GetRaised: How to ask for and get a raise

(Editor's note: This post was originally published on Levo League.)

Female powerhouses like Sheryl Sandberg, Arianna Huffington, and Mika Brzezinski have many things in common. They have all spent years (decades, even!) navigating the murky waters of corporate America, jumping sexist hurdles, and paving a stronger, more equal route for women to follow. However, they have also been cowardly in their careers, made mistakes, and leaned back when they should have leaned in. But one thing they – and other dynamic, influential people like them – implore is the importance of knowing your worth and value.

Ladies, what’s your worth? You mean the world to your family and partner and dog. You mean a lot to your florist and dentist and grocery-bagger who has a crush on you. But to your company, you’re most likely worth a mere 77 cents (ouch!) compared to your male colleague’s dollar. Everyone knows that women are underpaid, and it’s no longer a hushed-about issue. In fact, the 23-cent wage gap is such common knowledge it’s almost comical (I said, almost). So what’s the problem then? If everyone knows about the discrepancy, why are we making less than men? More importantly, what’s being done about it?

After asking themselves those same questions, Avi Karnani and Matt Wallaert created GetRaised in March 2010 to get some answers. Their site boasts a stunning 70 percent success rate and has earned users an average raise of $6,726. Based on their data and research on the earning, saving, and investing habits of men and women, Karnani and Wallaert found that women are good savers and investors but start out with less initial money from lower salaries. And by compiling that data, their brainchild helps you not only realize you deserve a raise, but helps you get one.

“Women could stop eating – I’m not just talking about eating out – like eating at all, and they still wouldn’t catch up to men,” Wallaert says. “The gender wage gap is a massive amount of money. That’s the average amount of money people spend on transportation. Like men get cars, women walk.”

Although Wallaert is a cofounder of GetRaised, he is also a social psychologist who studies decision-making and behavior, looks at how and why people do things, and then tries to create situations to change how and why they do the things they do. With GetRaised, he wanted to see why women are underpaid and how that could be changed.

“One of the things that emerged is that women don’t ask for raises as frequently as men, and they’re not nearly as successful when they do ask,” Wallaert explains. “We socialize them not to ask, and when we they do ask, they tend to ask with what we call ‘emotional appeals’ like, ‘I want’ or ‘I need’ instead of laying out the business page for why they deserve a raise.”

To help women (and men) correctly and confidently ask for a raise, Karnani and Wallaert devised an impressive three-step plan on the web site:

1. Tell us about yourself – Tell us what you do and how much you make—we’ll tell you if you’re underpaid.

Wallaert says a big issue for women is initially getting them to ask. They may know they deserve a raise, and they may even know their colleagues are earning more, but they are too afraid to take the plunge. To combat that hurdle, the first step tries to make the person more comfortable.

“We ask them a few questions about what they do, where they work, and how much they make,” Wallaert says. “And then we tell them if they are underpaid.”

2. Ask for more – Create a custom Raise Request that helps you start the conversation with your boss.

The second step, Wallaert says, is making the correct request. GetRaised asks you more questions to help you fill out a letter and lay out a very logical business model for your boss. The request form helps you replace any emotion with concrete business plans and concerns so you can go to your boss with information like market rate for your job, government data, and open job postings for your same job at nearby places that pay more. Basically, your research will show her, “The market has determined my value is greater than what you are paying.”

With this letter, you want to highlight a few things to your boss:

• “Here’s how I’ve grown since you initially started paying me this…”

• “We need to increase my value because I have increased my worth to this company. In the last two years, I have done this…”

• “Here’s what I’m going to do for you in the next six months…the next year…long-term…”

During this step, Wallaert stresses the importance of making the correct request. You need a raise because you are providing new and better value to the company, not because your kid is sick or you want go on vacation.

3. Real advice – Get our expert guidance through the raise process.

The third step is the follow-up. Karnani and Wallaert turn into your nagging mom, asking, “Did you turn the letter in? Did you schedule a meeting? How did the meeting go?”

Wallaert says they really push people through this part because the research shows that the execution is the hardest. You’re confident and prepared, but you get scared at the last moment, and that’s the last thing that GetRaised wants to happen.

“I think we socialize women not to ask and expect women to communicate with people a certain way,” Wallaert says. “And I think it’s intimidating to go to a boss, and I know society is getting better at it, but I think we can still make it better. Women should not be making less than men! Come on, that’s nonsense! The solution is not to kill the man next to you at work, but to really try to encourage women to take ownership. I’m not trying to blame the victim, but if you don’t ask, you have nothing to yell about.”

#Career