Expected Salary Increase? 3

[cfj104]

I was wondering if anyone out there can lend me a little advice. I was recently promoted to a level 2 engineer but I feel the raise was less then deserved. I have been with my company for 2 years now and when I got my promotion, I was told that the raise also included my merit raise.

Long story short, I ended up with a total 9% raise. My merit raise last year was 2% - is this inline with the current trends?

I have talked with people from other companies (also other fields) and they typically receive a 10% raise for a promotion.

Any adivce is greatly appreciated!

 

[dcasto]

The reason you can't ask your boss what you can do to get a promotion is that his boss is the one that makes up promotions. There isn't a typical promotion track in engineering anymore (at least in my industry). Every so often I'll see a place where they have Engineer level 1 to 4. What happens is; they only budget for 1 of each and therefore the only way to promote is for one of the engineers to leave AND THEY COUNT ON THAT.

 

[bvanhiel]

True, but if your co-worker asks your boss "What can I do to get a promotion" and you just and stew about your low salary, who do you think will get that one promotion when it comes around?

Expecting your boss to promote you when you've given no indication that you want/need a higher salary is silly. Their job is easiest when things change the least. If you seem like your not leaving, then they won't change anything. Why should they fight their boss to get you more money if you yourself don't seem to care.

If you start (politely) agitating for a raise, and they think your worth keeping around, then something might happen. Of course it might not happen, and that's when you need to leave.

-b

 

[KENAT]

Chances are it's not even his boss.

I've had verbal assurance (which I took as being worth the paper they were written on) from my bosses indirect reporting boss that if a certain project went through etc we'd be rewarded. Despite the project going OK doesn't look like any rewards are gonna happen.

Just before Christmas we had layoffs.

We now have a new HR department and sounds like payraises, if any, are going to be based on 'industry standard' for our positions. Given that depending how you look at it I could be considered near the top of the pay scale for my experience etc, I don't see a significant pay rise if any in my immediate future.

Effectively my employer 'moved the goal posts' as we used to say in the UK.

 

[prohammy]

KENAT,

Having a new HR dept. means that the monies that may have been around for pay rises will now more than likely have been used up to eastablish a new dept. Just watch how the new HR people's salaries are adjusted in the coming years and ask yourself where has the value been added to your company by having them around. HR is a dept. that can create sand in a desert

Kevin Hammond

Mechanical Design Engineer
Derbyshire, UK

 

[KENAT]

We have a "new" HR dept because everyone there when I started was either fired or resigned! In fact one of the new people has already been fired!

Our local HR dept is 3 people. I started here as contractor about 18 months ago at about the same time as the new HR director.

All 3 of them were gone by the end of last summer. All 3 weren't replaced till just before Christmas and already one has been fired.

Can't help thinking that rate of turnover should be telling me something!

Still I shouldn't complain, I'm better off than one guy in my group. As part of going from contract/temporary we were actually meant to get a pay raise as our group had done so well etc. This one guy they screwed up the calculations but only realized after it had been signed off by corporate. When he pointed out he was actually getting about the same (think it may have been a slight cut) he was basically told tuff, take it or leave it, this despite our direct boss trying to make a big deal of it.

The points I was trying to make were that:

A. Decisions on pay increases are often made several layers above your manager or even by other departments with little input from your manager, despite the 'evaluation' process.

B. Change in staff at those levels (or your manager) can easily negate any agreement or understanding you had (I know verbal contract isn't worth the paper etc)

C. Other change in business circumstances, such as a slow down in your market etc, can likewise change or negate any understanding/agreement.