Tis the Season: How to Ask for a Raise Without Getting Fired!
While many of you are happy just because you have a job, there are those individuals (deserving or not) who are going to “bite the bullet” and ask for a raise. This makes sense because over the past few years the cost of health insurance has gone up along with college tuition, gasoline price and a variety of other things while salaries have all but stagnated. Interestingly, only 9 percent of companies have put pay freezes in place over the past 18 months; a rate this is consistent with historical standards. That is down from the nearly two-thirds of companies that imposed pay freezes in January 2010. In other words, now may be a good time to ask for a raise as companies are trying to retain high value employees who presumably were too vital to lay off when companies were downsizing over the past three years. Sadly, merit raises (when they are meted out) have precipitously dropped in recent years from an average of roughly 4-5 percent to a paltry 2 percent on average today.
Whether or not economic times are good or bad, it is hard for most employees to “ask for a raise.” This is because it is difficult for employees to determine if they are ‘worthy” of a raise. To that end, there was a fantastic article in the NY Times business section last week helps employees determine whether or not they are deserving of a raise and it also provides a road map to actually prepare and ultimately ask for a raise.
It is a great read and provides great insights and ideas for those willing to risk asking their bosses for raises in difficult economic times.
Until next time...
Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!
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Do you ever wonder whether or not you are getting paid enough at work or what the person sitting next to you makes? I bet most employees think about this from time to time—especially around bonus time. This isn’t surprising because salaries are one of the best kept secrets at most companies and organizations. Keeping salaries under wraps is good for morale mostly because it minimizes resentment among employees However, because nobody really knows how their salaries match up with their co-workers, determining what constitutes an acceptable salary can become problematic for jobseekers and long time employees. Not to worry—Monster.com has created
