Asking for a raise... advice needed

[Lis]

I talked to both my boss and grandboss regarding adjusting my salary this week, and I’m sort of hesitant about what the next step should be. For background - A year and a half ago, I was promoted from an admin to an associate with a title change, tons of new and different responsibilities, and became ineligible for overtime. Despite this, my salary didn't really change - I still got the same raise I would have expected had I remained an admin.

Basically, there are 15 layers of people to get through before I get to the people who actually make the decision about my salary (boss and grandboss can and will of course give input, but they don't get the final say).
- Boss is 100% on board (he also isn’t privy to my salary information – he just believes me when I say I feel underpaid).
- I'm pretty sure grandboss is on board as well, but he holds his cards closer to his chest than boss does. Either way, he's fair and reasonable, and I made a strong case to him. I came out of that meeting feeling really good.
- Next is great-grand boss, who is also reasonable and fair, but I'm a bit more nervous about him. Grandboss gave me a lot of good insight on how to approach him, what to say, what to bring up, etc.
- Once I talk to great-grand boss, and if he approves, he has to bring it to all of the partners, which will be tricky. One, I'm not sure if I'd even be a part of that meeting, and two, trying to get them all together is pretty much impossible. They set aside time every year in early December to talk about everyone's salaries, raises, and bonuses. Grandboss also said he's never seen anyone get a salary adjustment mid year. It's not out of the question, and if I feel super strongly about it I should try, but it might not happen until December anyway. In any case, he said I should definitely try to have a meeting with great-grandboss end of October/beginning of November to make my case if I don't want to do it now.

So, I'm kind of torn. On the one hand, we just finished a huuuuge project that I played an important part in and I got a lot of positive feedback from internal and external sources, which is awesome, so I feel like I have strong momentum. On the other hand, it's never been done before mid year, and while no one is saying it *can't* happen, most of our upper members are pretty set in their ways with their routine. Regardless, I'm definitely bringing up the conversation at some point. The question is just, when?

I should also say that my company is very generous and I've been mostly happy with it. My job title changed last year, along with a crazy amount of responsibilities (and I became ineligible for overtime), but my salary really didn't change. After talking with grandboss, it seems it may have been an oversight sort of?

[bwall]

If you deserve it, then you deserve it. And this is the way you want to frame it; what did you do to earn a raise? What did you 'produce' that benefitted the bottom line of the company?

When? As soon as you have a list of accomplishments--which it sounds to me you already have.

And one final insight--women are paid less than men b/c men ask for raises and women don't (generally speaking). I told this to a girlfriend I had many many years ago when she was complaining about her poor rate of pay. In her next job interview, she asked for more than they were offering, based on my assessment that 'if they want YOU, then they'll pay YOU YOUR rate. If they just need an a** to fill a seat, they won't.'. She got the job and the amount that she asked for.

[gooki]

If you want to force it, get an offer from another company.

[ooeei]

If you want to force it, get an offer from another company.

If you do this, be ready to leave. Their response to this is very dependent on your relationship with them, and this is a pretty bold tactic.



OP for what it's worth, I work in oil/gas and just got a raise earlier this year because I asked.  We've had raises frozen for 3 years now, but they made an exception for me and it was relatively painless. I actually asked for more vacation, and they said there's no way they can do that.  I basically said "I understand it wasn't your call, but that doesn't sit very well with me" and had a bit of an awkward moment with my boss.  That was on a Friday and he basically said he agreed but there wasn't anything he could do.  That evening around 6 he called me from the office and said the big boss would be meeting with me in the next week to try and work something out. In the end they offered me a raise and some unofficial vacation.  Note that I did go in with a list of things I'd done in the last year, and right after a big successful project. Just a lesson from that exchange, if I'd been really apologetic and understanding when he said no the first time, I don't think I would've ever gotten the follow up call and eventual success. It was a bit of a risk because they could've been pissed and fired/blacklisted me. Thinking of it from their perspective, an extra few thousand dollars at a huge company is well worth keeping around someone who does a good job, especially if any replacement they hired would cost as much or more than I wanted.

I think the most important part for me is to not make it personal with whoever you're asking. I always lead with "I understand it may not be up to you, but I'm not happy about the decision because I did blah blah and haven't had a raise in blah blah." For me letting them deflect to higher up seemed to bring them on to my side, and worked out. Also not letting them weasel out with some sort of "it's not allowed" excuse. I think at one point I said something like "So in order to get extra vacation, I'd have to quit and then get rehired? That seems like a weird incentive.  I get that it's not normally done like this, but I find it very hard to believe it's impossible." I found out that "It's not allowed" or "The system won't let us do it this way" is usually code for "That's a lot of extra work I'll have to do to get this done and I don't want to."

I posted about it here: https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/throw-down-the-gauntlet/gauntlet-for-the-employed-ask-for-a-raise/