Well, things have been going great!
News item #1--I am now officially Dr. Leadfoot and will only respond when addressed as such. Dissertation-free life=amazing.
News #2--FT work has been busy and draining but rewarding. I feel like I'm learning alot and finally "part of the team" and all that rah-rah. Feeling like I'm an important cog in the machine is good for personal morale but also good for...
News #3--asking for a serious raise next week. Cuz I've done my research and have discovered/confirmed/come to grips with the fact that I am severely underpaid. Like at least $15,000/year under paid. More like $20,000 under paid.
Two colleagues of mine know exactly how much I am paid (cuz I've told them) and they have both impressed on me that I am essentially giving away my labor. I knew that, but then this past week I found the holy grail of salary comparisons and really learned how underpaid I was.
Let me back-up. All the job hunting books say to do as much scouting as you can of other employers in your area to get a sense of salary range. This is fine if you are looking for a job that has very public records, like a university. This is not fine if you are looking for a job in the non-profit world. Ever since I became interested in this job, I have struggled to figure out how much I should make. The one time I broached the raise issue with my Boss and used comparable positions at a nearby university to talk about salary, she shut me down immediately with all sorts of reasons why comparing nonprofits to education centers doesn't work.
I was stymied until this week. All the job ads I've seen for non-profits (and really, pretty much all jobs that aren't edu- or gov-related) say "compensation based on experience" or something equally loosey-goosey and unhelpful. But this week I found Holy Grail of Non-Profit Salary Comparisons. Oh Guidestar.org, how I love thee.
See all non-profits have to file tax returns, called 990s. And while some organizations are on the up-'n-up and post their 990s on their own websites, plenty of organizations aren't as forthcoming. But Guidestar has access to all these 990s (or at least the last 3 years) and after you register for free, you too can see the original 990s.
This is how I figured out exactly what peer organizations in my state were paying employees who hold a similar position to mine. Or at least what they were paid in 2007. In 2007, organizations had to report exact salaries for employees making more than $50,000/year. In 2008 and 2009, that threshold was raised to employees making more than $100,000. But some organizations still report their lower paid employees and all have to report what their executive directors make.
This is all to say that minimally I should be making ~$54,000/year or more, especially now that I have the PhD in hand. Not the $37,500 I currently have coming in.
This inappropriately low salary thing really irks me--especially since I've asked about a raise twice before: once when I went full time from part time and once when I went from contractor to part time employee. Granted, these were rather weak attempts, but I am holding my ground on this and think I have a pretty solid case. I'm ready to negotiate hard (out of irritation, being educated, and having a legit case). I'm also beginning to prep myself to walk away from this job completely if necessary. Who knew I'd be restarting job feeds and bookmarking jobboards so soon?
I'll skip over all the gory details, but suffice to say--I've taken on a lot of unnecessary and unrelated (to my stated job) responsibilities and have proven my worth. If I don't receive an appropriate salary adjustment very soon, I'm back to hitting the pavement. And yes, if necessary, this will be a not-so-veiled threat during negotiations.
Hopefully I won't have to get nasty, and I really need to practice my "nice ask" so I don't start out too aggressive. That's the plan for this weekend.
