It all started this year, that I started thinking about how to get a raise. It was payday and I was out of town. My boss called me on the cell phone to tell me that I would see some additional money in my paycheck and not to be surprised. Since I knew that my salary was about $25,000 below the average salary for my position, I was thrilled. I was going to see a huge increase in my salary. I also knew that the two newest people to join our department received a starting salary of $95,000. That was definitely on the high side for their positions. Heck, even if I were to receive a $10,000 per year salary, I’d be happy. After all, I have an outstanding ability in rapidly adapting to new technologies, I am highly skilled in systems automation, I have a proven track record in customizations, and I am exceptionally creative in problem solving. Plus I have about 10 years of experience. I’ve done so much for the company. I have done things that others claim are “impossible.” There are things that just cannot be done with our applications. The tech support from our software vendors claim that things I’ve done are impossible. And now I finally got my big pay raise. I did not need to know how to ask for a raise; I already had it.

I thought back my very first job in my IT career. My supervisor knew that he was taking a chance on me and offered me a low salary, $40,000 per year. It was low, and I did not know how to ask for a raise. Although the salary was low, to me it was great. I broke into the industry self-trained. Two weeks later, it was pay day and my supervisor called me in to discuss my paycheck. Thoughts about how to ask for a raise did not even cross my mind. My supervisor told me there was a “little extra” in my paycheck. It turned out that he immediately saw my potential and gave me a $5,000 dollar per year raise during my first week! About three weeks later, he called me in again to his office to discuss some responsibilities. He knew I was capable of more and told me my new salary would be $54,000 per year. This was great for me since I had no “real” experience. This is how the corporate world should operate. Your superiors see your superior work, and without even thinking about how to ask for a raise, you just receive a raise based on your work. I lived with this ill-conceived notion for a long time. I never imagined that I should learn how to ask for a raise.

Getting back to my current situation, you may be wondering why my salary is so low to begin with. $25,000 below average. Well, when I started 3 years ago, I was relocating. I was more eager to relocate since my wife and I both wanted to move to this area. A new job (even with a pay cut), was a good reason to move. I accepted the low position knowing that I would be evaluated and given an increase in 3 months. I took the job even though I received a pay cut. For one thing, the boss expects everyone to work overtime and weekends without compensation. At my previous job, I received either overtime or comp time. The benefits are lousy. I pay about $450 per month plus huge co-pays for medical and dental insurance for my family and myself. At my previous job, dental was completely free and medical was about $600 per month, but the company paid about 86% of that so my medical payment was only about $80 per month. Also, my previous company matched 10% of 401K contributions. My current company matches nothing. And how’s this for motivation: “You can be let go at any time and the company will continue to go on.”

The salary increase was a blatant lie. The excuse was that a “salary freeze” was in effect. The so-called freeze was non-existent. Needless to say, I did not get my raise. Since I did not know how to ask for a raise, I did not ask for a raise. Well that’s beside the point now. Finally, I was about to get my big salary increase. So big, that the boss decided to call me on the phone to tell me not to be surprised.

Well, I was not just surprised. I was in shock! The payroll department had not added the raise to my paycheck; they included it separately. I didn’t need to find an old pay stub and compare it to the current pay stub to calculate the raise amount. My “raise” had its very own check. The amount was staring me in the face. I was so looking forward to my pay increase. After all, my year one pay raise was only 2.5%. My year two pay raise was only 5%. Finally, my year three pay raise was here and it was going to be huge. So huge that I did not need to know how to ask for a pay raise; so huge that my boss had to call me so I would not be surprised. Finally, my years of outstanding work and loyalty to the company was about to pay off. I was stunned when I saw the check. I stared at it. The raise was retroactive to the beginning to the pay period, so it was a full two weeks’ worth of raise. Twenty-seven dollars. Yes, $27 for a two week period. I did the math and it was a 1% raise. I was in disbelief and was hurt. I desperately needed to learn how to ask for a raise.

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