Salary composition and growth are two different aspects that depend on various rational and irrational, and direct and indirect factors. These include some internal factors like the educational qualification and skill set that the employee possesses, their performance level and even their behavioural aspects. On the other hand, the external or macro-level factors may be the local and regional practices in the economy, supply and cost replacements in the labour market, and industry performances.
While an individual employee does not have any control over the macro-level factors, they can definitely work on polishing these internal factors. Any employee will be better placed to negotiate the growth in their salary levels. This article seeks to educate the employees on how they can try to put them on a pedestal where it will be easy for them to negotiate for a salary increase.
Here is a non-exhaustive list of the ways you can adopt to expect a salary raise:
Go An Extra Mile
One of the simplest ways to get a higher wage is to improve your work, increase your efficiency and likeability in the office premises. The quality of putting extra effort into your work and pushing yourself beyond the given responsibility will surely get you recognition and rewards from supervisors. You can try to finish your work efficiently well within the given deadlines and ask your supervisor to help in other departments of office work. You must prioritise the tasks that can help in fulfilling the company’s vision and your ambitions. With the correct effort and the right mindset, you will be able to scale new heights in the company.
Apart from being a good worker, you also need to be a likeable and jolly person to blend in the work environment. Your behavioural aspects are also weighed when giving a promotion or handing out a wage increase. If you present yourself as a likeable person, you will also be able to build trust with supervisors, coworkers and customers. This is definitely going to be beneficial for the company in the long run, and you may expect a decent salary hike coming your way.
Educate Yourself Better
It has rightly been said that there is no age for learning, and it never stops. In order to excel in your career path, one will always need to be ahead of others. It requires no explanation that better education can give an employee better job prospects with higher pay. One should understand that in this era of cut-throat competition, one will always be confronted with a situation where they need to compete with other employees having better educational qualifications. It is not easy to overcome or shadow people who are more educated than oneself. Thus, it is suggested that one should always try to learn more.
However, this is not going to be a cakewalk. Learning or getting a new degree while working can be a heavy task. But distance and online education have made a realistic objective for earning a degree without going to campus and staying at your current job. One needs to juggle between work and education effectively, and they will be ready to scale the stairs of success.
Polish Your Skills
An educational degree is not always going to help. What is the worth of an academic degree when a candidate does not possess the relevant skills required to carry out the job? The new skills can be learnt with professional associations and earning certifications. For instance, there are several online courses that teach about digital marketing or graphic designing. Acquiring an additional skill definitely enhances the personal worth of an employee.
But an essential question arises here: what skill an employee should learn. I would suggest that the employee carry out research and find out what skills they need to get promoted to their next job position or a salary hike. In addition, one should always be ready to exploit their environment to their full potential. This approach will help them to learn relevant skills from their colleagues and seniors. It is wrong in asking the right questions, and one should shy away from pushing their coworkers to share their experience and skills.
Years of Experience
Generally, more years of experience result in better and higher pay. Experience is something that is valued by every sector and industry. An employee can expect successive leaps in pay scale with an increase in experience (when completing two or five years). When an employee crosses the ten-year mark, they can expect to land in much-coveted organisational and managerial positions. But consider the fact that an employee needs ten years of experience in the industry to get to a manager’s role and receive the pay associated with it. Therefore, neither an academic degree nor any particular skill set can help you achieve the level of that pay scale. In such a case, an employee needs to work accordingly and abide by their time.
However, if the employee has the required amount of experience, they should, without any doubt, emphasise their years of experience.
Switching Jobs May Be An Option
Switching a job is a big decision. That is why an employee needs to have all the detailed facts at hand. First of all, they should determine what their worth is and if they are being paid according to that or not. If an employee feels that he deserves to be paid higher according to his potential, they must move out and find a suitable job according to their calibre. However, one needs to keep in mind these facts before switching a job:
● When the market determines that the employee is “underpaid” in the current position;
● When the employee has exhausted all the possibilities of a promotion; and
● When the salary increase in the new company is high enough that the employee gets the real benefits in hand.
The average salary not only varies from sector to sector, but also in different cities. It is beyond any doubt that the same job offers a higher level of wages in a metropolitan. Thus, an employee can choose to move to a different city where a job with higher pay may be waiting for them. However, one must also take into consideration the cost of living in a metropolitan before making a decision.
The Bottom Line
Pay scale is a significant factor in the individual growth of an employee who contributes to the collective growth of the entire organisation. However, it is not the only element in play. An employee should also ask for many other things when looking for a dream job like working conditions, shorter commutes, social security, and other perks. Thus, a decision should be made after factoring in all these elements.