Use this script to ask for fair pay, says Harvard career advisor
This is a snippet from the weekly CNBC Make It Work newsletter, written by Ashton Jackson.
If you’re like me and view the holiday season as a time for both personal and professional reflection, you’re probably considering the year’s wins and losses, as well as your goals for 2025. It’s also a good time to benchmark your salary and whether you’re being paid fairly.
If you suspect you’re not being compensated as well as your peers, it’s important to advocate for yourself, says Gorick Ng, a Harvard University career advisor. But you’ll want to do it tactfully.
Before you can bring up parity with your boss, you’ll need clear indications that your compensation isn’t where it should be. Have conversations with internal people you trust, like your coworkers, former colleagues or former boss, who may have insights, Ng says.
Once you’ve gathered your data points, talk with your manager. Let them know you enjoy working with them and you’re excited about your upcoming projects. Then make your case. Ng gives an example from his book of the language one worker used to raise the issue with their boss:
I made this table comparing my peers at other schools within our university system. As you can see, I launched and now run a program that is about twice as large as the programs at our peer institutions. I also have a master’s degree, which several of my peers do not. But when I look at my salary, I am well below the level my peers are at.
I would like to achieve pay equity with my peers, which would be 14% more than where I am at today. It would mean a lot to me to have your support to advocate for this increase. Would that be possible?
The idea is to draw a clear comparison between you and those colleagues performing the same duties who are getting paid more. I find that the end of the year is the perfect time for these kinds of conversations, as performance reviews are top of mind for your boss and companies are reflecting on their culture and values.
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2 个月Fair pay...and, of course, for women... EQUAL PAY FOR EQUAL WORK!!! Go New York State Democratic U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand!!! https://www.gillibrand.senate.gov/
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3 个月Great article but I would add a note about context and consider a few questions. Are you over 50 years old? Has your organization announced a restructure? Is your organization doing a pay equity review? If you learn by your own research you are underpaid significantly as the person in this story is then you are most likely already on HR's list. How does your organization operate? Does one hand know what the other is doing? One team in HR may be doing & implementing a pay equity review & the corresponding pay bumps & another team may be reviewing & coaching management thru a restructure by creating the list of people to lay off. The lesson: you may be on both lists, you may feel great after getting a pay equity bump but then be negotiating your separation months later. Always have a plan B and be ready to take action to move forward if need be. Reach out to your colleagues over 50 in other parts of the organization to support each other.
Analytical Professional | Expert in Business Process Optimization, System Integration & Project Execution | Proven Success in Enterprise Services & Systems
3 个月Thanks for sharing this article.