Asking For a Pay Raise When Times Are Tough

Lots of workers think they're underpaid, either in relation to those they work with in the same office or perhaps to those doing similar work in the same profession.

But what do you do about it, especially when seemingly every organization or company is trying to cut costs as they lose paying members or see their profits shrink drastically?

I found out my salary is about $15,000 below what the typical pay is for a person who has a similar job at a nonprofit. I have a sales position and bring in a significant amount of money. But our CEO froze salary increases for two to three years in exchange for higher contributions to our retirement program. Nice and all, but it doesn't make up for the $15,000. I may not be the most enthusiastic team player here, but I do produce. I know you can always ask for a pay raise and try to justify it on the merits, but what about doing it when times are tough?

Eve Framinan, president of TPO Inc., a Tysons Corner human resources outsourcing firm, says that in making salary comparisons with other organizations this worker ought to make sure that total pay packages are taken into account since the other group might not have a retirement plan such as the newly enhanced one at her current employer.

Framinan advises the worker, in the current perilous economy, to not ask for a big pay boost.

"I doubt he wants to put the employer in a pay me or else position. They may call him on it," she says. "The only way I'd ask for a raise is if he knew he could find another job. In this market, there are a lot of sales people out of work."

What the worker might do is ask for a market review of pay for similar jobs, Framinan says, and then the employer might have some idea whether the worker is underpaid, fairly paid or overpaid. Of course, whether the employer does anything about it might be an entirely different matter,

In the meantime, Framinan says if the worker does not receive the desired pay hike he might use the time to, say, take advantage of a corporate tuition reimbursement to further his education, or seek to do work at least partly in some other division of the company aside from sales.

The goal, she says, would be to position himself in the best possible way for advancement¿and a bigger paycheck¿when the economy turns around.

Kenneth Bredemeier has six years of experience writing about the workplace. On the Job, a column addressing real worker questions about office relationships, corporate policies and workplace law, is written exclusively for washingtonpost.com.

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