Think you’re worth more? GetRaised

When my sister Kath – one of my posse of blog fodder suggesters – came across GetRaised and pointed it out to me, my kneejerk thought was yet another useless online “service.” Which would have made this week a two-fer with respect to posts about yet another useless online “service.” (See Tuesday’s edition: So few ads, so little time.)

Then I unjerked my knee and headed over to GetRaised and found that it’s actually pretty darned intelligent and thoughtful, and that plenty of folks will find it useful.

Here’s what they offer:

You provide them information on your work and how much you make, and they let you know if, based on their research, they think you’re worth more. Then they help you make the case for asking for a raise, guiding you away from the death-to-raises words like “I need” (so what?) and “I deserve” (who says?), towards a more rational and logical approach. 

Asking for a raise – especially in this climate, I imagine – can be tricky.

While I may have done it at some other point, I only remember doing so (formally, at least) one time.  I was working for a small company, and had just been promoted to VP of Marketing. Without a raise. Which completely and utterly ticked me off.

My boss felt that I should be grateful for the title, which made me the titular equivalent of everyone else sitting around the table playing “executive” (all guys, by the way).

So I went out and built my case.

I called a couple of head hunters and asked what I could get at a company of similar (puny) size, with the same responsibilities.

The answer came back: a lot more than the (puny) salary I was making.

Of course, I had started working for this company in a hole.

So eager to get out of the hell-on-earth that was Wang, I took a 20% pay cut to go there. In doing so, I wasn’t a complete and utter cretin. I did have the glittering lure of a reasonably decent bonus flashing before my wall-eyes and gaping mouth.  Needless to say, it took many moons for that bonus to materialize. In fact, within six months of joining the company, there was a short term 10% pay cut declared.

But by the time I’d made VP, that was all in the way-back.

I was worth more; and I was going to get it.

Having gotten the numbers I needed, I pulled together a list of everything that I did, which included everything on my immediate job description – where I pointed out where I saved the company money and made the company money - as well as the freebies: my informal roles as sounding board (and credibility provider) for the president, and as morale officer. (It also helped me out that, just as I was negotiating, I came across How Men Think, by Adrienne Mendell, which proved invaluable.)

Anyhow: Woo-hoo!

I got the raise I was looking for. Not a staggering amount, to be sure, but 20%, which brought me to the magic number I wanted.  When I take into account the play-it-forward aspects of that raise – especially when the bonuses which did materialize were factored in – it meant a lot o’ money over the course of the several years I was still there.

As a manager, I was on the other side of the desk a number of times.

One particularly weak case was made by someone who was – during a particularly (oh, for those days of yesteryear) hot time in the market – offered a colossally reckless salary increase by another company. In order for her to stay, she wanted it matched.

I have no idea what was on her resume that would have enticed this company to pay her as much as she claimed they were offering. However inflated the market was, she wasn’t worth it. “L” had just made the transition from glorified admin to product marketing, where she had the opportunity to learn an awful lot from the cadre of mentors in our group who were willing to work with her. “L” required considerable guidance and handholding, and we were going to be able to provide it for her.

I pointed out that, if she stayed with us, it would take her an awfully long time (maybe never) to get to the salary she wanted matched. But – if and when she got there – she’d be worth it.  I also pointed out that, at the glimmering new salary, at her new company, they were going to expect her to be able to deliver the goods – no mentoring, no handholding, no ‘it’s a learning opportunity.’

The full story here is novel-esque in fact – before “L” could quit, we had to fire her for a colossally bone-headed stunt she pulled. But she did have that offer for the big bucks. Which she took. Only to depart their company a few months later, under a cloud.

Anyway, asking for a raise is not the easiest thing in the world to do, and if you can get some outside help from an outfit like GetRaised, I say go for it.

I didn’t go through the process they have on their site – who’m I going to ask for a raise, myself? – but it sounds reasonably straightforward. And it’s cheap: $20.  Actually, it’s better than cheap: if you don’t get a raise in six-months, they refund your twenty bucks.

I have a couple of observations here:

Getting a raise is lot easier if you’re the only one in your role (or if you’re paid less than everyone else doing the same job).  I once worked for a very wise man who said that, when you decided what to pay people, you should work under the assumption that everyone has perfect knowledge of everyone else’s salary. Now, of course, in real life, you probably don’t. (Unless, as happened to me once, you find a printout with everyone’s salary on it in a very public place. Naturally, I looked. Naturally, I memorized as much as I could, focusing on the what was most important: who cared what the AR/AP clerks made? I was interested in my peers, my boss, his boss, and the useless a-holes in senior management. Just so I wouldn’t be tempted to copy the list, I slipped it under the (locked) door of the guy who’d left it out.) 

This is a long-winded way of saying that, if there are a lot of folks who do what you do, and you can’t differentiate yourself, then it’s a lot easier for your manager not to rock anyone’s boat by giving you a raise – especially if they operate under the wise man assumption that what everyone knows what everyone else makes.

Further, getting a raise at an off-cycle time may not be all that possible in a large organizations. First off, a big company may just flat out no-nay-never do an off-cycle adjustment. And, while I don’t have tons of big company experience, I have enough to know that they typically have salary bands for different levels, and there may not be a lot of wiggle room to accommodate your raise request. Generally, a big company will have done research into what the industry standard is for varied positions, and may have decided whether they want to pay at, above, or below the industry standard. And once you’re in a position, the percentage raise you can be offered may be fixed. When Big Company T acquired Small Company S – where I had so brilliantly negotiated My Big Raise – we fell into the rabbit-hole of formulaic salary increases.

Company T’s philosophy was to pay at the industry average. Within the industry average range, if you were at the top, it didn’t matter if you were a superstar: you might never get a performance increase. If you were at the top of the range for your position, that was it for you unless the industry average went up. They paid by “the job”, not by “the person.” No unique, intangible, wonderful you: employees were viewed as fungible. If you wanted to make more money, you had to take on a new role with more responsibility.

It was actually a reasonable enough approach – but something of a wet-blankety drag.

My final observation is a general lament for the average American worker whose salary has, in real terms, stagnated for years. At the atomic level, yeah, it’s every man (and woman) for himself (or herself), so go forth and lobby for that pay raise! (Hey, maybe the best way to solve an “us” problem is to break it down to the atomic level and make it a “me” problem.)

All this aside, if you’re looking to make more, you should check GetRaised out.