How to Ask for Higher Compensation

Do you feel that your work is undervalued? Do you have a gut-feeling that you should be receiving higher pay?

If so, you’re not alone. A 2022 Gartner survey revealed that only 32% of employees believe their compensation is fair.

But, what can you practically do to negotiate a higher compensation?

Our mission at Job Hackers Network is to help professionals not only land and develop in roles that fuel and engage them, but to do so at their true market value.

To increase your pay, it is essential to know yourself and the value that you bring to the table.

Identify Your Strengths

The first step in truly understanding yourself and your value is to identify your strengths.

Your strengths are the activities that fuel and engage you, the things that light you up. While you're doing these things, you feel energized.

These are opposite to your weakness zones: those activities that suck your energy, that suck the life force out of you.

You can do a couple of things to practically identify your strengths:

1. Grab a pad. As you're going through the day, be aware of the moments when you're feeling energy come into your space. What are you doing? Write down these activities.
2. Take the Standout report through the Marcus Buckingham Company.
3. Go to your coworkers and ask them how/where your work positively affects theirs. Where is it that they see you shine? Think about whether these activities fuel you.

Identify Your Stories

The second component that will help you understand yourself and your value, and ultimately secure higher pay, is to identify your stories.

Think about the moments in your current role where you had the greatest impact. Think about those times where you added the greatest value. Think about the projects where your participation was essential. Think about your greatest successes.

As you’re putting together these stories, always make sure that they are aligned to your strengths.

This is key because you're purposefully building out your storytelling and value proposition around the things that you’re both good at and enjoy doing.

Craft Your Value Proposition

The last step in this process is crafting your value proposition.

Your value proposition states in about four sentences how you solve pain points and problems in your role. It highlights your best moments and why they are valuable. It includes your best strength-based stories.

Effectively presenting yourself and what you bring to the table is the most powerful testament of how your work is worth more than what you’re currently receiving. When you know yourself and your value, you can succinctly tell your boss why you’re deserving of higher compensation.

In all, you don’t have to just feel like you deserve higher pay; you can do something about it and ask for it.

I encourage you to take control.

By following the method outlined above, you’ll be backing the ask with a strong message that hits home, that makes sense, and that your employer won’t be able to overlook.