I am approaching my first performance review and looking for advice on how to negotiate for a raise. Exploring sites such as Glassdoor, Paysa, Payscale, etc. have informed me that my base salary should be somewhere closer to 23% - 37% higher than what it is, based on my location, skill set, education, years of experience, and so on. I have a couple of acquaintances who are quite similar to myself with salaries in that higher range, so I know that these higher base salary estimates are reasonable.
Comparing my current title’s pay to others in my location using Glassdoor for instance, my base salary is still 20% below the average. If I look specifically for my current title’s average salary at my company itself, I am 7% below the average. It would be more realistic for me to achieve a raise, if at all possible, that would fall within the 7-10% range, and therefore this seems like a more realistic goal to try to negotiate for.
My boss recognizes the disparity between my job title and functional role, and does refer to me by my functional role in conversation with others. My boss has indicated to me that it took over a year for the company to finally find me (making me wonder why...), and this would imply to me he and his superiors have a great interest in retaining me. My boss almost biweekly asks whether I am happy, having fun, enjoying my work, etc. and he has told me that he would like to see me become a lead. He has multiple times indicated to me that my performance has exceeded his expectations, and his boss has also commended me on my hard work, which apparently is rare.
Do I negotiate within the context of my current title? Or do I negotiate from the context of my functional role? My challenge is trying to recover from being underpaid at my last job — getting hired at this current position was a 50% boost as it is, and the recruiter was unwilling to go higher (in spite of never divulging my previous salary). Other questions have been helpful to me for how to avoid being underpaid in the future, but my focus in this question is negotiation strategy when my title differs from my functional role.