by Nicole Selley

Created on: January 09, 2009

One of the most frequent complaints you will hear in an office is without a doubt: "I am underpaid. I really should earn more!" So, are we all underpaid, or why do people think their salaries should be increased?

Well, I put together the top 7 reasons I came across throughout my career as to why people think they should be paid more and will then look into these reasons in some more detail.

Reason 1: I have been in the company for 5, 10, 20 years and still only earn pennies. I should be rewarded for my loyalty.

Reason 2: I am older than my colleague, so I surely should earn more.

Reason 3: Given the hours I am working and all the unpaid overtime, I really deserve more money.

Reason 4: I work so hard and get much more work done in a day than my colleagues, still I only earn the same. Where is the justice?

Reason 5: Inflation rate and the cost of living go up every year, but my salary stays the same. That's not fair.

Reason 6: My company makes more profit every year. Shouldn't they pass on some of this by increasing peoples salaries?

Reason 7: I can't live of the money I earn. I need more.

Do you recognise yourself? I wouldn't blame you we've all been there. But let's have a look and demystify why you still might not get your pay increase even though you think you deserve one.

Demystify reason 1 Length of service:

Many larger companies try to give employees an annual pay increase as a reward for their work and loyalty and to make up for rising costs of living. This is not only a nice gesture, but also an attempt to retain existing staff. At the end of the day, recruiting new staff does not only cost money in recruitment fees and unproductive training periods, but new staff is also likely to demand higher salaries as the average pay goes up year by year. Therefore in order to keep you, they need to keep your salary at least competitive.

However, just staying in the same company for years does not automatically qualify you for a major pay increase. Most companies award increases based on performance and increased responsibility. So if you are still doing exactly the same job as 5 years ago and your role has hardly changed or developed, this might be the reason that your salary hasn't gone up.

Maybe it is time to apply for a promotion or to discuss with your manager, that you gained a lot of experience and are ready to take on more responsibility and want to develop your role further.

Demystify reason 2 Employee age:

Some years ago a colleague who worked in the same job than I

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