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Q: I’ve become friends with the woman who does payroll at my company. Now I know everyone’s salary, including two people at my level who make much more than I do, even though I’ve been there a lot longer.
Mention your coworkers' salary and chances are our friend's head will roll. Instead, mentally etch a commensurate number in your head, below which You. Will. Not. Budge. Your experience and assertion speaks for itself, so no need to out others' salaries as justification. If the company, wont pay you want you deserve, then you have to make a decision about whether you can continue with a firm that doesn’t value you.
—Faith Salie
That's good advice but there's one thing I'd add: Do some research to determine what others in your field with your experience are making. That will give you a benchmark. Present this information to your boss with a list of accomplishments and how they have benefited the company. The term "industry standard" has more value in a salary negotiation than "my coworkers make X amount."
—Lisa Caputo, executive vice president of marketing and communications for Travelers Companies, Inc.
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