the bit where I ask for A LOT more dollars. Or whether I should mention the extra expenses I’ve incurred in taking up the job.

These extra expenses are big ones. I’ve had to buy a car which puts me out of pocket about $150/week and move to another town where it’s horrendously expensive to live, taking on massive rent stress in the process. I estimate I’m about $300/week worse off, working five times harder. If I’m honest, this is the reason I want the raise. And it will certainly be the reason I leave if I don’t get it.

But I'm pretty sure it won't hold much sway with those higher up. Or would it? I don't know.

I'm not planning to threaten to quit in my statement. But I'm broke enough that if a decent raise (much more than CPI) is not forthcoming, I won't have much of a choice. I guess, I'd like to communicate just how serious the financial strain is.

And: the people who get paid much more have much, much more experience. So I might expect to be paid a *bit* less. But we do exactly the same job. And, if I do say so, I'm good at my job. I don't mean I'm the most awesomest ever. But I am good enough to be paid fairly for what I do.

Last: my boss is not a callous penny-pinching ogre. He helped me find a good deal on the car, so that saved me a couple of thousand bucks. And he organised for the company to advance me an interest free loan, which I pay back each week, so I could afford to rent a place in the new town. True, it's in the company's interests to get me here doing the job, but those things did help me, and I do appreciate them.

I am, however, still broke.

I’ve got as far as…

Dear Boss

Further to our discussion, I’ve outlined some points in support of a request for a pay rise from my current salary of $not much to $something I can live on.

Increased responsibility
Improved performance
Increased expenses
Increased cost of living

Sincerely
My Name

I was going to flesh out each section with one or two lines. Am I on the right track? Wildly off base? Should I put something at the end to say ''thanks for your consideration'' or similar?

Any suggestions about content and/or wording would be a big help.

Overworked & Underpaid: The Payrise Question

Anonymous — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 12:56:10 -0800

I've been leading a sales team for about a year now in NY and I'm about to have my review. We've been beating targets and just actually beaten the other team in the firm to win the whole year. Great. Or so you might think. I have a boss who seems to think a 'thanks' and pat on the back are reward enough for this. Which would be fine, but for 12 months I haven't been paid any more money for playing my part in running the team. I'm concerned that the boss will think this is acceptable for the coming year as well. In addition I happen to know that some of my colleagues in non management roles are being paid higher basics than me (some of which I know might read MeFi). Which again was OK last year - time to prove my worth etc, but I can't afford to do it for another year. I could be wrong and I might be offered some sort or raise, but I don't want to leave feeling like I'm being underpaid for what I'm doing. I'm not helped by the fact that my equal number on the competing team in the firm is a 'company man' and I don't think has ever asked for a raise and has always said he is not here for remuneration...
So how do I actually ask for the raise? Or how do I counter if I'm offered a poor one?
I don't want to appear to threaten to leave (although 2 firms have contacted me during the year) or suggest I have this knowledge of other peoples pay, but really want to get the point across that I won't just sit around being underpaid. As a point of note the commission structure is being rewritten to (I hope) include some incentives for managers so I guess this might be used to put me off a basic raise as well.
Tough to manage - thanks MeFi. Discuss....

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Help me write a statement supporting my request for a pay rise

Overworked & Underpaid: The Payrise Question