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Please note I have read this question before coming here

How should I properly approach my boss if I'm feeling underpaid

Is it considered poor etiquette to negotiate when offered a raise?

Background

I've been at the company for 2 years now and last year because of an organization restructuring, I was given more work to fit the "new role". To clarify, my team merged with another team so I was given tasks on both teams. It was only later in the year of last year around this time that my salary got readjusted properly.

To add more information though, recently a fair number of engineers got promoted and, naturally, got raises. I got a simple equity boost which, while I appreciate, does not help me right now given my financial situation. As far as I know we aren't given cost of living raises at all. Unfortunately, we have also lost a fair number of engineers recently due to them finding other opportunities (whether that affects this conversation I am uncertain so if you have thoughts on that would love to hear).

Question

Would it seem off or bad that I am asking for a raise despite the salary reallocation last year and/or the equity boost? After talking to a few people, it seems the salary I got was simply the starting salary offer (without negotation) of a lot of our engineers here so I had little say. I have been putting off asking for one given our financial situation but as mentioned above, I think things are looking better for the company.

And, while the question I looked at helped a lot, if people have any advice on how to go about it, I would love to hear. I recently talked to him about chatting about my career goals a little more in depth in the coming weeks which I feel is a good opportunity to hear how far I am.

Community
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Kevin Xu
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    can you clarify why this is different than the question you linked here? The circumstances seem almost identical, except that instead of a raise you got an equity boost. – enderland Sep 09 '16 at 00:11
  • @enderland yeah I guess my main question is in the company's perspective do they treat salary reallocation (if its for higher) as raises? Or is that independent? Perhaps I threw too much into this question so I can slim it down if necessary. – Kevin Xu Sep 09 '16 at 08:59

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If you're busy comparing what you get with company A vs what others get at Company B, the real root of your concern is in the comparison. Other places simply have a whole different ecosystem. If your current place isn't one to keep up with the times, you're not probably going to be able to do much to change it. Seems the other engineers figured this out before you did. Whether you follow suit comes down to how badly you want more money out of the deal.

Xavier J
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    While I agree with your point, I don't think that answers my actual question? I'm more curious if a salary reallocation because you moved to a different team is considered a "raise." I agree that comparing my salary against other companies of the same role is not accurate but I am more curious from within a specific company. I'll remove the portion where I mention other company's are paid more because it isn't relevant. – Kevin Xu Sep 12 '16 at 20:54
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Well i guess anything that is increasing your salary will be called a "raise", specially for people that like to use the argument "we already give you a raise last year so not this year".

If you want to know if you deserve a raise, i will suggest you to look at the market price. If you're way below them, you could perfectly justify another raise. If they don't, you can start to search for a new job.

Unluckily, the best way of getting salary up to the market is often to move on.

Walfrat
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