A recent AMP.NATSEM survey found even women with post-graduate qualifications earn less in the course of their working lives than men with only Year 11 qualifications.
Given women are often underpaid — even by just a couple of thousand dollars a year — asking for a pay raise is essential for women and can dramatically affect their financial well-being over time.
While negotiating a pay rise is never going to feel particularly comfortable – let’s face it, it’s probably right up there next to visiting the dentist – it’s a necessary evil.
Here are a five quick tips to help:
- Know thyself… and others!
Regularly evaluate your own experience and skills and then compare your ‘market worth’ with your current remuneration. Your market worth can be assessed by finding out what other people in similar positions elsewhere are being paid. If your market worth isn’t where you’d like it to be, consider up-skilling through study, taking courses or even volunteering.
- Market yourself
How receptive your boss will be to your request largely depends on how they see you. You can influence this by actively marketing yourself on a daily basis. Start a file of compliments you receive from the company and clients or ask for a compliment in writing if you do a good job. Note extra duties you’ve assumed. Importantly, don’t hold back in sharing these achievements – if you don’t blow your own trumpet, nobody else will.
- Timing and preparation is everything
Many employers only grant pay rises to employees during employee-reviews. Find out if this is the case at your workplace. If it is then use the time between now and the next review to plan. Otherwise, let your boss know that you’d like to make a time to chat about your performance at a time convenient to them. The most important thing to do next is to prepare, prepare, prepare.
- Script it
Your pitch should not just be a simple one liner saying you think you deserve a payrise. The key is to come across as objective and reasonable. In a neutral voice, provide evidence of why you deserve a pay increase. Scripting what you want to say and rehearsing it in advance will help you focus, stay calm and remain non-emotional.
- Be prepared to move sideways to move up
In the early days of working as a solicitor, a friend told her boss she’d worked out her actual hourly rate (factoring in the number of extra hours required to do the job properly) and found she would earn more working at a fast food store. The boss’s response: “You’d best be applying for jobs there then.” This gave her the motivation she needed to resign and apply for work at another law firm where she was paid significantly more money. The lesson? Sometimes you have to move sideways in order to move up.
If, after asking, the answer is a resounding no, then ask your boss the all-important question: what can I do to increase my salary or wage in the future? If this is still greeted negatively, perhaps it’s time to consider looking for another job where the employer is prepared to remunerate you fairly.
Any advice given is general only and has not taken into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. Because of this, before acting on any advice, you should consult a financial planner to consider how appropriate the advice is to your objectives, financial situation and needs.