When do you start feeling bad about asking for a raise?
I work in a mid sized national company in IT and do well for myself, over 6 figures but I've requested an additional raise.
I have access to the salary data of everyone at each of our local branches, and I'm essentially asking for what each local branch owner makes (~200k), while also knowing that the hourly workers are still barely getting $1-2k raises.
I'm all for eating the rich, but how's this figure into the mental model?
On one hand, the "rich owners" turned out to not actually be that rich, at least salary wise. I'm comfy, but inflation has been a bitch.
On the other hand, I'm asking for a raise while others who work manual intensive jobs are still struggling, and this amount of money could be going those at the working hourly.
Hoping this drives some interesting conversation and not some attack thread.
Never feel bad about asking for a raise that you work for/deserve. Stay complacent, and they'll just hope you never bring it up. Workers should have the power and leverage.
If the boss make $5 while I make $0.05, I never feel bad about demanding, not asking, for a raise, and if I don't get it, I quit and go to a place that will give it. Have walked out on jobs the day I was denied multiple times and never have regretted it.
Damn, ballsy. I definitely abide by that unwritten rule that the best time to find a new job is while you still have one. Happy it never negatively impacted you, but I have a kid that depends on me, can't really risk that unless I think I can find something in a matter of weeks, even days... I do have some emergency savings, but I'd rather it be for actual emergencies (firing/layoffs, sickness, whatever) than me quitting.
I'd rather start doing the bare minimum and continue sucking off the maximum amount of money I can from an employer I hate out of pure spite lol. If they're not happy with it, they can fire me, and I'd at least get access to the unemployment I've been paying those taxes for anyway.
You can feel bad if you not getting the raise helps the other employees you’re feeling bad for. That of course never happens. The only party gaining by you not asking for a raise is your employer.
Depends on the company size and location. I'm on a small dev team but we service the entire company (national). As a result, any product we put out has a huge potential. Last year, I put out a product and spent this year marketing it and improving it for the users. In just about a year, it's become the most adopted product in our company and really changed the workflow for our end users.
You absolutely should not feel bad about doing this. Ever.
If anything, you should talk about it and share your experience, because your experience could help some of those who work manual intensive jobs and are still struggling to get raises of their own.
Remember: If the company isn't able to fairly compensate its workers, it doesn't get to have workers. That's how supply and demand works.
I have a small tech business. Ive had employees make more than me. It was because I saw that they were important for the business now and I’m in it for the long haul. At the same time, I’ve had mediocre people ask for raises. It helped me realize that I probably needed a different person in their position. So you should feel guilty but you do need to realize it’s a risk.
This isn't all or nothing. If you are in a position to do so, you can both advocate for yourself AND go to management with data suggesting that your coworkers are worth more. If you're in a leadership role, you have the opportunity and the duty to advocate for your coworkers.
Do you feel you are being paid fair value for your work?
If not ask for a raise or look for a new job. Note that for the last 20 years in the US it has been shown to be easier to get a raise by changing jobs than asking for one.
I don’t want you to feel guilty for asking for what you’re worth, but it’s good that you are thinking about those that also work hard and aren’t getting paid as much.
Does your company have a union? If it doesn’t, if you want to help those poorer than you, you can spend time looking into how to start one.