This article is taken from Merryn Somerset Webb’s free weekly personal finance email, MoneySense. Click here to sign up now:
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It’s the “last taboo”, says the Times. “A work mate will tell you how, when and where he had sex last weekend” and he’ll tell you about ‘his drug trips, the tax dodges he’s pulled and what he thinks about asylum seekers’.
But the one thing he won’t talk to you about, ever, is how much he is paid. Unlike the Americans and most of the Europeans, the British find talking about money excruciatingly difficult. This isn’t just the case with salaries but with everything. Having spent much of my upbringing in the US I don’t mind being crass and am prone to asking people how much their cars and houses cost them.
This horrifies my husband and usually appears to embarrass the people I’m asking too. I can’t for the life of me understand why: the price of most cars is regularly advertised on the television and if I really wanted to know how much anyone’s house has cost then I could just look it up on the internet. So why not just tell me now? It makes no sense.
Clearly money conversation phobia makes more sense in a work environment. You don’t want to talk about how much you earn with colleagues who you think work harder and better than you but you suspect earn less – that could put your own position in jeopardy for example.
And you also don’t necessarily want it to be public knowledge that you don’t earn very much just in case that has some kind of impact on your office status (I know we’d all prefer it if status wasn’t connected to money and wealth but I’m afraid that these days it just is). On the other hand you do really need to know how much other people earn: if you do not how can you possibly know that you are being paid your own market value?
The traditional method of finding out how much other people make is to get them or their boss drunk (this is how everyone in the City knows – or think they know – the level of everyone else’s bonuses). But there are other ways to get the information you need without giving everyone hangovers and next day awkwardness…
Much pay information turns up in the press for example: the Times has a list today (July 16th) showing that the average GP makes just over £100,000 and the average hairdresser just under £10,000 and I was fascinated by a survey in Grazia last year showing trainee solicitors on about £30,000 and personal trainers on more like £40,000.
You should also have a few close friends in your industry with whom you can discuss money – then you can compare your salaries with theirs and with those of anyone they have working for them. Next you might visit www.paywizard.co.uk or https://www.londonpaywizard.com These sites don’t give much detail but you can get a sense from them of the range of pay on offer for a job such as yours. You might also ask your own personnel department to show you their pay data. You can’t ask for an individual breakdown but you can see a breakdown of pay by sex – which if you are a woman concerned you are being paid less than the man sitting next to you, could be useful.
However the best method possibly for finding out whether you are paid enough in your current job is to look for a new one. Recruitment agents know all there is to know about salaries so call one in your area and find out what the pay is for the jobs they are trying to fill. Easy.
So what if all this research shows you are paid less than the going rate for your work? Again this is easy: get more. You can do this even if you don’t consider yourself to be particularly good at your job: you only have to be average to get an average wage. Here are 10 ways to go about it:
- Go armed with your newfound salary knowledge. No one can really argue with you if you have all the facts to hand and a good case.
- Do your own PR first. The more you let people know you exist and remind everyone of your achievements to more they will remember you. Men are better – much better – at this than women. They know a key part of being promoted is self-promotion.
- Be objective. Money has nothing to do with how much you feel you are worth. It’s all about an objective view of your market worth.
- Don’t wait too long. You don’t have to wait for an annual review to ask for more money. Any time will do.
- Begin as you mean to go on. When you get offered a job never take the first salary offered. Try to bump it up a bit instead. The higher a base you start from the faster your salary will rise.
- Start high and wait to be argued down.
- Never threaten to resign unless you really mean it. This can be embarrassing.
- Don’t assume no means no. Ask for another review in six months time. Consider asking for non-cash options – more training, flexible hours and so on. And ask what it is that you need to do work wise to get more money next time you ask.
- Ask on a Wednesday. A survey from Office Angels last year showed that four out of five employers are at their most receptive to pay demands in the middle of the week.