Cost of living salary increase

[MrsMustardSeed]

Hi all. I am planning to negociate a salary increase soon but finding it very hard to find out any salary information in my industry. I'm getting an idea of what someone with my experience can expect (if I went to another company) but it is very vague... one recruitment agent said that a new company would probably look at my current salary and add 10%, others have given very broad figures which aren't really helpful (!)

Obviously if my company agree to a raise, I would like a raise in real terms, i.e. over and above any increase in the cost of living/ inflation. My Q is: what would a purely in line with inflation increase be? Would it be calculated as a percentage or would it just be a fixed amount, and how could I find out what that would be for the last year?

Not sure that's clear, hope so!

Official inflation rates are running at about 4% - 4.5% at the moment. You can check all the indices (RPI, CPI etc) on the Office for National Statistics. Few people are getting that kind of raise at the moment, however, so if you can negotiate better, you'd be doing very well. I don't know what industry you're in that would add 10% but would suggest grabbing the offer with both hands if they do.

Depends why you are getting the raise. If it is due to promotion or greater role and responsibilities then new salary should be in line with the new role. However, if it is just annual review then it will probably depend on the company performance over the last year (and possibly your personal performance and your teams performance). Often what happens is that your manager will be allocated a pot of money to distribute throughout the team and will decide how to divide it, ideally, based on whether you have met your objectives for the year.

If you are going to negotiate a salary increase due to a change in role try to find out what the new job is worth and negotiate in those terms, rather than as an increase on your current salary.

As CES says - if you are offered 10% you are doing well.

Thanks for your replies.

The raise is because when I started the job it wa a career change for me, so I took a very big pay cut (25%) to reflect the fact that in my new industry I was just starting out (although my previous 10y+ experience was also relevant). Now I have a year's industry-specific experience, I am taking on much more work and more independently (so greater responsibilities, I suppose) and it was always agreed that there would be a pay rise after a year to reflect this. Of course, I'm not expecting it to be the 25% I 'lost' by changing careers, as I know this figure has no bearing on proceedings. I just want to go into the negociations forearmed with some information on what I can expect.

The 10% came from a recruitment agent who said that if I took my current experience and knowledge to a competitor, they would probably look at my current salary and make an offer of this +10%. So although my company may not offer this, I could bargain by saying that I know I would get £X elsewhere...

Really I'd like to stay, but obviously the 25% cut has had big repercussions for me and my family, so I just need to go wherever I can earn the most money...

Should say:

The industry is really growing rapidly, so there are lots of recruitment opportunities - I was offered two jobs previously, took the best one, have headhunters ringing me weekly etc. I was under the impression that competitive salary increases are the norm, but everyone has clammed up since I started asking for actual figures

If people with your skills are scarce, your original idea of saying you could get £x elsewhere is probably your best bet. If the consultant says 10% higher and you know it's a sellers' market, ask for 15% more than you currently get and see the reaction. If you start high you can compromise a little lower. If you start too low it's difficult to get them to increase later. Employers tend to respect employees that value themselves highly. What have you got to lose?