On the up and up

Asking your employer for a pay rise is rarely a comfortable task. If you’re too timid you risk disappointment, but be too forceful and you could come across as aggressive. To save red faces on either side, the process needs to be approached carefully.

Your main task is to prove why you deserve a rise. Salary terms and conditions are heavily regulated in social housing and human resources managers will also be careful not to infringe the Equal Pay Act 1970. This rules that all employees must be paid the same for the same job.

The most obvious time to pitch for a promotion or pay rise is at your annual performance appraisal, although you could ask for a special meeting at a mutually convenient time.

Jane Preece, director of organisation development at Walsall Housing Group, says it is imperative to prepare your arguments before approaching your line manager.

“Doing more of the same work is not enough to justify a pay rise,” she says. “You must be able to show you’ve had extra responsibilities for a consistent amount of time.”

Recent training may mean you can take on, and be paid for, a wider range of tasks. Preece says: “If a carpenter gains a plumbing qualification, Walsall will reflect the fact they can do a wider range of tasks in their pay.”

Getting a promotion at the same time as a rise circumvents the problem of getting more money for the same job. Lindsey Fordham, acting senior human resources manager at Barnet council, says this makes it clear to colleagues your job description has changed and avoids accusations that the Equal Pay Act has been infringed.

Valerie Howden, human resources director at Look Ahead Housing & Care, warns it’s vital to know what the going market rate for your type of work is. “More and more housing organisations are benchmarking their pay rates to each other and the private sector. Specialists, particularly those in fields where there is a shortage of available staff, such as finance and IT, may have more flexibility than other housing staff in negotiating their salary by referring to what the market rate is,” she says.

To find the market rate for your job, check salaries mentioned in trade and national press for job ads for similar roles. Also, unions are on hand to give advice and information about fair rates of pay, even if they are already a member.

To find out more, contact Unison (www.unison.org.uk) or the union for your profession (see the General Federation of Trade Unions, www.gftu.org.uk).

You may have more luck asking for a one-off payment for a particular project. Cornelius Attridge, human resources manager at Atlantic Housing Group, says: “For a pay rise, you need to show you are consistently working beyond your duties.

For a one-off payment you need to show you took on a project that took up lots of time outside your normal job.”

Be careful about using another job offer to lever more money out of your present employer. “This can backfire because your employer will then know you are looking elsewhere for work while the fact remains they can’t pay you more for doing more of the same,” says Walsall’s Preece.

Above all, avoid confrontation and don’t say you’ll leave unless you get a rise. Attridge says: “Never hold a gun to your employer’s head. No one is indispensable and by making this threat, you’ll put yourself into a corner.”