How to Negotiate a Raise During Annual Review

Don't enquire for a raise during your almanac review, and other negotiating tips for women

By Alex Laughlin

For Equal Pay Day, nosotros held our first always live Q&A in the Pay Upwards community, inviting members to submit questions on negotiating salary and pursuing wage equality.

The guest was Aubrey Bach, senior manager of higher instruction at PayScale, and a Pay Upwardly member.

PayScale is a compensation database — that ways they collect information for how people are being paid beyond industries/demographics and pass that knowledge on to individuals and employers.

Bach often speaks to groups of women almost salary negotiation techniques, so we thought she'd be the perfect guest.

Here'south what she had to say well-nigh bacon negotiation in the tech world, and for women more broadly. (Bach's answers here accept been edited for clarity and length.)

[Are you a woman in the tech industry? Bring together Pay Up today.]

Q: You piece of work with women beyond industries — exercise yous see whatsoever challenges to achieving wage disinterestedness that are specific to women in tech?

Bach: Oh absolutely! I spend a lot of time in the tech space, both considering I work in tech and because Seattle (where I live) is a very tech-heavy place.

Tech is challenging considering women are definitely the minority — and obviously, minorities face similar challenges. Only existing in a culture where everybody is following a different prepare of innate rules that nobody explained to y'all makes it hard to "fit in."

Tech, by nature, is very fast-paced, very demanding, and not mostly very understanding of life-piece of work residuum, and then it's not necessarily friendly to women. But if it can find a style to be more welcoming and supportive (and off-white!) to women and minorities, the ability to solve ever more than complicated problems will obviously improve. I'm not the first to say this, simply it's both a business and morale imperative.

Finally, the good news nigh tech is that job for job, the controlled gender pay gap is actually smaller than in non-tech industries.

Q: What thing do you lot wish women who are at earlier stages in their careers knew about how to negotiate successfully?

Bach: And then many things! But mostly, I want them to know three things:

1. Employers await you to negotiate. There are exceptions, merely in that location is jerk room baked into nigh every job offer. Nobody will rescind a chore offer because you negotiate unless you lot are a full jerk — or that is a terrible place to work. So never take the kickoff offer the commencement time.
2. Negotiating early, even a little bit, dramatically increases your lifelong earning potential. A statistic I utilize in my talks at colleges is that if a 25-year-onetime negotiates a $50,000 salary to $55,000, they will earn $634,000 over the next 20 years, because that sets you lot up for more raises and higher salaries afterward in life.
3. If you nowadays a well-researched counter-offering, you're likely to become information technology. 75 percent of the people who tell us they have negotiated their salary end up earning more than — even if they don't become the full amount, they get More than. Those are good odds.

Q: What exercise you do when asking for a promotion/heighten results in you being punished? Is that a sign yous should get out the company?

Bach: The deplorable truth of the matter is that there is the chance of retaliation, especially for women when they negotiate. Because it's the "abnormal" behavior, it stands out, gets poor reactions, and discourages other women from negotiating. That's a vicious cycle, but the but fashion to cease it is for u.s.a. all to negotiate so it stops seeming weird

It makes sense to say "I'm sorry, nosotros merely don't have budget for that at this time, but let's effigy out what nosotros can practise to gear up y'all up for that when money becomes bachelor." Not "Enquire and yous're fired."

Listen, you are probably a really valuable employee with awesome skills. Put them to use where you are appreciated.

Q: How can you all-time advocate for salary parity within a team every bit the manager? Peculiarly when trying to correct discrepancies introduced by a previous director'southward favoritism?

Bach: Ooooh I honey this question!!! It seriously makes me so happy. Okay, when you are a manager and you see a salary discrepancy, you actually take the opportunity to be effective in two ways:

1. Managing upward, you should be talking to your manager, and to 60 minutes, about the fact that pay inequity exists on your squad, because it'southward grounds to wonder if it happens elsewhere. Build your case as to why pay for ane person should be adjusted, and why they deserve equal pay based on performance. Enquire your Hour team what the visitor's bounty philosophy is. Why practise yous they pay the mode they do? What are their metrics? If they have answers, build your case for disinterestedness based on those metrics. If they don't… And then enquire why not.
2. So, managing down, you desire to coach and mentor your reports who are underpaid. Accept open and honest conversations about pay. Ask what their career goals are. Talk to them about the importance of having a plan and permit them know that ultimately, they are in charge of building their own cases for pay and promotion. You lot can teach them how to practice that, merely they accept to inquire. If you tin can teach them to question their pay and build a case, you aren't just helping them one time, you're setting them up for success throughout their career.

Q: Do you have advice for how to negotiate a raise after your first year on the job while you're working at a startup and understand coin may be sensitive? Is information technology ever appropriate to ask for 1?

Bach: The absolute worst time to negotiate a enhance is when everybody gets their performance reviews and raises. If your boss comes to yous and says "Woo hoo you got a 4% increase this year, great job, 4 stars, blah blah blah" and yous say "I'm really disappointed in this because I was hoping for eight% and here are all the reasons why I deserve information technology," you are request your manager to get find coin where there is none. When reviews and raises are given out across the visitor, all the budget is totally spent.

What you should exercise is right away outset having ane-on-ones and open conversations with your manager about your performance and goals, as soon as you lot start. Once yous have your kickoff big win, start talking about what you lot desire to do next. When a big projection is winding downward, proactively say, "I know this is almost done, and nosotros're in crunch fourth dimension at present, simply in one case this is over, what practise yous think I should work on that will set up me upwards for success?" Team up with your manager and be proactive. Let them know what your bacon wants are 6 months alee of fourth dimension. "I'g hoping to be earning $7,000 more than next year — what can we do together to brand that a reality?"

When you lot're working at a truthful startup and coin is tight, you lot need to accept that you will exist compromising some of your pay. Startups are awesome and fun (hopefully) simply they can't pay as much every bit large established companies. That'south a fact, and it'south how the labor marketplace works. Withal, you tin can nevertheless make sure that you are having open conversations (see the pattern?) with your manager nigh what yous practise want. Startups are small and intimate, so why not take advantage of that and accept more frank conversations about pay?

Pay Up is a individual, Slack-based community dedicated to fostering conversations most the gender wage gap. It was formerly managed past the Washington Post.

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Source: https://medium.com/thewashingtonpost/your-annual-review-is-actually-the-worst-time-to-ask-for-a-raise-99a8f3953237