First of all, in order to ask your boss for a raise, you’ll need to know you’re worth it. Have you made improvements at work? Have you pulled some late nights? If you’re confident in your abilities and what you’ve done for the company, then you have what it takes to follow it through.

How much am I worth?

There are some secrets to negotiating salary increases, but first do your research to find out what you think you’re worth. Find out what the industry standard for your industry, and then think about what you do. First check out Monster.com’s

Salary Wizard to get an idea of similar salaries in your line of profession. You can also talk with recruiters or simply browse through job ads. Once you’ve got a figure in your mind of what you’re worth, add 10%. This is never going to hurt you as you have to remember, they’re thinking about subtracting 10%.

How Do I Bring Up My Salary to My Boss?

Next, you’ll need to make sure you’re capable of asking for the raise. You first must believe in yourself and your self worth. One of the biggest mistakes people make when negotiating their salary is low-balling themselves. You are your only advocate and only you can fight for you. You may just need to ask for a meeting and bring it up. Use something at going at work to let them know you’ve been thinking about this for a while. Use humor. Once, a coworker used his birthday as a reason to bring it up. He just walked into his bosses office and had the following discussion:

• Assistant: Hey it’s my birthday today and I’m turning 30.
• Director: Ahhh that’s great! Happy Birthday!
• Assistant: Well, I’m actually concerned. I’m now 30 years old and I want to make sure that my life is headed in the right direction. I want to find out if you see a promotion in my future.
• Director: Well, lets talk about it.

It was a bit of a sympathy ploy but it worked. He was promoted that day. You can use anything going on at work or in your life to bring up the subject. Conversely, you can simply wait until your annual review. Be sure your boss has the idea that you’ll be talking to him or her about it.

Ask For the Raise

Some managers can be difficult to work with, or you may just be intimidated to ask. Fortunately, there are many ways you can ask him/her for more money, two of which we’ll describe. One is to prove your worth, and the other is to display a benefit discrepancy.

Prove Your Worth to the Company

Put together a list of personal improvements such as classes and or seminars taken/attended. Be sure to demonstrate the value of these assets. The most important thing is to list what you did that helped the bottom line at the company. Put an excel sheet together with a line item value of what everything is worth. This could include organizational performance enhancements for example streamlining the records process in the office. Even better is making the company, or saving the company X number of dollars.

Benefit Discrepancy

Next is the Benefit Discrepancy approach where by you leverage what you might be missing in your benefits package. This is best for negotiating your salary in the beginning, but also works post-hire. First take a look at your entire compensation package – 401k, health insurance, bonuses and commissions, vacation and personal time, profit sharing and stock options, and of course your actual salary. Any one of these items can be a tool if it’s not meeting your expectations. For instance, if you don’t have stock options or bonuses, now you have two powerful reasons your salary *needs* to be adjusted. It doesn’t matter how much you’re making, $20k or $90k, tell your boss that before you came here you were really expecting a bonus as a reward for your performance. If a bonus can’t happen, an adjustment is needed is your salary to compensate.

Ask for More Money

If you already had your performance review and you’re not happy with your increase, ask for more. Perhaps you didn’t argue your case. Perhaps you fully missed one of the most important things. Call a meeting and introduce your argument. Or, you can simply ask for a different kind of raise such as a simple merit increase. If you’re worth more than you’re being paid, don’t settle for less. If it’s time to find a new job, commit to it. Then use these same techniques to your salary negotiation.

The most important thing is to believe in yourself. If you’re a hard worker and add value to the company you work for, don’t be robbed of what you’re worth. Remember, you are your only advocate.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, April 12th, 2007 at 10:12 am and is filed under Careers and Salaries. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.