by Karen Yvonne

Created on: January 16, 2009   Last Updated: November 08, 2011

Most people believe they aren't paid enough for the work they do. People think they should make more money for a variety of reasons. Some of their reasons are legitimate, such as needing to keep up with the rising costs of gasoline and transportation to work. Others are emotional, such as finding out that Jane makes more money than you do and feeling that you deserve the same.

We all want to be paid "what we are worth" relative to what we believe that pay scale is. Problems arise when our employer uses a different scale than the one we have in mind.

Employers consider a number of factors when they create and update their pay scales including: what the market is paying for similar skills, services, knowledge, educational demands and demographics. They also consider how compensation packages are structured, what the total value of an employee's benefits are and what additional risks or other factors should be accounted for. They refresh their research and update the scales periodically, but eager-for-an-increase employees may notice salaries for comparable jobs rising before that happens. This is especially true in good economic times when unemployment is low and competition for employees is high. The reverse happens when unemployment is high, but you won't hear employees complain about being paid too much.

Tradition has taught us to expect annual salary increases that occur as part of our annual performance reviews. During periods of high inflation, we expect to keep up with changes in the cost of living, and then get some sort of performance based increase on top of that. Practices are changing. Companies have drastically reduced the amount of money available for annual increases and many have separated salary and performance reviews. Some companies have implemented pay-for-performance plans in which base salaries are not increased, but bonuses are paid for exceptional performance.

Naturally, we all expect to be paid a bonus in much the same way we expected a salary increase, but it doesn't work that way. Bonuses are not paid to employees for doing a good job and working hard. They are paid to employees who consistently exceed expectations or meet particular bonus targets.

Employees are advised not to discuss their salary with other employees, but we all know that happens all the time. It creates a lot of emotion when Tom finds out that Jane, who was just hired, makes more money than he does. Tom expects to be paid comparably. He may even expect to be paid more because of his longevity over Jane, and he will be quite miserable if he isn't.

Employees expect salary increases when they complete additional educational milestones. An employee who has been going to school nights to complete a degree will likely expect a salary increase. Some companies reward employees for meeting continued education milestones, but they are typically one-time cash awards. If the employee takes on additional job responsibilities using newly acquired knowledge, a salary increase is probably warranted and it is reasonable to expect it.

Employees always expect a salary increase when they are promoted, and most companies do just that. Here again, emotions run high if that increase amount is not in line what the employee expected.

The bottom line is, employees expect to be paid what they are worth and may have a higher opinion of what their worth is than their employer. It is always a good idea to seek feedback on your performance regularly and make sure you are doing everything expected, and then some.

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