How to Get a Raise

Kevin McCormally: I am Kevin McCormally of Kiplinger's. I am here with Janet Bodnar, the Deputy Editor of Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine to talk about how to get a raise. Janet, I think most employees would always like little bit more on their paycheck, is there a right way to go about asking for a raise?

Janet Bodnar: Well lots of good ways and lots of wrong ways too, Kevin. One is, in order to not make it not so scary. Assess your position in the company, are you a valuable member of the company, do you have a good relationship with your employer, would it be difficult to replace you if you left the company. The more yes answers you get, the stronger your position is and so more confident you should have.

Kevin McCormally: Is there anything I can do to booster the case when I do get up the courage to ask for more money?

Janet Bodnar: Anything that you can put in writing is a good thing. If you can quantify something that you have saved the company a certain amount of money, that would be a good thing. If that's not possible you might want to go out and price what your job would fetch in the open market. Go to website like salary.com or go to other people in our field, so that you can say this is what I am worth in the open market and I think I deserve a raise.

Kevin McCormally: Is timing important, is one time, part of the year better than another or is there anything that comes into play there?

Janet Bodnar: Never go into your boss's office if he is in a bad mood or if the company is not a good financial position and that sounds obvious, but sometimes employees just make the wrong step. They show up in the wrong place at the wrong time and they really mess up their chances. The best time to go is if you have done something good, you have finished a project on deadline or you have been complimented by one of your supervisors and you can go in and say see this is the good job I am doing.

Kevin MCCormally: So what if I do, if I go in with all of your advice and the answer is no?

Janet Bodnar: Well, you want to know why the answer is no, maybe the boss would say, well, I am sympathetic to your request but we don't have the money right now, in which case you can say, well can we revisit this in six months or a year. And if the boss says yes, get it in writing and next show you will do it. If it's a question of hey, we just don't have the money now and we don't know when we are going to have the money then perhaps you can asks for a raise in kind something that doesn't really a cash type thing.

Kevin McCormally: Like what?

Janet Bodnar: Well, maybe a more prestigious title, a bigger office, a business trip to Hawaii, that sort of thing, a corner office, something like that would be nice.

Kevin McCormally: Okay, thank you very much, Janet.


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