Why you deserve a higher paycheck

Published:
Why you should deserve a higher paycheck.

You all know the conversation with your employer about a raise. You’re trying to get a raise, preferably as high as possible, and your boss doesn’t want to pay what you feel you deserve. How can you convince him that you’re worth the raise?

1.      You do the job of 2 people. I hear you all think, I am doing 2 people's job? What do you mean? Let me explain for a minute. Take for instance, you work 8 hours a day. That’s not much, but it’s enough. But in reality if you weren’t a great IT’ers you would have to work 12 hours a day if you hadn't written some automation tools. Tell your boss about it, and how you are saving him on other workers or overtime.

2.      Ask him if the organization has issues with the systems/network, probably they don’t. Well, that’s something you achieved because you’re the best IT’er in the world. You configured everything, it’s thanks to you that they don’t have downtime. You are the man, nobody else can do what you did, that’s something you need to give as an argument to your boss, he’ll probably believe it.

3.      How many times has someone called you at 6:00 am or 10:00 pm when they have an issue with their computer. You’re always on stand-by to solve the problems of your non-IT colleagues. Do you complain about that? No. Does the boss recognize that you work outside the hours without an extra bonus for that work? No. Can you use this in your conversation for a raise? YES.

4.      How many times are you doing research in your spare time about IT related work? A lot, because you’re addicted. Sometimes you find something that you can implement in the organization. Well, your boss doesn’t have to pay for that research, because you do it in your own spare time. It’s a big win for your boss. But, they probably don't know about it. Tell them!

5.      You make sure that everyone can access anything with a simple click of the mouse. They don’t lose 10 seconds trying to find and open something. If you work with 10 colleagues, that’s 100 seconds you win. They have to open 50 things a day, so that 5000 seconds they win every day. That’s 25000 seconds a week. And 1300000 seconds a year, that’s about 361hours or 15 days a year. So thanks to you, the employees win 15 days a year (total).  That’s about $15000 your boss saves, if they have to pay everyone $41/hour.

Conclusion
Bosses see IT as a cost. But they won’t see that they earn a lot with it. Use these 5 points to educate your boss as part of your conversation for a higher paycheck, and your boss will give it. He’ll also know that you’re a vital part of the organization.
7
2,869 Views

Comments (4)

Author

Commented:
Thanks, I've taken a look at it. And it looks better now.
Also thank you for the time you put in it. It's a lot of work for you and the other editors to read through every article and make changes in it.

And also answer questions of the community.
CERTIFIED EXPERT
Most Valuable Expert 2013

Commented:
Interesting suggestions.

On point 2, better make SURE your organization doesn't have issues, or if it did have issues, that they are resolved and that you fixed them (or helped fix them, and didn't create them).

Commented:
#4 - o yes...
Jim HornSQL Server Data Dude
CERTIFIED EXPERT
Most Valuable Expert 2013
Author of the Year 2015

Commented:
Good read.  Voted yes.

Have a question about something in this article? You can receive help directly from the article author. Sign up for a free trial to get started.