Are You Earning What You're Worth? 5 Simple Ways to Check
Bernard Marr
?? Internationally Best-selling #Author?? #KeynoteSpeaker?? #Futurist?? #Business, #Tech & #Strategy Advisor
Whether you’re looking for a new job or hoping to negotiate a raise at your next performance review, understanding where your salary falls as compared to other workers in your field can be valuable information.
When you start researching salaries for your position, remember to shoot for developing a range, rather than discovering an exact number. Salaries will vary widely based on many different factors, so aim for discovering the low and high end of the salary range for your position.
It’s considered gauche to simply walk up to someone and ask how much they make, so how can you find the information you need? Try these five strategies:
- Check wage websites
Search sites like Salary.com, JobStar, TrueCareers, WageWeb and the Department of Labor Statistics (in the U.S.). For nonprofits, check guidestar.com. These websites can provide a good starting range for your research. These websites make salary research much easier, but they may not feature your exact job description, and won’t take into account many factors like location or experience. - Ask other people in your field.
If you know people in similar jobs, you can ask for their experience. Of course, it can be rude to just ask what they make, so say things like, “Does this seem about right to you for an annual salary?” Or, “Does this seem high or low to you?” You may also be able to get a sense for where your company falls on the spectrum: do they tend to pay near the top of the range, or closer to the bottom? - Look for similar positions on online job boards.
This can be hit or miss, as job postings don’t always list a salary range or starting salary, but some do, and they can help you start to see a range. Remember that many times these jobs could be entry-level, and may be at the low end of the range because of that. You also have to consider where the job is and whether the company is similar to yours. - Contact professional organizations.
Many fields have professional associations, unions, or even just unofficial groups on sites like LinkedIn where you can ask for a general salary range for your position. Some of these organizations will have websites that helpfully list salary information, while you may have to reach out personally to others - Look up government salaries.
In the U.S. and other countries, government salaries are public record, so if you can find a parallel for your position, even if it’s not perfect, it can help you get a sense of the salary range. You’d be surprised the variety of jobs that fall under government umbrellas — from chefs and janitors to social media experts and data analysts.
Remember to factor in your own experience, education, and location when thinking about your own salary range. For example, someone working in London will likely make more than someone working in a rural village, even for the same work. Likewise, certain organizations automatically reward employees who have higher level degrees with higher salaries.
It is worth checking your salary from time to time to make sure you are not falling behind. Often the people who stay with one company for a long time are the ones that fall behind and don’t get the salary they deserve, simply because they don’t check the going rates and fail to ask for a rise in line with that rate.
As always, let me know your views on the topic. Please leave them in the comments below and feel free to share any other ways of checking salaries, if you found some good ones.
----------------
Thank you for reading my post. I regularly write about management, technology
as well as the mega-trend that is Big Data for LinkedIn and Forbes. If you would like to read my regular posts then please click 'Follow' and feel free to also connect via Twitter, Facebook and The Advanced Performance Institute.
Here are some other recent posts I have written:
- Career Choices You Will Regret In 20 Years
- The One Thing Successful People Never Do
- The 25 KPIs Every Manager Needs to Know
- How NOT to Introduce Yourself
- 10 Sentences Good Managers NEVER Say - EVER
- Big Data Explained in Less Than 2 Minutes - To Absolutely Anyone
- How To Make A Billion Dollars From Big Data
Bernard Marr is a bestselling business author and is globally recognized as an expert in strategy, performance management, analytics, KPIs and big data. His new book is 'Big Data - Using Smart Big Data, Analytics and Metrics To Make Better Decisions and Improve Performance'. You can read a free sample chapter here.
Photo: Shutterstock.com
Sales Development Representative
9 年A good reminder to take a honest look at your professional self.
Talent Acquisition Leader | US Talent Acquisition | Sourcing | Research
9 年For me personally and as a Professional in the Recruitment Industry this is one topic I feel strongly about. While many ask themselves are they getting the salary they deserve and go around doing research on what do other companies in the same field pay they miss out one important factor... Are they themselves doing enough to earn the salary they are making? As professionals even we can relate to the fact that not all salary appraisals are done based on your core metrics alone; there are other factors. Just like how we expect a Value Addition to whatever service we pay for; one almost always expects for complementary services, gifts or gift vouchers from multiple service providers. Those who stay on the top of our minds are the ones who make a name for themselves doing more than what others do and hence they get a leading share of the market. Same principle applies to all employees. So before you ask are you making enough when compared to the market, it is important to ask the question as listed in this topic "Are You earning what You are Worth". It doesn't hurt to remember that any commodity once it gets over priced is nearing extinction and in other words self destruction. All will end up asking themselves
Head of Curriculum at University of the Highlands and Islands
9 年This is really interesting, are you?
Senior Accountant at Standard Aero
9 年I made the same salary in the last 2 jobs. The difference was the bonus.
Rotarian of Rotary Caroline Springs
9 年Always a good idea to revalue yourself once in a while. You might be surprised at what you may find.