Should I accept more responsibility when being granted a raise I asked because I felt underpaid?

Question

7 months ago I landed a job as a web developer for a specific technology, it payed a little bit under the market average for the position.

When I started in the new place I noticed the methodologies and technologies they were using were quite outdated and the company would greatly benefit from an improvement.

After a few meetings I managed to convince my boss of that. From then on I've been both mentoring the team on methodologies and technologies as well as doing what I was initially hired for (developing/maintaining a company product).

At one point I talked to my manager to explain how I provided a lot more value than what was expected from me and I asked for a raise. He agreed with me that I was doing a great job and told me he was happy to go further with it.

He is now offering me a little less than what I asked for and demanding that I should do some extra work to earn the raise. This work is non tech related, but rather management chores like review peer timesheets and whatnot.

I don't mind doing these chores, I just feel that in this scenario I should ask for more than what I initially asked, since this chores weren't on the initial equation. What should I do?

Answer 1

I believe, you should re-negotiate.

Try to be firm and clear on your statement and position. You asked a raise based on your "current" responsibilities. If you have to take up extra responsibilities which are not part of the current role, for being paid extra, after some time, you'll again feel you're underpaid for that updated role / responsibilities, is not it?

Make it clear - you wanted a raise for based on your current role, if there is a change in the role and expectations out of you, the paycheck also needs to be revised again accordingly.

Answer 2

"This work is non tech related, but rather management chores like review peer timesheets and whatnot."

Do any of these additional responsibilities bring you closer to a management role or give you credible management experience?

Depending on the nature of the work involved you might be being offered career progression in addition to the raise.

(or you might be getting lumbered with pointless drudgery)

Answer 3

Should I accept more responsibility when being granted a raise I asked because I felt underpaid?

Definately no.

You have already accepted more responsibility in the mentoring role that was added to your initial responsibilities and your salary was never adjusted for these added responsibilities.

Now that you have asked your boss for X amount to compensate you for the added responsibilities, not only does he want to give you less than what you're asking for but he wants you to take on even more responsibilities thus further devaluing the raise that you have asked for.

Clearly this company either takes advantage of their employees or are generally clueless about proper compensation for their employees. Do not accept more responsibilities for less pay, and you may want to consider other companies that properly pay their employees.

Answer 4

I think you provided some important information when you mentioned the company was already paying below average when you were first hired. Some of your tasks were not related to your original job description, but pay is tricky and very rarely comes down to only the manager. There's a need to establish equity across the organization and these decisions are usually handled by HR/Compensation partners with feedback from the manager, which might be why there are additional tasks added to your job description to go along with the raise.

I agree with one of the comments above about being groomed for management. You've gone above and beyond the requirements for your initial position and these new tasks are not "grunt" tasks. They're added administrative responsibility and putting you in a different position than your peers.

I think you'd be better served re-negotiating when your title changes to manager.