The subject of money is always a difficult one to broach with your boss but there is a professional way to approach such a sensitive and potentially difficult situation.
The main things you need to ask yourself is are your efforts are being properly rewarded and has your salary kept pace with the current market rate?
It is all too easy for an employer to take staff for granted and to overlook them, and often the best chance to get the right deal is when you are taking on a new role or have been given a promotion.
People who have been in the same role for several years need to make sure that their level of pay reflects the contribution they make to the firm. Sometimes it is the longest serving members of staff who may be taken for granted, and their loyalty to the firm can stop them from pushing for a pay rise.
As an individual I have always reviewed my progress on a regular basis and I would recommend that everyone should carry out a career health check at least once every 12 months.
Once you have carried out your own personal check-up there is no point in sitting in silence if you believe that your efforts are not being properly rewarded. The best time to raise the question with your boss is away from the office but in a formal setting such as a one-to-one or in your annual appraisal.
If your firm is not in the habit of holding regular appraisals then you should ask your line manager for an opportunity to sit down and talk about how they see your current performance and career progression.
I would never advise people to go in all guns blazing; it would be unprofessional to walk straight into a situation and start talking about money from the outset. It is far better to ask your manager for their opinion on how you are performing and what attributes you bring to the business.
If they tell you that you are a valuable member of staff, then that is the time to introduce the tricky subject of remuneration.
But you should also be aware that there is a risk attached to this strategy and you need to be confident you are performing up to the required level. If you ask for an honest opinion of your performance you might not get the answer you are expecting. As a manager I expect every single staff member’s contribution to be clearly measurable, so I can see exactly how much value they are adding.
If there is a big difference in the way you and your manager view your performance, then the time has come to make some difficult choices.
Either you can make a decision to stick with what you have got and aim to improve. But if you genuinely believe that you are being undervalued then time has probably come to move to pastures new.
It is worth remembering that if you pose the question, then you might get a lot more than you bargained for.