Thoughts on salary negotiation for additional responsibilities...

rsxwithslicks

I have been with my employer for 2 years as a System Administrator. My manager plans to focus on the in-house development of a custom program and wants me to step up. He has told me that he has recommended for me to be given some additional responsibilities focusing around a more supervisory role. He will not give me any specifics of the additional responsibilities. From what he told me, the Exec VP seems to agree with going this route. Currently our IT department consists of the following personnel:

IT Manager
System Admin (me)
EDI Analyst
Database Admin
Desktop Support Tech

So if this goes through, I will be supervising 3 team members. Now I know that the company had planned on getting a developer on contract so funds were set aside for this. My manager has informed me that some of those funds will be used to bump my pay to compensate for the additional responsibilities.

Some quick (possibly irrelevant) facts:

- I am hourly and did receive a 5% raise in December last year.
- Based off hourly my first year, I should have made around 48.5k. With overtime and bonus, I made close to 65k.
- Based off hourly my 2^nd year, I should have made 51k. With overtime and bonus, I made about 72k.
- Previous system admin made roughly 41.6k. I only know as he had left his paycheck stubs in his desk and I had to clean it out my first day.
- The company is a small family owned company that blew up over the years and continues to grow at an incredible rate. They still hold onto the “mom and pop” business mentality.
- HR makes final calls on raises/promotions/salary and they’re not exactly known for being generous overall.
- In other departments, HR has refused to give employees a title and pay change to reflect the responsibilities taken on by employees. Example: Traffic clerk was given responsibilities of Traffic Coordinator who left. After doing the job for over a year, they still refuse to give her title of Traffic Coordinator or up her pay because she doesn’t have experience. The company is currently not looking for a new Traffic Coordinator.
- This company has averaged a turnover rate of roughly 40 employees a year (this does not include temp employees) since 2010. The company has 6 locations through the US and Canada and less than a total of 250 employees companywide.

Now I’m honored that my manager and EVP want to offer me a great opportunity to step up, however I’m a little concerned with what would seem fair to ask for compensation. I spoke with my manager and expressed my concern over HR possibly lowballing me and locking me into a pay range that is less than what I have made in the past. And if I turn down the offer, then I will be marked as an employee who was given an opportunity to move up but chose not to. I should add that in the past, HR has overlooked promoting within and instead hires from the outside and has the employees train their manager.

I feel like my bare minimum would be a 35% increase as that would put me around 72k which is what I made last year. I understand that OT isn’t guaranteed but as most of you know, IT is not a 9-5 job. Also with the additional responsibilities and now being on call 24/7, any less would seem foolish to take as I’ll be doing a lot more work for less pay. Also I can’t try and negotiate through other terms such as PTO, being in the office less than 40 hours weekly, etc. HR is extremely strict and unwilling to budge on those topics. The only things I would consider fair compensation at a lower pay would be tuition/education reimbursement or hiring another desktop support tech to help alleviate the workload and allow all members of the IT department a little more breathing room to focus on projects that will help move the company in the right direction.

Is this too big of a jump? If I did get it, I don't even know when my next opportunity for a raise would be.

Any thoughts/input would be greatly appreciated.

paul78

Congrats on the opportunity. It sounds like your hard work is being recognized. A couple of observations...

1. Are you being asked to go from hourly to exempt because it's a supervisory position? If so - I would imagine that they ought to come with with a number based on the last 12 months of your compensation. Frankly, if an employee asked for a 35% raise - that would be a bit off-putting.
2. I've always considered companies where HR makes hiring decisions to be poorly managed - kinda defeats the purpose of having management in the first place. HR is a administrative support function - not a business strategic driver. However, HR should set salary bands, title leveling, etc. so it would be in their purview to provide the correct level and band based on what your management approved.
3. Assuming I did the math right, the attrition rate is a bit on the high side but without knowing the industry, it's not necessarily a terrible number. Although, it must be expensive to continually replace the employees.
4. Depending on where you are in your career and what you want to do - I personally would accept the role regardless of the compensation adjustments. I would put in at least 6-12 months and then explore other possibilities. Having been promoted is always a strong talking point on a resume and in an interview.

Good luck.

swamprat

Congratulations on what is a promotion, even if they won't give you a new title or salary to match.

I definitely think it's reasonable to ask for at least what you made previously, but be ready to leave if they don't offer it to you. A turnover of 40 employees per year, out of 250, seems rather high, and would make me concerned about how this negotiation is going to go. In general, I wouldn't go backwards in pay without some darn good reason. One of the possible reasons is to get experience/title on your resume that you can use going forward, and it doesn't sound like that's likely to happen either.

rsxwithslicks

paul78 wrote: »

Congrats on the opportunity. It sounds like your hard work is being recognized. A couple of observations...

1. Are you being asked to go from hourly to exempt because it's a supervisory position? If so - I would imagine that they ought to come with with a number based on the last 12 months of your compensation. Frankly, if an employee asked for a 35% raise - that would be a bit off-putting.
2. I've always considered companies where HR makes hiring decisions to be poorly managed - kinda defeats the purpose of having management in the first place. HR is a administrative support function - not a business strategic driver. However, HR should set salary bands, title leveling, etc. so it would be in their purview to provide the correct level and band based on what your management approved.
3. Assuming I did the math right, the attrition rate is a bit on the high side but without knowing the industry, it's not necessarily a terrible number. Although, it must be expensive to continually replace the employees.
4. Depending on where you are in your career and what you want to do - I personally would accept the role regardless of the compensation adjustments. I would put in at least 6-12 months and then explore other possibilities. Having been promoted is always a strong talking point on a resume and in an interview.

Good luck.

Thank you!

1. I have not been asked to move from hourly to salary. I was planning on asking for that transition myself. The EVP and manager have kept me on hourly so I would still get OT pay in the past. And I wouldn't mind less of a jump in pay (15%) if I was guaranteed OT pay but I'm worried HR will decide to move me to salary and tell me I fall under exempt classification because of the supervisory role.
I don't plan on asking for 35%. I'll just let them know what the average for a system admin is in the area (some websites say 70kish... others 80kish) without a supervisory role added on top. I wouldn't mind taking less and getting a title change but unsure of what title I could even ask for...

2. I agree but since this company still has the "mom and pop" type mentality, they're still trying to find that type of balance.

3. I think that is rather high and the turnover is not limited to certain areas of the company. It has affected all departments (management, sales, design/graphics, warehouse, etc). I think it has to do with the company not paying industry standard so we don't always get the top performers. And when we do, we can't retain them as they find better opportunities elsewhere.

4. I plan on taking it regardless as I have been working on some projects that I would like to complete before making any life changing decisions about my future with the company. Which is why I feel negotiations is important as this will really set my tone with the company and probably be the biggest opportunity I get in a long time in terms of advancement for position/pay.

Thank you once again.

rsxwithslicks

swamprat wrote: »

Congratulations on what is a promotion, even if they won't give you a new title or salary to match.

I definitely think it's reasonable to ask for at least what you made previously, but be ready to leave if they don't offer it to you. A turnover of 40 employees per year, out of 250, seems rather high, and would make me concerned about how this negotiation is going to go. In general, I wouldn't go backwards in pay without some darn good reason. One of the possible reasons is to get experience/title on your resume that you can use going forward, and it doesn't sound like that's likely to happen either.

Thank you. Lol.

Regardless of the outcome, I plan on staying till some projects I'm working on is complete. So anything that can help advance my career (regardless if with this company or another) will be considered a positive. If I get less, I am going to ask about educational opportunities or tuition reimbursement. I would prefer not to go back in pay but I have heard through the grapevine that a 15% increase is pretty much unheard of at this company in any situation. Hopefully they'll see that retaining me on salary for roughly the same amount I made last year makes sense as opposed to focusing on the annual based off a 40 hour work week. Just a small note, I have not discussed any of this with anyone at the company.

Not sure what kind of title if any I can ask for.. "System Admin with supervisory role" seems a little posh on the resume. Lol.

IronmanX

You could ask for IT Supervisor, IT Associate Manager, IT Project Manager, etc...

At this point its sounds like your ready to accept the same base pay with no OT pay.
If I were you I would be thinking of what title you would want.
I'm not sure what the rules are on OT exempt but I would think you would have to have some kind of title that indicates your in a managing people role. Any one know???

You have clearly defined why this company can not retain talent.

rsxwithslicks

IronmanX wrote: »

You could ask for IT Supervisor, IT Associate Manager, IT Project Manager, etc...

At this point its sounds like your ready to accept the same base pay with no OT pay.
If I were you I would be thinking of what title you would want.
I'm not sure what the rules are on OT exempt but I would think you would have to have some kind of title that indicates your in a managing people role. Any one know???

You have clearly defined why this company can not retain talent.

If anything, I'll push for IT Supervisor. Title changes are also extremely hard to get approved.

I consider my base pay what my hourly comes out to (53K). I would like to see more in the 75K range given that I will actually be working more and on call 24/7 if moved to salary. In the past, getting OT approved to do things like server maintenance has been a hair-pulling experience.

I'm not 100% sure but I think the OT exempt status has more to do with responsibilities. I have included a link which shows the different classifications of OT exempt and it mentions nothing of title.
Exemptions from the overtime laws