7 Reasons Why You Won't be Getting a Raise this Year and What You Can Do About it

In the grand scheme of things a big raise won't make much difference in your life, but we'll all keep chasing it anyway. Maybe it's the big number, maybe it's the increased value that society places on us when we make a lot of money, or maybe we all just want more stuff. Whatever it is, everyone's gunning for that big raise. Unfortunately, most of us won't be getting anything more than the standard 3 to 6% Cost of Living Adjustment anytime soon. Here are a few reasons you won't be getting a raise this year, and some ideas for how you can fight back.

You Don't deserve it
Of course you want a big raise, but maybe you just don't deserve one. Did you go above and beyond? Did you schmooze with all the big shots at your office? Did you find a unique way to make a good name for yourself in your company?

Take a good look at what you did this year and honestly ask yourself if you deserve a raise. I didn't deserve one my first year out of school and I didn't get one. But I was fine with it because I worked my ass off in other areas. Work wasn't priority number one for me, so giving me a raise probably wasn't priority number one for my old company.

You Deserve it, but you're too young
Maybe you do deserve a raise. You tackled new projects, you started a company social committee, you made as many great contacts as you possibly could and you even asked for a raise, but you still didn't get one. Don't worry, the corporate world is a little behind the times. A couple of years with a company might seem like a lifetime to you, but to the old folks in the corner office, it's just a blip on the radar. Sometimes, you have no chance of getting a raise when you're 24–you're basically chasing your own tail trying to do everything right for little payoff. If you determine that this really is the case, you may want to reevaluate your career and your current company.

You didn't ask for one
This one is pretty obvious. Or so you would think. If you don't ask for a raise, you're not going to get one. As nice as it would be, there is no one sitting around watching out for you or your career. No one will tell the boss to give you an extra ten grand, you have to ask. Create a list ofeverything you accomplished this year, talk about the numbers you hit, the deliverables you produced and milestones you surpassed. When review time comes around, bring the list to your boss and tell him you want a raise.

If that doesn't work, put your resume online, get a couple job offers, and bring the offers back to your boss. He won't be so quick to brush off your request if he knows you have somewhere else to go.

You worked too hard
Working hard is not equal to working smart. Working hard is burying your head in a stack of papers and spending day after day pounding away on your keyboard. Working hard is coming to work an hour early and leaving an hour late, every day.

You can do these things. You can work really hard and still not get a raise because you got so lost in making sure your "work" was done that you forgot to do the right kind of work.

You didn't do the right kind of work
The right kind of work may not always feel like work and it definitely won't feel like the most "productive" thing you can do, but it pays off in the end. The right kind of work is putting aside your daily to-do list for an hour and strategizing with the boss after lunch instead. It's blowing off a night with your friends or significant other to go to the quarterly get-together and network with company big shots. And it's syncing your schedule with your boss's, so you come in when he's in and leave after he's gone.

Doing the right kind of work makes you a visible and valued asset, and it puts you in the position where you can ask your boss for a raise because you have invested time and energy into forming a solid relationship with her.

You got comfortable
It's easy to get comfortable at your job. When you do a certain job long enough, you learn the ins and outs. And more importantly you learn the shortcuts. What once took you half a day, now takes an hour.

When you get to that point, it's very easy to get comfortable. But the people who make the real money and get the big raises, don't settle for comfortable. Overachievers don't feel comfortable feeling comfortable. You can only learn and grow when you challenge yourself, and you can only get a big raise after you learn and grow into the new position and higher salary you're chasing. If you're comfortable being comfortable, don't bank on that big raise.

Your boss sucks (and you didn't do anything about it)
To get a big raise you have to make people like and respect you, but you also have to produce great work. But it's nearly impossible to produce great work if your supervisor doesn't provide you with great direction.

Let's face it, a lot of bosses just aren't good. It's not necessarily their fault that they were promoted to manager without the skills to manage well. We're all stuck in a system that often promotes based on "experience" rather than competence or managerial skills.

So, if your boss sucks, do something about it. Find the person in the office who is best at playing office politics. Take a look around at who can usually be found sitting at their desk, and who can be found hanging out just talking with others. The person who's chatting the day away probably has the most influence outside of his direct reports, so he's the guy to talk to.

What you're after here is a mentor, someone who actually wants to help you grow. After you find the right one and develop a solid relationship, tell him why you deserve a raise and why you'd rather not go to your boss with the request. He can help you find all the reasons why you should, and shouldn't, get that raise–and help you make real progress in your career.

If all else fails, there is always one final way to get a raise. Find a new job! If you're young and you have the skills that employers are looking for, there's a good chance you can get a significant raise by going to another company.

The trick is to start laying the groundwork for a potential exit before it's too late. Put your resume on the right sites, start blogging about the field you love to work in, and connect with the right people. When you find yourself in a bad position, you'll have the network in place to jump ship at the right time and start working for the right company, at the right price.

Leave your thoughts here. (8 responses)

This article´s comments All Employee Evolution comments

qwertyass

Jul 30th, 2008 at 10:12 pm

nice post.
—-
anyway, i can't get a raise now. because everything in my company is about paying due T_T …

Milena Thomas

Jul 31st, 2008 at 10:05 am

I know this was not the article's point, but a lot of people aren't even getting raises when their dollar figure goes up – inflation is kicking our butts. I think you should add a new section: The Federal Government's Fiscal Policies. : )

Corina

Jul 31st, 2008 at 11:18 am

I think you missed one very important point that has nothing to do with the employee or the manager. In larger companies, there is a budget that has to be worked with. At the highest levels a budget is determined for annual increases and no matter how well the employee performed or how much your manager wants to reward the employee or how much inflation is, they still have to live within the confines of the budget and divide what is available among all the deserving as equitably as possible sometimes leaving those with less than what they themselves feel is right.

karen

Jul 31st, 2008 at 1:15 pm

Big raises seem to be non-existent in many large companies no matter how productive or wonderful you are.

In order to get a raise, I send out my resume and ask for $$xx number of thousands more per year and take the most attractive and lucrative position. I have an excellent resume and high skills levels. I hate to change jobs every 4-5 years but it seems that the glass ceiling is still out there and I get tired opf bumping my head on it.

Monica

Aug 1st, 2008 at 11:08 am

Get a raise…not in my industry! I work for a real estate developer and all I hear is to cut costs.

Patrick

Aug 5th, 2008 at 2:11 pm

It's also pretty hard to get raises in the research fields, especially if you work in an academic lab. Everything is funded off of Grants, 99% of the time, and to get a raise, you have to get your boss to write a new grant, or increase the payroll portion of the grant when they renew it, and generally getting funded in hard enough. I'm finding that my best bet for a raise is to move out of Academics and into industry, where I'm going to end up with a raise just to bring my salary into line with the standards. It's annoying, but it's necessary.

Mpr174

Aug 14th, 2008 at 5:39 pm

I agree with Corina on larger companies that have budget constraints. I myself am in a Co. that "rewards" based on merit (1 being excellent & 5 being underperform) within each pool (hierarchy level). Then they communicate through managers that there is only "so much" they can set aside for salaries. Also, an easy cop out for senior management as well, is the tough times at the company amidst the finacial woes. (one of the financial companies that has been hit hard from the sub prime mess) There has been a substantial amount of job cuts & expense crunches that have been made to "boost" the stock price. I guess sub par salary increases are one of them. I do not buy into that excuse, although I do understand the trickle effect, there are so many other areas in the company to cut cost rather to curb salary increases for those who deserve. Sorry for the jaded tone.

Benjamin Jancewicz

Aug 28th, 2008 at 2:58 pm

"If that doesn't work, put your resume online, get a couple job offers, and bring the offers back to your boss. He won't be so quick to brush off your request if he knows you have somewhere else to go."

I'm not sure about that one.
Sometimes they'll beg you back, and then let you go. Getting other job offers lets your boss know you're a loose cannon, and he'll try to replace you as quickly as possible, once he has enough time to find someone qualified to fill your shoes.

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