If you work in tech, you’re probably fluent in several coding languages, but do you know how to talk to your employer about money?

A recent YouGov survey has found that despite 41% of people in the UK believing they are being paid less than they should be, a startling 61% of these workers are not planning on asking for a raise. 

The stats get even more stark when it comes to women over the age of 30: for those in the 18 to 25-year-old age bracket, 18% of men and 16% of women have asked for a pay rise and got it. The figures are even more disheartening as women progress in their careers; for workers in their 30s, 31% of men have successfully asked for and achieved a pay rise, compared to 19% of women. 

Show me the money

So, what is the best way to approach this conversation with your employer? For starters, do your homework and establish what competitors are paying new hires at your level. Your education, experience and the skills you have honed all hold value and if someone else is prepared to pay more for them, so too should your employer. 

That said, it’s important to choose your moment to have this conversation wisely. If your company has recently made several people redundant, it’s better to let the dust settle before you approach senior management about getting a salary bump. 

Always stick to facts and figures rather than your personal feelings about how much you’re being paid. There will always be someone who coasts along and doesn’t pull their weight without repercussions, but they shouldn’t form the basis of your argument for a revision of your current remuneration. 

And if all else fails, it could be time to reconsider your place within the organisation you currently work for. Sometimes the only way to guarantee an increase in salary is to move jobs. 

Action plan

Thanks to inflation, new hires should be looking for a salary increase of at least 7% or 10% if you’re moving to a more senior role or taking on more responsibilities, which is something to bear in mind whether you’re negotiating your salary with a potential employer or your current one.

While two years has traditionally been considered the minimum amount of time you should stay in a job before switching, according to figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), workers who change jobs within a year of starting have consistently higher hourly wage growth over those who stay.

If you are embarking on the search for a new opportunity, SkillReactor’s Job Board is the perfect place to start. It has thousands of opportunities across tech in companies that are actively hiring, like the three below. 

Senior Backend Engineer, Connect, Metaverse Group, Improbable, Remote

Improbable’s metaverse group helps partners realise their metaverse ambitions and as Senior Backend Engineer you will create software and pipelines, developing tested and production ready code and translate high level requirements into actionable plans and solutions. As such you will own a feature from planning through to system design, implementation and operation and continuously improve ways of working and systems. View more details here. 

Backend Engineer, Monzo, London

Neobank Monzo contributes to open source software as much as possible and relies on Go to write its application code, Cassandra for most persistent data storage, Kafka for asynchronous message queue, Envoy Proxy for RPC, Kubernetes and Docker to schedule and run services and AWS for most infrastructure. As a Backend Engineer you will collaborate across disciplines to test hypotheses and make a difference to customers and will work in a squad alongside product managers, marketers, user researchers, designers, mobile engineers, web engineers, data analysts, business analysts, writers and more. See the full job description here. 

Information Security Analyst, Darktrace, London

Founded by mathematicians and cyber defence experts in 2013, Darktrace is a global leader in cyber security AI. It is hiring an Information Security Analyst to support information security management and sustain business operations, through new vendor and integration assessments, change control, and risk management. As such you will conduct research to identify and implement security measures to protect systems and information infrastructure, evaluate requests for new software systems and applications, ensure sufficient security controls are in place and provide a feel of support to the business on information security related queries, including engagement with department leads and Darktrace users. Get more information here. 

Accelerate your career by visiting the SkillReactor Job Board today