In the workplace, there are all sorts of little details that contribute to your overall job satisfaction but one of the biggest is, without a doubt, salary. If you feel underpaid, not only does it affect your mood at work, but it can lower your quality of life in general. Which will make you increasingly bitter towards your employer.

This is only made worse if you ask your manager into a meeting, request a pay rise and are denied. So, to try to help you avoid this situation, here’s a quick guide on how to ensure that when you’re asking for a pay rise or looking for a new job with a good salary, you’re successful.

Do Salary Research

If there’s one thing to take away from this post, it’s this – research. Research, knowledge and preparation are what will help you make sure that you’re successful when trying to obtain a pay rise or achieve a good starting salary at a new workplace.

When employers are deciding on what to pay their staff, they use salary surveys to find out what the industry standard is. By taking part in a salary survey, a business can compare their own pay systems and structures to industry competitors or associates. This will allow them pick out where they are underpaying staff and change their approach (to find out more about salary surveys, click here).

If employers are doing it, why shouldn’t you? Whilst salary surveys offer a much more specialised and targeted approach to salary research, there are plenty of free services out there through which you can get an estimation of the average salary for your job role. Websites like LinkedIn and Glassdoor are great places to start.

Salary research is important because you need to know what you should be getting paid for your job role. It’s no good simply plucking a number out of thin-air and deciding that’s what you should be getting paid because you could be miles off the average. Instead, research, refine and pick out a range that you feel you fit into. During negotiations, talk about your research and your skills to indicate what you should be getting paid and why. It’s entirely possible that your employer hasn’t done effective salary research and so may be completely unaware, don’t be afraid to politely educate them.

Look at the Full Package

Particularly for more senior roles, discovering an average salary is much more difficult because of the benefits bolted onto the payment package. For example, one Store Manager may get paid £24,000 per year, whilst another Store Manager may get paid £22,000 a year but receive free private health insurance. These kinds of perks and benefits are difficult to quantify in monetary terms, so it’s important to think about them when you’re deciding what pay you deserve.

Similarly, you might be willing to sacrifice some of your salary for other workplace perks like flexible work hours, increased holiday or a different job title. If you’re looking for a new role completely, consider these same benefits when negotiating your contract.

Positivity and Patience

Finally, no matter what type of salary discussion you’re engaging in, remember to stay positive and patient. Emphasise that you enjoy what you’re doing (or want the job you’re applying for) but are looking for slightly more pay. Avoid sounding desperate or angry at your manager or potential employer as this will not make them want to help you, instead, try to focus on the things you like. Similarly, don’t be dismissive if the answer you get is, “Well, we only have so much budget.” Or “We feel that the pay being offered is fair.”

Neither of those answers is an outright no. Don’t be afraid to (kindly) give the individual a target figure and ask them to consider your request, more often than not it will be taken away and addressed with a senior manager. Even if you don’t get your target figure, there’s a good chance that you will get some form of increase because employers know that satisfied employees are better workers.

With these tips in mind, you should be able to get that pay rise or that dream salary without a hitch. Remember, the first step is always research – do the preparation before entering the lion’s den.

What do you think of these tips? Do you have tips of your own to share? Please sound off in the comments section below.

*Collaborative post.