How should I properly approach my boss if I'm feeling underpaid?

manpreet Best Answer 2 years ago

I started working at my current company as a Software Engineer about 2 years ago. When I received my offer, it was $5k less than what was agreed to during my interview and non-negotiable. However I was desperate to get out from my previous job and accepted it. My base salary was 50k when I started and I had about 3 years of prior experience. Meanwhile, a friend who left the company had no experience whatsoever when he started and they started him at 55k. PayScale.com says that I am in the bottom 6% percentile where the average salary for someone in my position, location, and with 5 years experience is about $76k. Salary.com stated just about the same thing.

Each year since my hiring I have received a 10% raise, since I do a lot and handle my job well. There have also been 5 people that left my project and the company since I started the job and I inherited some of their work/responsibilities in each case.

Based on what I do and the work I've inherited (which entails software, systems, & network engineering, along with some management tasks currently) I feel that I am still underpaid.
I've been thinking of asking for a mid-year raise either now or when I obtain my CCNA as I intend to do in a few months.

Is my plan of action advisable?
How should I properly approach this subject with my boss?

manpreet 2 years ago

You claim that you are doing a lot of critical work and your boss is giving you 10% raises which are extraordinarily high raises for most companies.

Companies that reward hard work typically do it in three ways:

1. Bonus - lump sum short term reward for effort or performance

2. Raise - Long term reward for effort, performance, promotion, or increase in responsibilities meant to encourage retention. Typically anything over 2% beats inflation.

3. Perks (Special parking, gifts, additional vacation days, etc...) - Short term reward when budgetary concerns don't allow for raises.

When a company gives a 10% raise they are making a significant statement that they trust you, they value you, they recognize just how much you are accomplishing and they really want you to stick around. This isn't anything that should be too suprising because it seems like they may have a problem with employee retention and they really want to stop the bleeding.

You exude feelings of being treated unfairly and that might be related to them promising you one figure at the interview and then taking back their word when they presented the offer. Fair enough, but consider that a major concern for most employers (especially ones that employ software engineers) is that it is very hard to identify the perfect employee from the incompetent one. Many deal with this by paying people less and working on a trial period until they have learned to trust you and your abilities. Again the fact that you get 10% raises more than shows their confidence in you.

My conclusion is that you are just overworked and burned out, and you mistake the failed notion that more money will make it more tolerable.

It won't.

I get the impression that the extra work the stress and the responsibility of your position are taking toll on you and this is the real reason for your unsatisfaction. Of course as a company it is a lot easier to throw more money at a problem than take proactive steps to remedy the situation by making a concerted effort of bringing on more talent and fostering an environment that encourages natural employee retention.

Studies have shown that when it comes to workplace motivation and happiness, salary is not an influence, it is a pre-requisite.