Five Keys to Increasing Your Pay

Here are five keys to increasing your pay from Yahoo. But to me, it's really the first two that will make you or break you. They are:

1. The boss's priorities rule. From the boss's perch, the biggest raises and plumpest perks go to the people he values the most and doesn't want to lose. These are the people who help him to get things done, meet his goals, and generally look good. In short, your performance and the raise it garners are less about you and all about him.

Your campaign for a bigger raise starts with finding out what your boss values. Talk to him about it both formally and informally. And talk to people who know the important things happening at your company and your boss's role in them.

2. You are as good as you say you are. Once you've got your priorities straight, make sure your boss, and anyone else who matters, knows about the great work you're doing for the company. And don't wait for those annual performance reviews to let them know. It's the informal interaction that the boss takes in all year long that creates an impression of who you are and how you fit into his work.

So shoot him e-mails to ask advice or let him know about progress you're making on the work he most values. When you get an e-mail from someone else noting your success or thanking you for help on this work, forward it on.

Be able to speak up at meetings in an informed way about the projects closest to the boss's heart. And when you run into your boss in the elevator or at the water cooler and he asks how it's going, skip the polite, generic small talk. Instead, opt for an upbeat sentence or two that relates how excited you are about work coming up or just completed on one of those coveted projects.

Leadership gurus like Shambaugh call this socializing your agenda. In layman's terms, you're tooting your own horn and laying the groundwork for the formal sit-down discussion about your performance and the salary and bonus it should carry.

Here's the short version:

1. Know what's important to your boss and the company (and how your job impacts these issues.)

2. Over-deliver on your job. Accomplish more than what your job requires. The more you over-accomplish, the better.

3. Be sure key people (your boss, his boss, etc.) are aware of your contributions and successes.

If you do these three things as well as ask for a raise when appropriate, you should increase your pay at a very good rate throughout the years. That said, if your company doesn't respond  (or simply can't) with raises you feel are appropriate, then it's probably a good time to look at alternative employment options.

Comments

[Joe]

I am about to have my annual review...I took the lowest salary of all my offers after graduating. The Company said they paid lower, because they have to invest so much time and money up front in us....fast forward one year, after talking to last year's hires, I know I am about to recieve a tiny raise....how to do I get the Company to pay me as the "highly trained" employee they have helped me to become over the past year?

["Mo" Money]

These all look like good ideas to me. Especially the over deliver. Go the extra mile, come early and stay late and soon you will be noticed. Do things that will profit you company or department, and soon you will be noticed.