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I have been working at a large company for about a year now. In the first 4 months I interviewed for a different position at the request of my GM and was hired onto a new department essentially getting a 45% pay raise and moved into a new position where they needed someone with my skill set. I ended up teaching myself Python Programming and now use it to improve workflow and accuracy of results. Because of this I have been assigned to a new team (lateral move) and been given a bigger workload to assist with systems improvement efforts. The catch is I am also keeping my old assignments as well so now I am assigned 2 times the work if not more and been told there is no pay raise involved.

Would it make sense to request a pay raise? It just seams like I am being taken advantage of here by moving me into an "IT" like role but still getting the analyst level pay already had in an easier position.

I was told there is no pay raise for this move but I just don't think that is fair of them to ask me to take on over 2x my current workload and not even offer me a reasonable or any compensation.

Is this a situation where I can request more pay or should I just leave it alone?

Update:

There seams to be some confusion as to why I would expect to see a raise in this situation so I want to clarify my background. Keep in mind I have over 15 years of experience as 'IT' and over 10 years of large scale networking and system administration for said large scale networks. They are moving me from an entry level analyst position into a system development position that requires at least 8 years of experience or a 4 year degree and 4 years of experience but are only continuing to pay me at the entry level from my current position in the company.

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  • If you are keeping your old assignments and now have 2x things to do it should be expected for you to take 2x times longer without any help or compensation to put up to it. It seems reasonable for me to ask for a raise. Maybe they are somewhat testing you on that new team before deciding on a possible raise. – DarkCygnus♦ Oct 18 '17 at 21:47
  • @GrayCygnus My working hours have not changed. They are expecting me to continue on completing all my work I currently have along with the new assignments within the same 40 hour work week. Note: I am more than capable of completing the work and I am looking forward to a change of pace but not even a small raise to make up for the increased workload seams a bit off to me. – Sierra Mountain Tech Oct 18 '17 at 21:48
  • @SierraMountainTech Well that seems unreasonable, and if they think like that no wonder they are reluctant to give you a raise. Have you talked with you manager about this, or who have you asked? – DarkCygnus♦ Oct 18 '17 at 21:51
  • @GrayCygnus when I became aware of the "Lateral Move" they had planned for me I asked about the compensation for the new assignment. I was given the response: "This is only a lateral move and no pay change is involved. You will also be bringing your current assignments over to your new position as well." – Sierra Mountain Tech Oct 18 '17 at 21:53
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    @pmf That is not the case here. The position I moved into for the initial pay raise was the starting pay for that role. After making sever improvements to workflow and show my skill set in programming and systems administration they decided it would be better to move me into the systems support/development team. The lowest paying position in that team is at least 30% above my current pay. As I mentioned on another comment I will just have to wait a few months and see what happens on my next review. – Sierra Mountain Tech Oct 19 '17 at 14:59
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Would it make sense to request a pay raise?

I was told there is no pay raise for this move...

Is this a situation where I can request more pay or should I just leave it alone?

It sounds like you got a significant raise recently - a 45% raise in the first year is pretty unusual these days. And you were already told that there would be no pay raise for this move.

Yes you can request more pay. But if it were me I would not ask for yet another raise right now, work hard, and consider asking for a raise when my next performance review took place.

Many times I have been put in new positions and given a raise later. Perhaps this is what is happening in your situation, particularly when you indicate that this is a "lateral move".

Work with your new boss to decide how to handle the increased workload, adjust deadlines as needed, meet new schedules, etc.

If you do decide to ask for a raise, you may not want to complain about "working harder" than you did in your "easy" role. That's a good way to ensure you never get a promotion.

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  • I only referenced "easy" for the question here. I would never make a statement like that to my coworkers or supervisors. The original pay raise involved an interview and getting hired onto the new position in a different department. So that is where the pay raise came from. I think that getting a pay raise through getting a new job within the same company is a bit different than a right out promotion. Thank you for your advice. I will consider not asking and just wait for my review coming up on 4 months. – Sierra Mountain Tech Oct 18 '17 at 22:34
  • If @SierraMountainTech is taking on a lot more work, then the job has changed to one that is > than the one that earned a 45% raise. Compensation is about the job performed, not what you made before compared to now. It's no different than why your past salary at a different job is irrelevant. If doing X is worth 45% more than the previous position, then doing 2X should be worth something more, I'd think. Overall, a solid answer, despite that quibble. I agree that it's a good idea to ask to assess during the review, that's part of what the review is for. – PoloHoleSet Nov 15 '17 at 22:39
  • @PoloHoleSet ya I will be asking during my review in 2 months. I still think that moving and saying there is no pay raise when they are clearly expecting much more work to be accomplished is a bit messed up considering the amount of work and automation I have done for the company. But we will see soon enough what they think I am worth. – Sierra Mountain Tech Nov 15 '17 at 22:41
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First, let's look at what defines salary -- competition in the workplace. Your ability to shop your resume and get $X at another shop, defines your worth as $X. It's as simple as that. It can be hard for them to realize your worth. It can be hard for you to realize your worth. It's only natural for them to want to pay the least while you want to collect the most.

There is a "sticky-wage" effect, where your current employer is reluctant to change your salary as much as the market would have it change.... (and this saves you in a recession, they don't tend to cut your pay when the market is flooded with better people willing to work for less).

In particular, having just given you a 45% (!!!) raise, they will be uber-reluctant to give you another. They now expect from you a dramatic increase in workload or productivity, commensurate with the wage, and by their view they already gave you the raise you're looking for.

At the end of the day, if they are paying you under market, sharpen that resume and shop yourself around. Either you can do better or you can't.

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  • I am not inexperienced in the job force. My entire career has been working as IT until I got an entry level position at this company. My resume shows over 10 years of metropolis level IT support as I worked as a network engineer for the Marine Corps for 5 years and then moved onto working as a Network Engineer for an ISP and finally for 3 school districts before I moved and got this job. The entire reason for them putting me in this new position is to better utilize my skill set and essentially they are getting my over 15 years of experience in IT for the cost of a basic analyst. – Sierra Mountain Tech Oct 19 '17 at 5:09
  • @SierraMountainTech i'm sorry... i have no idea what possessed me to assume otherwise! – Harper - Reinstate Monica Oct 19 '17 at 14:18
  • The whole 45% raise thing is actual an entirely different and new job I had to apply for and be hired for. It was a complete move from the Accounts Payable side of the company to the Accounts Receivable side. So it was more like getting hired onto a new job with a predefined workload for that job. Its just in the same building so I called it a pay raise as I just moved to a different floor in the complex. I can see that has cause some confusion. My problem now is their requirements of my workload now reflect what would normally be paying 2x my current salary but no pay increase was given. – Sierra Mountain Tech Oct 19 '17 at 14:37

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