Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with salary and raise

Movin on up

Anonymous — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 21:32:03 -0800

I just got a raise. Yay! So here's my question: how good is it? Will a raise of this size make my life more comfortable? Nitty gritty details (lots of numbers!) inside. I work in print media in New York City. This is the first raise I have ever received in my life. I'm excited about it, as I pretty much live paycheck to paycheck, so every little bit helps. My salary history:

2006: $34,000 as a marketing manager for an arts organization in Boston.¹
2007: $30,000 as an entry-level assistant at a print media company in NYC.
2008: $32,500 when I switched companies. Still an assistant, but for a more important person, and I work on my own projects, too.
2009: $34,500 — the raise! No change in responsibilities, just more money. (I've actually only been at this company for 9 months; not a full year.) I'm finally back to the salary I had three years ago in the job I hated (though, considering the benefits at that job were practically nonexistent, I probably effectively reached that point a while ago).

So, is a 6.15% raise a good raise? Average? Piddling? I have no idea. Will an extra $2,000 ($166/month) actually have any effect on my quality of living? What do you think, MeFi?

¹My first job straight out of college. It sucked. I quit and moved to New York.

What should I expect at an annual review?

Anonymous — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 06:42:21 -0800

My first annual review is coming up at my first real job. What do I expect, especially regarding discussion about pay/raises? I am an internal tech support guy (with a few other tech-related responsibilities) for a medium-sized business. This is my first "real" job. (I've only worked in huge chain retail and restaurants and whatnot before this.) My very first annual review is coming up in a couple of weeks.

Seeing as this is my first annual review in any job, I just want to mainly know what to expect. What kind of things are we going to talk about? What will they say? What should I say? Most importantly, what about a raise or discussion over compensation? What is a standard raise, and do I have any negotiation power?

I really like my job, and my benefits are great, but I feel like my base compensation is not quite what it should be. I've done a bit of poking around on salary websites and have talked to a couple people in my field, and from what I've seen it looks like I'm getting paid probably about $6000 less per year than I "should" be. I think part of this is that, again, this was my first real job. The second part is that I'm relatively young for this job. Both of these things were made clear when I got hired as reasons I was somewhat "on probation," if that makes sense.

I have a really good relationship with my direct manager and the rest of the chain of command, and I don't want to spoil this by being greedy or seeming ungrateful. So what can I expect, and what can I do to best prepare?

Denied a raise; what is my next step?

RingerChopChop — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 08:21:01 -0800

I was denied a raise that I really deserved because the small company I work for "isn't doing so well right now." My request came after I was given a very positive review in which all parties agreed that have exceeded expectations. When my request was denied, the individual who denied it acknowledged that there is a large inequity in terms of pay in the office and that when we have enough money to give raises, I am the first in line. I was also told that we need to wait and see how the 4th quarter goes, and that I should ask again in 60 days because the financial picture might look better then. I feel that I'm being fed a line here and that when I ask in January the "picture" will still be that I'm not being paid what I deserve.

So, are people paid based on the quality of the work they do or the ups and downs of the business? Should I insist on equal pay for equal work or do I just trust that they have my best interest at heart but just honestly cannot afford to pay me what I'm worth?

If it matters, I'm the youngest person working for the business and am female. The "inequality" in salaries is that some individuals make four times the amount I do.

Best way to negotiate a large raise?

Anonymous — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 20:23:37 -0800

How can I smartly/safely negotiate a substantial promotion and raise? I signed onto my current position at a salary in the mid-50s. I definitely undersold myself, but I came from a technical position in a non-technical field and didn't have a very high base to negotiate from. After some staff turnover in the last year, I've informally taken on a much more senior position running the team I was hired into.

Now I would like to renegotiate and make that position official. I spoke with several past employees who held this senior position and their salaries were $40k to $60k higher than what I am making. I've got the chops to be in that range: 8 years of experience, some fairly significant contributions to this company, and a hell of a lot of hours spent in the office. But I am worried that they'll balk at such a sudden increase, even if it's part of a promotion.

Any strategies or advice? Is it wiser to start high and negotiate down, or should I be wary of asking for too much initially and sounding like I'm just fishing?

Should I ask for more money after a raise?

Anonymous — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 08:19:01 -0800

After being promoted and receiving a decent raise I've been tasked with hiring my replacement. My new position is managerial so this new employee will report directly to me. While working with the recruiter I just found out that the position has a maximum salary that is larger than my current one. How do I talk to my boss about this without sounding ungrateful? First, a bit of background. I've been at the company for less than a year but made enough of an impression that they promoted me. I was making a competitive salary when I started and my raise was decent but not spectacular. I'm looking to hire someone to replace my old position. That new person along with some other people will report directly into me.

I found out today that the maximum salary available for my old position is actually more than I make now - with my new raise. Obviously, that salary is only a maximum amount alloted for the role and is by no means a guarantee. However, that makes me feel a bit odd that the person working directly under me could make more money than I do.

It seems like there are several options on the table:

1. Do nothing about it. Be grateful for my promotion and my salary.

2. Wait to see who gets hired and what their salary requirements are. It's possible that the new employee will demand less money thus nullifying my concern. If they do make more money then and only then do I talk to my boss.

3. Talk to my boss about it right now. I don't want to sound petty but I also feel the need to stand up for myself a bit. To be clear, my boss is very approachable.

So that's the situation. I am not looking to be greedy and don't want to appear ungrateful for the promotion and raise. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to handle this? All comments are much appreciated.

Do I deserve a raise?

Anthony84 — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 19:42:24 -0800

Do I deserve a raise and what should I be asking for? Are there any resources other than salary.com type places that can help me with this decision? I know this is asked all the time but each situation seems different. Before I say anything else, I LOVE MetaFilter, this community is awesome.

Anyway, pardon the complete lack of knowledge on this topic (and my lack of clarity in asking my question), but I know very little on this subject and I want to learn as much as possible. After all, this is the first time I've been put into this type of position. In general I ask, what should I do about my salary and position given my situation?

Here's what detail I can give: I started my job a couple of years ago out of college and within a year of starting, I went from trainee to trainer due to some shifting of positions at work. I've done an exemplary job by all accounts in my current position, and I've taken on a number of additional responsibilities without additional compensation (besides merit increases). To me, that alone would warrant some kind of increase in pay or a promotion (am I right?). However, neither has happened in the last 2 years even though I've been slaving away nonstop.

To be more specific, I was hired on in California to do software testing and a little bit of development for a company. I now find myself developing and testing 50/50 or perhaps even 60/40, and training new people to assist in my work. Because my job is a mix of different things, it's hard to know whether I should be paid more like a tester or more like a developer. Also, while I don't officially manage anyone, I think I deserve some credit for the work I've done with new hires in guiding them along their way. After all, I'm taking work off of the boss's hands by doing so.

Anyway, it's obvious that I feel like I'm doing more than I'm getting paid for. But, being that I have been on the job for 2 years, would it be considered premature to be asking for a promotion or a raise? If I do ask for something, what should I ask for? Something higher than what I expect to get, or something lower? I don't want to give the wrong impression to my employer because other than the pay, I enjoy my job. Furthermore, I don't want to embarrass myself by going into this knowing nothing of what I can reasonably do about this.

What salary would be expected for a person in my position in California? How little is too little for what I do? Are there any good resources out there for this? I know, too many questions! Thank you for any guidance you can give me.

End of year reviews and when to ask for a raise? Or how I learned to love the unemployment line

ronmexico — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 16:32:28 -0800

When to ask for a raise in the rush to the year-end-review. I've taken on quite a few hats in the last year and pushed myself quite a bit into more responsibility. I work in IT, initially the lone IT tech doing desktop and server support. The end of this month will be my 3 year anniversary with this company (this is my first IT job). Now my responsibilities have gone from desktop and simple server support to a multitude of server platforms/vendors, virtualization, network administration and R&D, you name it, as well as working with the other IT guy, whom I 'mentor' 90% of the time.

I am building documentation of the projects I've completed this year as well as recently becoming an IT representative for our company during overseas meetings with a worldwide customer in the past month (during which I was complimented by the CEO who attended).

I plan on asking my manager for a decent raise that I feel is competitive for my job duties. I have always gotten a bump every year but I really feel I can seize this year's accomplishments. While our company is not huge, our department has been the money maker for the last 2.5 years, but they tend to underpay when you look at the average salary doing what I'm tasked with.

December is when we find out our bonuses, get reviewed and usually get a small raise. So, has anyone else "jumped the gun" on talking pay increase? I'm wise enough not to ambush him with this one :)

Please suggest ways to improve my situation in life.

Anonymous — Sat, 26 May 2007 10:42:12 -0800

The short version of my question: I am underpaid and need to make what I'm worth but I am also incredibly insecure and the thought of applying for another job sends me into panic and depression. Even when asked by, for example, the VP of the online division of a national newspaper I find myself unable to write a resume and offer it up (true story). Is it possible to convince my current employers to pay me what I'm worth? I'm posting anonymously and asking a fairly nebulous question, so I'm going to provide far more background material than one might reasonably suppose is necessary to elicit a useful reply. Sorry. The gist of the question is simply: how do I overcome my psychological inhibitions and learning disabilities in order to capitalize on what I'm told is an odd combination of very real strengths in order to succeed professionally and personally? I'll be slightly verbose so you can get a feel for my situation and personality. Besides, I honestly don't know what I'm worth, only that it is more than I'm paid.

I'm 25, male, American, live in an east coast city with terrible public transportation and have a bachelors in English. That pretty much identifies me to those who know me without making me googleable. I hope.

I take home $785 every other week. I pay $565 in rent every month, so when rent is due I generally have to choose between paying the other bills and eating. I also pay for psychotherapy out of pocket, though at a reduced rate that is just under $1/min rather than the more typical $2.50/min. I pay for antidepressants and ADD medication out of pocket, as well. Food costs what food costs, telephone and internet are fairly reasonable, and energy costs vary from month to month. I quit smoking months ago and stopped drinking the evening I realized I'd had half a pint of the cheapest 100 proof whisky available every night for the past fortnight. I have zero friends and zero acquaintances. Until this year I have always managed to be in a relationship and in love. Since finishing college though, I haven't had any way to meet anyone, at least no one who meets my standards for beauty, intelligence, and humor. Hence the whisky. Basically, I make just enough to live, if you can call it living.

I have about $80K in combined debt because I didn't work much while I attended college and mostly relied on loans. For an intelligent person I do some very stupid things. If you're keeping up you'll realize that I can't possibly repay these, and indeed they are all in forbearance.

I excelled in literary theory and criticism, creative writing, critical writing, analytic philosophy, continental philosophy, and history. I'm extremely good at both propositional and predicate logic; however, I am very poor at math, especially geometry, which does not make any sense whatsoever and confused more than one professor. All I can say is brains are strange things. Mine falls down in two areas: practical mathematics and language acquisition. Unfortunately, this isn't mere laziness, I actually have the test results to prove it.

Go figure.

And I'm something of an emotional cripple and something of a petulant child, though I try very hard to reign in these traits.

I tend to be arrogant and insecure. I am extremely critical of myself and others and can't shake the conviction that others are not only critical of me but judgmental. I generally refrain from passing judgement on others until they prove themselves to be average. Or worse, stupid. Or worse yet, stupid and fat. Or worst of all: stupid, fat, and happy. I'm somewhat belligerent towards stupid fat people and wary of happiness.

I work for a graphic design company founded before I was born and still owned and operated by the original partners. Aside from those two there is myself and one other, a designer. I am not a designer but I have the aesthetic sensibility and appreciation that print designers seem to think both vital to existence and mostly absent from the general population.

I am an expert in Photoshop (since 2.5 I think, I remember getting excited when layers were added) and InDesign (since it came out, before that I had some experience with Quark, enough to know I hated it) and adept at Illustrator (not expert, I can't achieve photo realism, but very competent for the more common applications). Before I began working for these people they contracted out the really difficult pieces of production work — image retouching, color correction, compositing, that sort of thing — now I do it, although I had to demonstrate my abilities on a near daily basis for half a year before they would let me take over those tasks. And I only recently convinced them to purchase a Wacom tablet, which on average halves the amount of time it takes me to the really fiddly bits. They wouldn't believe me when I told them I needed a tablet. Now that we have one they won't even take the approximately one hour of time to get used to it and begin to take advantage of it.

This is one thing that drives me nuts. They've existed in a competitive and difficult field for almost thirty years. As far as I can tell, they've survived by never charging enough, sucking up to clients, working sixty to eighty hour weeks, and never, ever taking a single risk. If you win all your bids you're bidding too low. Right? Right?! They found a formula and they will not change it. And they don't respect the new, which from their perspective includes me, since in their eyes I'm still an infant. Whenever I suggest some alternative, or wonder aloud why they consistently under bill, provide free services, and don't charge for absurd requests, they get arch and remind me that they've been in business for a long time. To which all I can do is shrug, since I can't exactly say "big fucking deal, I've been alive for 25 years, that doesn't make me an expert in living. Just because you've found a way to survive doesn't mean you've found the best way." They won't leave the cave to see the sun.

I started as an intern, it was supposed to last three weeks. Six months later I was finally offered a job. Here's how that happened.

They'd designed a website for a school and contracted an independent web designer (a teacher at the well respected art school in this city) to do the technical stuff. They'd worked with him before so I had a chance to examine the product. He was clearly a hack, his websites were built entirely in Dreamweaver and in the least efficient, least semantic, least accessible, least standards compliant fashion possible. There were no headings in the markup, no lists, nothing but paragraphs and font tags inside of tables inside of tables tucked within tables. The doctype said xhtml 1 transitional, the markup said html 3.2, the W3C validator said you've got to be kidding. I actually needed to make a backup of a site he'd built for the company before I got there and the fastest way, I thought, was wget. Wget couldn't make a complete mirror because all the crucial navigation was done with flash. I could grab everything in a specified directory, but that was it. I ended up going directory by directory. The site still isn't well indexed in any search engine, although the first part does show up in Google.

I've been building websites for fun since 1998. In 2001 I learned CSS and became a standards nut. At this point I can and do write valid, semantic markup and exploit CSS to the limit, and fairly consistently get the results I intend across all major platforms on the first go.

Trying to convince the people I work for that semantic markup, separation of form and content, and standards compliance are not only a good idea but efficient was and is impossible. They need Dreamweaver because they're visual, and Dreamweaver often has trouble rendering my css properly, it seems to choke on complex positioning. CSS that validates and renders properly in all major browsers and, when necessary, in IE5.5 manages to trip Dreamweaver up and the bossess blame the CSS because they can't understand how an expensive piece of software can be such crap. They don't like the idea that CSS degrades gracefully. From their perspective it is better that information be totally inaccessible than presented plainly.

Fortunately, the guy they'd hired couldn't figure out how to create a fairly simple drop down menu with a translucent background that worked on all platforms and so was lobbying to build the site in Flash. I went home and cranked out a demonstration in about an hour. I brought it in the next day and said "is this what you had in mind?" Because I can be a smug little prick sometimes. And it degraded gracefully. After that I continued to build a functional example of the two most technically challenging parts of the site on my own because I had a strong feeling the guy was going to let us all down. After many failures on his part the eleventh hour rolled around and there was no site. They turned to me. Why not, things couldn't get worse. I gave them a site in five days, complete with pixel perfect alignment (usually a pain, in this case any sane developer would've said it can't be done and suggested a simpler design) across browsers and platforms. There are some ugly css hacks (but nothing that can break in future versions of IE) and a couple unobtrusive bits of Javascript, but it works. Before the client started making their own changes it was 100% valid xhtml 1.0 strict, valid css, and accessible.

That was when they offered me a job. When they saw (yet again) that I wasn't just a kid who talked a lot but a competent and knowledgeable person who delivers even when promising the impossible. Nonetheless, the starting pay was shit. I used to make more at Starbucks. The benefits at Starbucks were better, too. As were the chances for advancement. Unless someone dies, I'm as high up the ladder as I can get at this place.

Since then I've done a few smaller web projects and managed to educate them somewhat on how the interwebs work. I can't break them entirely of the Flash habit, and so I've had to work in Flash, too. I loathe Flash. I try to feed them tidbits of info they need to know but am usually ignored. The other boss seems to think that all that matters is spending a lot of time being very, very busy every day. The idea of efficiency frightens him, and when I have time to read an article during the work day he thinks I'm slacking. He also has this infuriating habit of passing off all his boring work onto me and an equally infuriating habit of looking over my shoulder and asking me what I'm working on now. It's amazing I haven't stabbed him with an x-acto knife.

I'm involved in every project. Most of the work I do is creative in the sense that I make creative use of the tools on hand to achieve what is needed rather than I create a design. I'm more craftsman than artist — aside from a few small print pieces and one website, I don't do any design. Instead I answer questions (I know more about all the software used in that place than they do and am the only one there who understands how computers work. I've been using Photoshop as long as they have yet they only know how to use a fraction of its features. They don't know what alpha channels are, for example. Quickmask scares them. They look at the camera raw interface and get confused. They use macs, you see, a computer that assumes its users are mentally challenged magpies attracted to the shiny interface but unable to do more than peck at the brightly colored buttons. They don't know what the terminal is or why they should need it), teach (you'd think InDesign was complicated, I thought designers were supposed to understand typography yet they don't bother to learn about opentype or any of the 'optical' features in InDesign and I'm pretty sure they never really understood multiple master fonts, either. You'd think nested style sheets would appeal to people working in print, wouldn't you? But they rarely use any style sheets at all, before going to press I have to make certain the formatting is consistent throughout a document), research images and fonts (I'm something of a font nut) and so on. I basically do three or four different jobs each day. I've occasionally needed to create 3D visualizations since no one else can be bothered to learn Blender or Sketch Up (and there's no way they'd shell out for Maya). I've made a few movies and done the occasional bit of non-linear video editing. Which I'm not very good at. I'm the only one who knows what 'codec' stands for let alone how to use one. I'm the only one who knows how to create web-based presentations for clients in other countries.

I am unhappy because I don't feel respected or appreciated. I am angry because I need more money than I make and I'm pretty sure I deserve it. I'm accused of making senseless arguments because they can't follow a chain of reasoning backwards as well as forwards and so get lost. I feel as though I'm tolerated the way a particularly clever monkey might be tolerated. As a novelty. I have greater and broader knowledge than the three people I work with and am looked down on for it. I spend hours daily keeping up with trends in half a dozen fields and am considered slightly strange for it. I spend a lot of time thinking. Apparently an alien concept. I value knowledge for its own sake. I like intellectual challenges. I love a good argument. I love a good discussion. They won't even step into the hermenutic circle for a chat.

I want to stay where I am because it is relatively informal, I can walk to work, and I'm used to it. And because applying for jobs terrifies me. I only got the internship that led to this job by impressing a Professor who, because she thought I was interesting and smart arranged it with the company. I needed three weeks for college credit. After that the bosses owed nothing to me or to my professor. They didn't want to terminate the internship and I am now an employee. Luck got me in the door, ability kept me there. But I didn't do the scary part and apply for the position. Bearing in mind that I really do admire the talent and dedication of the people I work with, not to mention their knowledge, here is some of the crap I have to put up with.

They don't share my frames of reference and so my ideas often strike them as stupid. My humor is wasted on them. The day Kurt Vonnegut Jr. died I was saddened, they said "who?" They'd never heard of Emperor Norton; don't understand Descartes; won't discuss Aristotle; don't care about web standards; don't trust open source and make no effort to understand either the philosophical or the practical implications of it; care only about how things look; one of them believes in god; they don't know what the X-Prize is or who won it; don't read fiction, especially don't read science fiction; don't have ideas; and don't do anything, really, except churn out incredibly high quality design.

I say Jeremy Brett was the best Sherlock Holmes and they grunt. I say A Bit of Fry and Laurie was the best sketch comedy show to come out of England since Monty Python's Flying Circus and they shrug. They (the bosses and my co-worker) don't know Bertrand Russell from Bertram Wooster. They've never read The Wasteland. They can't make a distinction between postmodernism and postcolonialism. They don't know what opera the Queen of the Night is from or who composed it; when I was listening to a recording of Edita Gruberova in the role I was asked to turn the volume down. But they think nothing of it when my coworker plays The Shins or one of the bosses puts on Herman's Hermits. They've never heard of Lucretius. If I say "somatic cell nuclear transfer" they do not say anything, not even "baaa." They don't know who Knuth is. They've never read "Three Men in a Boat." They can't explain special relativity. They use lorem ipsum and don't know where it comes from or what it means. Once the male boss, who runs, suggested I take up running. I half muttered "There is no one who desires pain for its own sake. Who would chose to do hard exercise, except to reap some reward from it?" (paraphrasing Cicero) I got a blank stare. It wasn't a perfect translation, but it should've been obvious what I was driving at. They don't know what TCP stands for. They haven't read Mark Twain since high school. They refuse to understand why the idea of an intellectual commons matters and matters more now than ever before, and won't think about it. They don't know the basics of any subject but their own: no grounding in psychology, cognitive studies, biology, genetics, zoology, philosophy, nothing. One of them likes history but not the way you or I would think of history, as an area of study, he doesn't seem to think about it so much as to memorize trivia. The other has read The Picture of Dorian Gray but never thought about it. When I quoted from it one day she was pleased to recognize my source and I, in turn, was pleased to discuss it. Only I couldn't because she'd forgotten what it was all about. I made a joke about necessary and sufficient conditions, I forget the context now, but I remember having to explain it and I remember they never quite understood. They don't know art history, not even in broad. Fuavism, formalism, futurism begin with an "f" and end with an "ism," but that's about it. They've heard of the book "Things Fall Apart" but they can't name the author nor recognize the allusion in the title. They've never heard of the steady-state theory or the standard-model, although they can say "big bang." The COBE satellite gathered data that took cosmology from a speculative pursuit and transformed it into a hard science. Anyone who can hear that without a sense of optimism and wonder lacks a soul. They lack souls. One of them mistook a line of Herrick for a line of Shakespeare. They've never seen Doctor Who, can't name a single actor who played the Doctor, and look at me funny when I say "exterminate" like a Dalek. They are machines optimized for design and convinced of the absolute rightness of being a machine optimized for design.

I'm paid shit to do work that is essential to their daily business and they don't seem to think this is a problem. I wouldn't mind if they weren't so slow, boring, and dismissive. I was promised insurance in January and only now have it, by the time the insurance company starts to cover the pre-existing condition of depression I'll have been paying for treatment out of pocket for over two years.

I write, I manage the network, the ftp and http servers, I do all the technical stuff, I do basic video work, I do Flash (I hate Flash). I have worked hard for years to know what I know and to get good at it.

But I've acquired all these skills on the side. So I'm afraid to approach another employer because I can't demonstrate, not fully, what I can do. I feel there must be people just as qualified and with proof in the form of grades and a diploma and a portfolio. these days I'm starting to have a portfolio, but my expertize was acquired out of a passion for the creative potential I percived in the tools. I can point to an annual report and say "the left half of that image was created entirely in Photoshop, by me" but that really doesn't get to the heart of what I can do. I'd love to get away from print entirely (although initially it attracted me) and focus on new media and network mediated communication, but thanks to that pesky language+math learning problem I'm the worst programmer alive so I can't sell myself as a developer. Especially since I seem like someone who should be excellent at it, I get all the theory, all the abstraction, for example I find Javascript fascinating because prototypical inheritance is neat and I've always like lambdas. I once spent several months failing to learn Haskell.

I'd like to freelance but I don't know how to find clients and don't have any savings and besides I'm convinced of my own worthlessness. On one level I know I'm superior in many ways, I've been told so for years, I can see it when I compare myself directly to others, but I can't really feel it. I feel boring and average and dull. Sure, I'm smarter, quicker, and funnier than the people I work for, but they're old and inflexible. My coworker is nice enough but a little slow, but she's from the South, believes in god, and anyway didn't have some of the privileges I had growing up, so it isn't really her fault.

I always see the big picture and take the too-long view. Nothing really worries me because I know that eventually the universe will end and long before that, I will. But lots of things piss me off, and all of them are caused by people.

In many ways I'm a geek. As a child I took apart my toys to see how they worked and to this day void the warranty within a week of purchasing something. I build my own computers. I'm comfortable with and run several flavors of Linux as well as freeDOS. I hate OSX but I know it quite well. My dependence on the internet for news is quite geeky, too. I read about thirty different sites including general sites like mefi or boingboing and topical sites like a list apart. I'm completely current with what passes for culture online and completely oblivious to most of what passes for popular culture offline.

In many ways I'm a creative. I'm moody, depressed, sporadically productive. I dress in black. Although in truth that last is only because I hate shopping (I haven't bought new jeans in ten years, I only own one pair of footwear at a time, the newest T-shirt in my collection is six years old, I buy underwear and socks but that's about it) and black wears well. I'm a rebel without cause or clue.

In many ways I'm an academic. I synthesize ideas from many disciplines in newish ways, I learn incredibly quickly, and I have a lot of fun doing it. I see the humor in tragedy. I enjoy research, enjoy theory, and enjoy writing down my ideas for others to examine.

In many ways I'm a failure. I have an undergraduate degree and excellent recommendations from English and Philosophy professors but terrible grades. I might be able to get into grad school but it wouldn't be a Harvard. I went to school to learn and never paid attention to grades, deadlines, or requirements. I hate competition and direct confrontation, I prefer to destroy opposition before it has a chance to realize it is opposition. I prefer other people to do things for me than to do them for myself. I can't bring myself to respect authority or even pretend to do so, I can't submit to people who are only my superiors in age and wealth. I'm not a morning person to the extent that I've been fired for being incapable of getting to work on time. In other words, I'm neither temperamentally nor physiologically suited for the professional world.

I don't know what to do. I want to make enough money to pay back my loans, eat out occasionally, and put something aside. I don't know how to drive and wouldn't be able to afford to keep a car anyway so I can't go far. I don't have the money to move. I'm stuck. The people I work for are kind employers but cheap and inconsiderate and dull. They don't reward merit but then who does? I can walk to work, which is great because I don't know how to drive. I can't bring myself to write a resume because putting down what I can do seems stupid. This whole post makes me think I'm wrong to want more money. Only by directly comparing myself to another am I able to convince myself I'm not a stupid fat person. I will, of course, force myself to write a resume, but I'd rather stay where I am. Its convinient and its familiar. How can I convince my employers to pay me what I'm worth when they don't take me seriously and refuse to acknowledge that they need me? I mean, I'm not indispensable, but if I quit now it would be expensive and difficult for them and chances are they'd never find another person who can fill all the roles I fill.

I feel like I'm on train that left from the birth canal and won't stop until the incineration chamber. It's been chugging along with ever growing speed and the world outside is a blur; I'm moving through time and I'm sitting still. I can't stop the passage of time, but there must be some way to get off the train and complete the journey in a more active and rewarding manner. I just wish someone would tell me how.

Thank you for your patience and for taking the time to try to help.

Should I insist on a raise?

skryche — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 16:35:22 -0800

My employers say that my promised raise was accidentally included in my initial salary (and therefore I won't be getting one). Having recently gained certain qualifications, I started a new job in September of 2005. I started at a salary of (say) $60k and was promised a raise to $63k upon the completion of my state board certification. I got my results (passing!) yesterday. Today, my colleagues bought me cake and my superior brought me into his office and sheepishly told me there had been a mistake; I had already been getting the post-boards salary during my time with them. They wouldn't ask for the money back, but (of course) there would be no raise. He apologized many times.

I got home, and looked at my last paycheck, and realized that I'd been getting a $60k salary the whole time — what he'd meant was that I should have been getting paid less when I started!

I know what you'll ask — what does my contract say? I was told when I started “we don't have contracts here”. And I know what you'll think — No contract? This is a shady organization I've gotten involved with. But I'm sure that's not true. I love working here, and we're doing good things (it's a non-profit). I trust the people that I work for and I'm certain that this was a mistake.

But my salary is low for professionals in this field (even at non-profits) in this part of the country. If they had wanted to hire me at 5% less than what I'm making now, I'd have had second thought about working here.

So — should I rock the boat and insist on the raise? Should I, at the very least, insist on a contract? I have this dirty feeling of having been taken advantage of that I don't know how to get rid of.

Help me ask for a raise.

Anonymous — Sat, 05 Nov 2005 20:44:58 -0800

I'm a developer in the US and I make about $46k. For my position in my zip code, salary.com says that I should make around $60k. Help me ask for a raise. I work at a startup which explains part of my predicament. I accepted the below-market number because it seemed (seemed!) like a cool place to work and I knew at the time that the company couldn't afford what I was worth anyway. The founders also promised that they'd "take care of me." You may already see where this is going.

I've worked there a couple years and the job isn't as fun as it once was. On top of that, the low salary isn't helping. I'd like to get back into the ballpark of what I'm worth but I'm not sure what number to shoot for. I can't really ask for a 30% raise... can I?

One last thing. I'm about 6 yrs out of college but I've never had to bring up the subject. Either I've had decent bosses that brought it up on their own or the whole yearly-review thing brought it up for me. Now I have a miser of a boss and the thought has apparently not entered his mind since the day I started. Once I figure out the numbers, how do I start that ball rolling? These threads (salary negotiation strategies, Do I play hardball?) have been helpful and I'm open to other advice as well.