Are you underpaid too? The feeling of being underpaid must be the one sentiment which unites almost everybody. Joking aside though, there are often real situations when an employee really is underpaid relative to their value to the company or on the labour market - and in this scenario, one owes it to oneself to ask for a pay rise.

However, it’s not something which can be done on a whim – it’s important to build in advance a solid case for asking for the pay rise; and to handle the request sensitively.

In this piece, we’ll discuss firstly how to go about establishing that you might be due a pay rise (and doing so in such a way that you can make a solid case to your manager); making the request more likely to meet with success, and not to alienate your boss!

So, on the first point, how do you decide if you’re underpaid? There are two reasons you might decide this – one being that you earn too little relative to your peers in the company or in the job market; and the other that you earn too little relative to the contribution you make within the company.

In the first case, it could be that Joe or Jane across the corridor doing the same job, and with the same level of experience, and performance, receives a greater salary than you – in which case, the situation would seem pretty cut-and-dried (There may also be gender discrimination issues here, if you’re a Jane and the higher-paid employee is a Joe, or vice versa).

However it’s quite rare to know exactly what your colleagues are earning, although you can ask your company for information on what people in your broad category earn. It might be more likely that you’d come to realise you’re underpaid comparatively in your profession, for your level of experience and responsibility.

You might get this information from job advertisements and from career information resources and anecdotal evidence from your colleagues.

On the other hand, it may be that you’ve been working for some time in your job, going beyond the limits of the role, acquiring new responsibilities and racking up the achievements, and have not been rewarded for it with any salary increases. Perhaps your hours have increased; or your responsibility either in terms of managing people, or projects, or both. In this case you may well have a case to be considered for promotion, with a salary increase, and failing that, for a salary increase on its own.

In order to establish this case, you could go through your job description, listing the achievements that are at the top of the scale, or which are over and above what’s included in the job description. Also make a check-list of contributions you’ve made in terms of income generation and cost reductions for the organisation.

Having established our case, we’ll now move on to actually addressing it with your manager.

The first thing to do is to call a private meeting with him/her. He or she may fear the worse and think that you are going to hand in your resignation – which could be beneficial for you, as it will be a pleasant surprise that you’re not.

As you approach the meeting, remember it’s not all or nothing. This is a process of negotiation. There are a variety of outcomes. It could be decided that you will be promoted instead; or that you’ll receive a pay rise after a forthcoming performance review or at the turn of the year, or when the business has met its income targets. There is also quite a variety in the pay-rises you could receive; you may receive the amount you asked for; or less; or it may be decided that you’ll receive a bonus instead of a rise.

Appreciating that it’s a negotiation and being flexible about the outcome, will hopefully enable you to take a relatively detached approach, which will lead you to be able to negotiate in an impeccably professional way, more likely to meet with success; and to ensure you remain in good favour and on good terms with your manager, even if he/she is unable to fulfil your request.

Then, in the meeting, simply present the solid case you’ve put together, and await the (hopefully) favourable outcome, as your manager rewards your exceptional contribution with a generous increase!

Now, where was that job description?