In a recent interview with Parade magazine, I talked about the importance of doing your homework before asking for a pay raise, not just during these tougher economic times for raises, but any time.

Knowing how you’re paid compared to what the local and regional market is paying others for doing your job is a good first step. Maybe you’re already overpaid, or you’re significantly underpaid. Whichever the case, you want to know before you open up a salary negotiation with your boss.

I identified a second mistake for the reporter. While employers care about you, the fact that you’re expecting a new baby or purchasing a new home is not grounds for giving you an increase in salary. When asking for a raise, you need to emphasize the value that you have added to your company by doing a great job. You’ve saved money, awed customers, increased sales, or significantly taken time or steps out of work processes.

Thanks to Seth Godin’s blog post this morning, I’ve located a post that says this well – almost poetically, in fact. Michael Allenby and Ben Coe of the Artists Farm say, “If you want to generate more income, then think of how you can generate more value, not more money.”

Keep these words close in your mind, if you plan to ask your employer for a pay raise any time soon.

Image Copyright Don Bishop / Getty Images

Carnival of Human Resources

The current Carnival has a theme: the hangover edition by Mark Bennett.

Several of the posts emphasize the oft felt feeling that the players don’t understand how they got where they are now in their current situation. And, it must be a commentary on my perceptiveness, but I just didn’t get this theme. How about you? Take a look.

Noteworthy for a bit of humor, reinforcing the value of stories and story telling, and a nice tale of an employee applying that discretionary energy, I frequently tout, to their job, take a look at Marsha Keeffer’s Santa Baby: HR Wants Me To Manage What??!

Image Copyright Carnival of HR

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Only Value Added Matters originally appeared on About.com Human Resources on Saturday, March 13th, 2010 at 10:59:41.

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