Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Some of you asked why would they pay me more when I was willing to work for 5 years sseverely underpaid. Back then I was timid but now I recognized the importance of my contribution to the company. In addition, my former boss came back to my former company and wants me to join him. The R&D Director from my company also wants me to join R&D so suddenly I have options. My intent is to stay where I am if I can successfully negotiate to get 7-10% more in the next two to three years on top of COLA which is between 2-3%. My boss doesn't have to give it to me but I believe the pain of replacing me is far more than the 10% higher pay since we are already short of experienced Engineers and two Engineers are close to retirement. There are not toi many experienced people in our field and training someone to my level takes 5 to 10 years. No, I don't want to be overpaid, it's dangerous to be in that position. Even with a 10% increase I know I won't be overpaid.
Ok, I received a 4% raise. I actually expected this and already made a 4 page PowerPoint presentation for my boss prior to knowing the exact number. I will ask for half an hour sometimes this week. I will present salary data from three different reputable sources that indicate my salary is 20% lower than the median. I also have real salaries from 2 former colleagues who are working for competitors that are also roughly 20% higher than my salary. I also will present data to show that I consistently complete two to three times the number of projects in the last 7 years compared to the average engineers. My main customer became the biggest and most profitable customer for the company this year and only 6 years ago this customer was not in the top 40 customers.
Some of you will say that I should quit complaining and join the competition. I might, but I like my company and the people here so I want to give myself and the company a chance to work it out first. I believe what I am asking for is very reasonable. I believe giving me extra $10k is far easier for the company. The cost and pain of having to go out and find someone and train them and hope that they are a good fit is so overwhelmingly worst than coughing up $10k. Note that we are very specialized and it is hard to hire anyone with experience and training someone to my level takes 10 years. I will ask for a 13% raise next year and ask them to put this in writing. Hey, the worst thing is I get fired so I can join my former boss but I believe they will give it to me. I believe I will be the technical leader in two years when two guys retire. They already made me the spokesperson for the team and I have to make presentations to customers that are not my own. The DSMs want me to go because I am more presentable and provide better support.
I am in this situation partly because I was too timid in the past and didn't negotiate a good offer when I joined the company. Suddenly after joining Toastmasters I became a better speaker and my confidence grew tremendously. The DSMs fight to work with me also gave me a lot of confidence. Our best DSM told me that I am the best he has worked with. He is 65 and has no reason to lie to me. He is the one that encouraged me to fight for a better salary.
Thank you for reading. I am here because I have to get this off my chest. I can't discuss this with anyone else. I will provide updates. Thank you.
Last edited by jimmy92683; 04-13-2015 at 05:38 AM..
Thanks for taking the time to come back and update us.
It sounds to me like you should be able to make a good case for yourself. Your posts covered your productivity, quality of work, demand for your field, rareness of your expertise, numbers that support your premise that you are underpaid and most importantly you have an exit plan if needed.
This is the Internet so some skepticism is very warranted while other negative responses from sour grapes or knee-jerk dogma are simply expected. There are limits to what outsiders can infer about your situation so the outcome will obviously depend on you. I hope things work out favorably and would be very interested in hearing about the outcome in your future updates.
Yeahhhh!!! I received a promise of 10% raise next year and my boss and the HR Manager signed the document. I didn't get the 13% I asked for but I am happy. Basically it is a 7% raise because we typically get 2.5 to 3% raise annually. I received a decent raise and get to stay with a company with good work-life balance along with great benefits. My boss told me that my salary is now close to maxing out and don't expect big raises after this unless I move into management.
Yeahhhh!!! I received a promise of 10% raise next year and my boss and the HR Manager signed the document. I didn't get the 13% I asked for but I am happy. Basically it is a 7% raise because we typically get 2.5 to 3% raise annually. I received a decent raise and get to stay with a company with good work-life balance along with great benefits. My boss told me that my salary is now close to maxing out and don't expect big raises after this unless I move into management.
Thanks for the update, and congratulations! It's always good to see some concession from both sides to make it work.
You should be lucky you got a 13% pay raise then. They make it hard for us to succeed in our company to get a good raise. It's one of the ways they save money. They are so cheap at my company they don't have free coffee. I heard that years before they didn't even have a water dispenser.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
