Is it worth bringing up facts when requesting a further pay increase ?

I'm a 23 year old male living in Boston making 36K.
I have been working at a federal office as IT help-desk for a year now. The help desk is more a "sysadmin" desk. My pay just increased from 34,922 to 36,090 a 1,168 increase or as I see it $44~ more a check(bi-weekly). This was the max they could increase my raise, three steps instead of the default one.
On Payscale/Salary.com/Knowing other peoples salaries and posting on various IT boards. The median salary is 50K~. Give or take a few whether you have a college degree(I don't). Also most private sector companies adjust salary on new certs gained that are relevant to the work environment. This is not the case here.
Is it worth asking HR for more info regarding further pay increase by bringing up these facts?

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Comments

networker050184

You can ask, but it's probably not going to happen in the federal sector where everything HR related is super regulated.

nster

Perhaps you can get other benefits instead. Studying time for certs + having your certs paid, or being able to attend WGU to get a bachelor's are great long-term benefits that are probably worth more than money. This depends on whether you have any downtime at work or not though

iBrokeIT

If you think you are worth more than apply elsewhere. Generally you are not going to see large raises staying with the same employer... especially a in the public sector.

kylepossible

nster wrote: »

Perhaps you can get other benefits instead. Studying time for certs + having your certs paid, or being able to attend WGU to get a bachelor's are great long-term benefits that are probably worth more than money. This depends on whether you have any downtime at work or not though

Yes there are some benefits here that are great, any major certs you earn here you have to sign a contract saying you will stay for X amount of time after getting them. If they pay that is there is free resources available to me to get the cert on my own though.

I really just need money and could do without benefits.... When I started this job I was living rent free at home and my commute was 25 minutes shorter. Now It takes an hour to and from work + rent/utilities/food etc. I know this isn't their problem. The money was good at the time for me but realistically now this can't work long term. I'm not saving money it's actually very close to having 0$ in my bank at certain times because of the way bills line up.

networker050184

Sounds like it's time to look for something better.

nster

In that case a new job does seem like an obvious way to go. You can always try to discuss with them though, it won't hurt. However, the difference between 36K and 44-50K is huge, so you are much more likely to get what you are worth elsewhere.

Being young like me, remember that certs or WGU bachelor's can bring your value up quickly, and having a bit of time to do these at work impacts your study time and MOTIVATION significantly. If certifying your knowledge or getting a bachelor's is in your short term goals, keep that in mind when applying for jobs, if not, then getting experience on what you want to work on is more valuable than short term money.

hurricane1091

Yeah, I'm doing from hourly to salary in a couple weeks and will be a little bit higher in pay than you, but my brother does the same work and makes even less. Some company's pay, others don't. I'm most concerned with getting my BS from WGU ASAP. If I can't get $50k+ after though, then I'll be concerned!

Polynomial

I live in Boston. You should definitely add me on LinkedIn / connect with each other.

Tyb

Government pay scales are pretty structured, I am assuming you are on the GS scale, so I wouldn't expect a large raise unless you were bumped a level (GS-07 to GS-09 for example)

Nemowolf

Even local/state level, everything is by title and steps. If they bumbed you 3 steps, thats one hell of a bump. My organization is actually prohibited from doing more than 1 step increases and I have to hit at least step 3 to be considered for a promotion up a title as they overlap and thats about the same pay as the next title up step 1.

There are trade offs when it comes to working in the public sector. One of those is that you will never make as much as you could in the private sector but your almost always going to get that increase until you max out your steps even when the economy is hurting and everyone else is talking pay cuts and lay offs. Your not immune to those things but its less likely.

As everyone has mentioned, you get to a point where you start to look back at the private sector and go "how much more could i be making?" and then you have to ask yourself the opposite side "Will i have the security moving to the private sector?"