When does a job become a different role altogether?

[violetbunny]

I am not in the UK, so I'm not looking for help to understand my legal situation here. I am mainly interested in opinions, just to help me get an outside perspective.

I have been in my current role at a big, multinational organisation for about 6 years. I was originally recruited for a specialist marketing role doing X and Y (in an equal mix) for one type of product, for one country.

Over time, there have been several restructures, and the role of the specialist function has become much more important within the business. What this means is that my role is now 100% only X (no Y at all). On top of that:

• I now do X across several types of products in 2 countries, instead of just the one product in one country.
• The number of X projects has increased massively, to the point where I am no longer doing the X projects a lot of the time. Instead I spend more time coaching other people (who don't have expertise in X) to do X themselves.

It feels like there has been a lot of scope creep in my role, but because it's happened gradually over 6 years, no one has paid any attention to it. I have also changed line managers several times, so my current line manager is not the person who originally hired me. I feel like the role is a bit more senior to the one I started in as I am now doing less of the "doing" of projects, and more the coaching/advising/providing expertise. On paper, there is no difference in the seniority of my role now vs when I was hired.

I want to ask for a pay increase on the basis that I am now spending more time contributing specialist expertise (rather than just executing projects). The tricky part is that it's difficult to source salary benchmarking data for the specialist role I am in. I am told I am being paid at the upper end of the payscale for my original role. However I want to argue that I'm now effectively doing a more senior role (I would be towards the lower end of the payscale for this level of role at my company). There are also no roles for me to be promoted into, the next step up is my line manager's role.

Does anyone have any advice or experience for asking for a pay rise and/or a review of their role under these circumstances? I.e. where the scope of the role has crept up over time? Part of me thinks that i am being unreasonable as the business expects some flexibility - but on the other hand there is being flexible, and then there is doing a different job altogether!

Overall it all just feels like a big grey area so I'd love some outside views...!

If you’ve been there 6 years, moved from a doing to an advising/coaching role, and haven’t had a significant pay rise then you’re probably being underpaid (also what is the male:female pay differential?).

Any rival companies recruiting that you know of?

Whatever you do find out, think about how much they’d have to pay to replace not just your current skills but your knowledge of the company, plus the fact you’re a known quantity.

Go for it - women are terrible at not asking for big enough pay rises.

Thanks for your reply, I appreciate it.

I have spoken to my boss, she she agrees my job description has changed significantly. The next step is to try and get the business to recognise it's a step up in seniority (and therefore should have a different salary benchmark). She is arranging a meeting for me with her boss to discuss.

I also understand the business is having issues recruiting for marketing roles at the moment as there just not getting many candidates for the vacancies we have. We are also approaching our financial year end, the business is exceeding its targets and it's also the time of year salaries are reviewed. I'm hoping that all of these things work in my favour!