I think this depends a lot on whether you work for a small or a big company; if my employers followed the "how much value do I bring" principle, then a lot of executives shouldn't be paid at all :)
More seriously, employees don't work for loyalty any more, except in very small organisations. If you want loyalty, get a dog. I've worked for people who "couldn't afford to pay any more" in the past, and either they fail, in which case it's a lose-lose deal, or they succeed, in which case the loyal employees get a pat on the head and a Christmas bonus, and the owners buy a new yacht. :-} If you, as an employer, can't afford to pay market rates, then you need to provide other incentives (and it's a good idea to make them explicit!) My formula for salary, clarified a bit, is: correct pay = MR - JS - LF - CF - AM - RA - options * MR is 'market rate' what you could earn elsewhere * JS is job satisfaction, how much you enjoy your job * LF is Learning Factor, how much you are learning at your job that will enhance your ongoing career * CF is Cool Factor - how much the job fits the dreams of the employee in some nebulous way. Mostly applies to games companies or Google - which is why such places can afford to pay less. * AM is other amenities - the little things that make the job better or worse - such as is the workplace easily accessible, are the hours flexible, is there fruit in the tea-room. (This is probably part of JS but it seemed worth breaking it out) * RA is risk aversion - fear of what might go wrong when changing jobs - which is pretty independant of the current employer, though I've had many managers talk up the "horrible job market out there" :) * options, is, of course, option packages. Generally, they suck, especially when used as "golden handcuffs" to lock employees in with false promises. But they are better than nothing. (All of these are only negative if what you offer is better than the other employer, of course. If what you offer is worse, then they *add* to the salary you need to pay.) As an employer, if you can't or won't pay market rates, then you should make sure that you lift the other factors. Make the work more enjoyable. Give your people plenty of learning opportunities. Make the workplace a good place to work. And still expect that you'll often lose the best people, and keep the worst, because "cool" doesn't always pay the mortgage. - Korny On Sun, Apr 4, 2010 at 5:32 PM, Mikel Lindsaar <raasd...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> I think the "what should I be paid?" question really doesn't relate to > job > >> title at all - you should be asking "what would I be paid if I moved > >> elsewhere?" (which is almost always more than you are currently getting) > > I think this reasoning is flawed. > > The real question anyone should be asking is "How much value do I > bring to this organisation, and is my pay packet commensurate with > that?". > > The bottom line is, the only way a company (big or small) can pay you > your wage, is that if you generate more value for the organisation in > real terms that you take in terms of wage. > > If you can't generate value for the organisation that is incredibly > disproportionate to what you are getting paid already, then you have > no grounds for "a pay raise". > > Remember also, that for every tech guy who is delivering, you usually > need one to two admin people supporting them (closer to one per if the > organisation is big). These admin people include sales, execs, > reception, treasury, marketing, promotion and the rest, not to mention > the cost of having employees. > > So if your company is billing you out at $120 per hour and paying you > $40 per hour, and you are doing less than 20 hours a week of billable > time, then you are not even breaking even on your existing wage. > > It's all well and good to say "The company should pay me more". But > many people loose sight of the fact that "the company" is made up of > all the people that work there, and those guys all pushing forward is > what makes the company sink or swim. > > </rant> > > -- > http://rubyx.com/ > http://lindsaar.net/ > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Ruby or Rails Oceania" group. > To post to this group, send email to rails-ocea...@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > rails-oceania+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com<rails-oceania%2bunsubscr...@googlegroups.com> > . > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/rails-oceania?hl=en. > > -- Kornelis Sietsma korny at my surname dot com kornys on twitter/fb/gtalk/gwave www.sietsma.com/korny "Every jumbled pile of person has a thinking part that wonders what the part that isn't thinking isn't thinking of" -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ruby or Rails Oceania" group. To post to this group, send email to rails-ocea...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rails-oceania+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rails-oceania?hl=en.
