Pretty sure I'm underpaid, but by how much?

Current title: Network administrator
Location: Montreal, Qc, Canada
Industry: Entertainment (music and TV production, mostly)
Age: 28
Education: Attestation of collegial studies in Network Administration
Certs: none yet (working on CCNA)
Experience: 7 years in IT with various titles, 3 of them as a personnal IT technician for a billionnaire
Salary: 50k +benefits, been there a year and a half

What I actually do:

-Administration of Win2008 servers (AD, IIS, DNS), Exchange 2010, BES, CentOS servers (mostly used for apache, mysql, sftp, svn, and a bunch of scripts)
-Lead PHP/Javascript/MySql programmer for web applications used internally
-Actual network administration, that is configuration and maintenance of routers/switches/firewalls/VPNs etc
-...aaand tech support for OS X and Win7 users (as well as any electronic device, lol).

Now, I really like my job, and this is what motivates me to stay, but god damn, I can't help but feel I'm heavily underpaid.
From what I experience everyday, they would absolutely need 2 people to replace me if I left. I do not know of anyone who knows networks AND PHP programming at the level I do, as well as being able to support OSX/Windows/Linux.

The only reason I stay there is because the job is really fun. The people, the actual work, everything. I enjoy getting up in the morning and going to work.

But I still can't help but think, how much am I actually worth?

Find more posts tagged with

Free for TechExams community: Cybersecurity salary guide

Compare cert salaries and plan your next career move

Button

Comments

cw3k

There is no such thing as underpaid or overpaid. The only reason you are still working there because you believe it is a fair wage. If you believe you are underpaid, you are free to go or request a wage that you believe is fair

colemic

I kind of agree with cw3k, but have a question... why do you feel you are so underpaid - is it the volume of work, or the scope of it? I don't know your job market but you sound like a JOAT, and I don't think your salary is terribly out of line with your work, with no certs...

Zartanasaurus

For those of us south of the border, what does Attestation of collegial studies in Network Administration mean?

colemic

Attestation of College Studies - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sounds equivalent to a associates degree...

phaneuf1

Do you have any certifications? It'd really help to get some.

to answer your question, to me it sounds like a fair salary considering you live in a city with a low cost of living and don't have any cert or college degree.

You can always test the market and see what you would get elsewhere and tell your manager: Here's what I could get at this company, now I really love the job here, but if you don't want to help me, I'm gonna have to accept it and leave a job that I love.

ptilsen

cw3k wrote: »

There is no such thing as underpaid or overpaid. The only reason you are still working there because you believe it is a fair wage. If you believe you are underpaid, you are free to go or request a wage that you believe is fair

This is rehashing of basic microeconomics, but not a productive or helpful response. It's not useful advice for the OP, who feels he or she could make more but isn't sure how to gauge what an appropriate amount would be. Applying to jobs or simple asking for "more" is the wrong way to go about finding out, generally speaking. I wouldn't ask the question at all unless I had some numbers in mind and something to justify them.

OP, you've got some good experience and a fairly broad skillset. You're going to be limited to more generalist positions unless you really narrow down an area you enjoy the most. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but some certs would help back up the areas you've got some depth in. CCNA is definitely a good start.

Giving what you have now, I would say you could pull in anywhere between $50,000 and $80,000 USD in the Minneapolis area. That's a big range, I know, but it comes down to a lot of different factors, but primarily how well you interview, how good your resume is, and how good of a fit a position is for your skills, experience, and personality. Realistically, I think you'd be going for right around $60,000. Based on some cost of living calculators and the currency conversion rate, this would put you at around $60,000 CAD in Quebec City (currency conversion and cost-of-living differences between Minneapolis and Quebec City line up to almost the exact same number, so it's effectively the same). Bear in mind, all of this is based on very unscientific factors, and I could be way off the reality. The job market in your area is going to be a huge factor, and I have no idea what career prospects look like for an IT infrastructure generalist in Quebec.

However, to Colemic's point, think about why you feel underpaid and why you feel you could make more. Be prepared to explain to your current employer or prospective employers why you are worth more. If you can articulate it well, you can probably get at least the number I proposed, if not something even higher in the range I proposed.

phaneuf1

Attestation of College Studies - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sounds equivalent to a associates degree...

It's not really an associate's. The college diploma (3 years in CEGEP) in Quebec would be considered an associate's degree. What you have is a 1 year certificate, which is basically not recognized outside of the province of Quebec.

Winzer

colemic wrote: »

I kind of agree with cw3k, but have a question... why do you feel you are so underpaid - is it the volume of work, or the scope of it? I don't know your job market but you sound like a JOAT, and I don't think your salary is terribly out of line with your work, with no certs...

Both the volume of work and the scope of it. As of now, they most likely would need to hire 2 people to replace me.

ptilsen wrote: »

However, to Colemic's point, think about why you feel underpaid and why you feel you could make more. Be prepared to explain to your current employer or prospective employers why you are worth more. If you can articulate it well, you can probably get at least the number I proposed, if not something even higher in the range I proposed.

See my reply to colemic.

Also after verification through Emploi Quebec (government entity related to the ministry of employment), the current median income for a network administrator in Montreal is 27$ an hour (56k).
The current median income for a PHP programmer is also exactly 27$ an hour.

I think being able to do both, with the experience I have, should at the very least get me to the median?

I am also not sure how to go about this... What I mean is, programming and network administration are both closely related to computers of course, but at the same time they're so different.
Does an accountant who's also a lawyer earn more than just an accountant?

phaneuf1 wrote: »

It's not really an associate's. The college diploma (3 years in CEGEP) in Quebec would be considered an associate's degree. What you have is a 1 year certificate, which is basically not recognized outside of the province of Quebec.

I also have DEC (2 years of CEGEP), and the diploma took a year and a half, so they're basically equivalent. Every employer considers it the same.
However I have no idea what worth it would be outside of Quebec (indeed may be worthless).

Winzer

phaneuf1 wrote: »

Do you have any certifications? It'd really help to get some.

to answer your question, to me it sounds like a fair salary considering you live in a city with a low cost of living and don't have any cert or college degree.

You can always test the market and see what you would get elsewhere and tell your manager: Here's what I could get at this company, now I really love the job here, but if you don't want to help me, I'm gonna have to accept it and leave a job that I love.

I'm not really looking into putting pressure on my employer to give me a raise. The IT Director is fully aware of the situation, but his powers stop at hiring and firing people, not determining their actual salary (the HR, the accounting dept and a few higher ups make the budget).

Of course the problem is, those who pay me have no idea what I actually do.

MickQ

The median salary is just that, median. On either end of the scale there are those who are new (lower) and those who are experts (higher). Are you good/knowledgeable enough to justify your current rate?

You've no industry certs yet to back up that experience. At the moment since "those who pay me have no idea what I actually do" you'd be better off using your soft skills such as personality and sales to let them know you and what you do. Sell yourself a better wage if you want it.

ptilsen

Winzer wrote: »

I think being able to do both, with the experience I have, should at the very least get me to the median?

I see two distinct possibilities:
1. Your lack of sufficient depth in one reduces your overall attractiveness to prospective employers, preventing you from reaching the median.
2. The combination indeed makes you more attractive, bringing your value above the median.

It all depends on what the employer is looking for and how you present it on your resume. A smaller business that requires more versatility could view it as highly valuable. Similarly, an organization that specifically requires a web developer with strong infrastructure knowledge could view it as highly valuable. On the other hand, a specialized web dev or systems/network admin job is probably not going to care much about the other area. Ultimately, you'll have to think about whether and how you want to specialize. If you don't care and would go into either, then you might go as far as even three different resume versions.

If the IT director is aware, he or she ought to be pushing for your raise. Even if it is not his direct power, it would seem odd at best if it were not his responsibility to get HR/management to get you a raise. Either way, talk to whomever you need to talk to to get this taken care of. If I were you, I would probably ask for another $10K, or at least another $5K. Give what you've found in your research as evidence you could make more, and try to make the point in general that IT professionals generally get large raises, at least early in their careers.

Otherwise, get the certs and the resume prepared and start applying. Chances are you're looking at a minimum of a 10% raise to jump ship, and more likely 20-25%. That's a lot of money to leave at the table.

Winzer

Thank you MickQ and ptilsen.
This thread has been really helpful thus far.

I'm starting to realize that jobs where all of my skills are used are pretty scarce, and places that do would rather hire 2 people with more experience/qualifications than me in either network admin or programming.

I will probably remove programming from my resume and keep it as a hobby from now on... which kinda sucks because I've been programming anywhere between 15 to 35 hours a week for the last year, but being seen as too much of a generalist might indeed be hurting my chances.

In any case I'llget my CCNA (and maybe other certs after that) and focus on linux/network administration for my next job.

daviddws

Honestly, not bad for 28 years old with no certs or degree. I would work on those before looking around. Take advantage while you can.

ptilsen

I wouldn't remove it altogether, necessarily; I would just play it down compared to infrastructure if you want to stick with infrastructure or specialize. It's up to you, of course, but if you really enjoy programming that much, I'd hate to see you quit just because you might earn a bit more right now in infrastructure.