A promotion without a raise

I once turned down a promotion because there was nothing in it for me. No new challenges, no additional vacation or bonus, no exposure and most importantly no raise. Alison Doyle addresses this same issue in here article here: http://jobsearch.about.com/b/2011/06/14/job-promotions-without-a-raise.htm?r=twt

For ASD folk keep in mind that just because they say Promotion does not mean it is a promotion. In reality someone is trying to get you to do more for the same amount of money/compensation as before. Tread lightly and be polite if you turn them down.

Is 3% really worth it?

One time I went into a meeting about my annual raise and saw 1.85% on the paper. The sad part is that 1.85% was one of the highest raises anyone got in the group; my manager had to fight to get that much. That came out to $23.13 a week more before taxes or roughly $14 more a week in my pocket. At that point I decided my dignity was worth more than $14 a week.

The counter-reasoning to that is I got $14 more a week than I had before so I should be happy and it is true $14 is more than $0. But at some level self-respect has to be worth more or we find that we have sold ourselves... cheaply.

So do your job, do it well but only because you want to not for a raise. You negotiate for a raise based on good results but in today's corporate world if the bean counters tell the company they have to average a 3% raise across the board there is little you can do at the annual review to change it. What you can do is off cycle make a case for yourself, maybe find another offer to lend strength to it and then go in with the leverage necessary to get something more substantial than 3%.