Speaker 1: Hey, ba fam, It's time for the Baqa. I am
Speaker 1: here solo today to answer some burning career questions and
Speaker 1: I absolutely cannot wait. There are so many juicy ones.
Speaker 1: Before I start, I want to give a shout out
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Speaker 1: now let's get into these questions. If you need a reminder,
Speaker 1: you can send us your questions. We'll take career, money, relationship, business,
Speaker 1: whatever you have on your mind. Let us help you out.
Speaker 1: Now before I read the questions, as a quick disclaimer,
Speaker 1: we are not or I am not your lawyer. I'm
Speaker 1: not your financial planner, I'm not your career coach personally,
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Speaker 1: I'm just here to be your your career and financial
Speaker 1: bestie for the day, and that's all I'm won't say.
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Speaker 1: I'm going to take a quick break, y'all and be
Speaker 1: right back with another Baqa. All right, this question comes
Speaker 1: from We'll call her. Oh why can I only think
Speaker 1: of names of Bridgerton characters. I'm gonna call you Penelope
Speaker 1: because Bridgerton has your girl in a choke hold. I
Speaker 1: can't even tell y'all. All right, Penelope, Penelope has a question.
Speaker 1: Let's dig into it. Penelope says, I love y'all, and
Speaker 1: I'm so thankful for the work that you're doing. I
Speaker 1: want to stay anonymous since a lot of my coworkers
Speaker 1: listen to you too. Here's the deal. I've been with
Speaker 1: my company for about a year on mid level, and
Speaker 1: our executives just announced an annual bonus amount as well
Speaker 1: as annual salary increases. My annual bonus is one percent
Speaker 1: of my base and my salary increase is two point
Speaker 1: five percent. I make fifty five thousand dollars, so this
Speaker 1: would be a five hundred and fifty dollars bonus and
Speaker 1: a thirteen thirteen hundred and sixty five dollars raise, respectively,
Speaker 1: which clearly she's done the math and says meaning over
Speaker 1: twenty six pay periods, I will only net about thirty
Speaker 1: five dollars more per paycheck. Is this normal? I wasn't
Speaker 1: expecting a twenty percent raise, but at least something a
Speaker 1: little closer to keep up with inflation? Am I expecting
Speaker 1: too much? I have over ten years of work experience,
Speaker 1: but never in a corporate salaried setting. I pulled a
Speaker 1: few friends, and a couple said it's normal, while others
Speaker 1: says I'm being wildly underpaid. It's starting to feel like
Speaker 1: job hopping and racking up signing bonuses and equity is
Speaker 1: the only way to make more money in the corporate world. Thoughts.
Speaker 1: I appreciate y'all, Penelope, okay, pen my little baby, my
Speaker 1: little baby Bridgerton. I would first of all, I want
Speaker 1: to commend you on actually talking to people about your
Speaker 1: salary to get their feedback, even if what you're hearing
Speaker 1: is yo, that's what you're getting paid. That may be painful,
Speaker 1: It may bruise your ego a little bit. It may
Speaker 1: make you feel like, well, shit, am I doing something wrong?
Speaker 1: But that's an uncomfortable feeling that we need to sit
Speaker 1: with sometimes. And I think your friends probably have your
Speaker 1: best interest at heart when they are telling you that.
Speaker 1: And it's the only way you're really going to find out,
Speaker 1: like is when you compare your salary to peers or
Speaker 1: to just people in general to see what their feedback is.
Speaker 1: But without knowing exactly what you do, your level of experience,
Speaker 1: you got to take other people's feedback with like a
Speaker 1: grain of salt. Right, So do they really have experience
Speaker 1: with your industry? Do they know about you? Know what
Speaker 1: your skills are? In particular? You know, they may have
Speaker 1: a much better insight into whether or not you're getting
Speaker 1: underpaid if they, of course, have a little bit of
Speaker 1: experience in your space. If they don't, then okay, cool.
Speaker 1: I would go online. I would check glassdoor, salary dot com.
Speaker 1: I would check job listings for comparable positions in states
Speaker 1: where they have to list the salary range and see
Speaker 1: what you got there. But I would just keep looking
Speaker 1: for additional sources. Now to your question about the amounts,
Speaker 1: So honestly, I kind of like that. I mean, transparency
Speaker 1: is great, right, companies that actually come out and say,
Speaker 1: you know, here's the salary increase we're going to have,
Speaker 1: here's a bonus bands that we're going to have, and
Speaker 1: they release them, like, okay, kudos for actually telling people
Speaker 1: so that they don't have to just wonder. But those
Speaker 1: numbers are really underwhelming, Like, you're not crazy a one
Speaker 1: percent bonus for a fifty five thousand dollars salary. I mean,
Speaker 1: I the that's just a bit of a it's a
Speaker 1: bit of a slab in the face. That's I mean,
Speaker 1: it's just five hundred dollars. And that's pre tax so
Speaker 1: once you know, you take your income taxes, that of
Speaker 1: that it's a lot less than five hundred and fifty dollars.
Speaker 1: So that's extremely underwhelming. Now you say you're mid level. Honestly,
Speaker 1: at a mid level position, I would expect at least
Speaker 1: a five percent, but you know, more like a ten
Speaker 1: percent annual bonus. And the thing is your annual bonus
Speaker 1: is typically called a target bonus. Companies don't promise to
Speaker 1: give you this money. They always have the asterisk of
Speaker 1: depending on company perform you can get up to this
Speaker 1: percentage of your base salary in the form of an
Speaker 1: annual bonus. So you may not even get the five
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty dollars if they don't do well. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm really underwhelmed by that bonus amount. Nice that they
Speaker 1: at least have it, but like Jesus, just one percent. Uh,
Speaker 1: It's yeah, it's giving broke. But we're trying to give
Speaker 1: y'all something. I guess the salary increase. So this is
Speaker 1: going to be like I'm guessing this is like a
Speaker 1: cost of living, you know, salary increase, which is where
Speaker 1: the company from the top will decide, Okay, what what
Speaker 1: standard increase are we going to levy across the board
Speaker 1: for our employees, just to you know, take into consideration
Speaker 1: things like inflation. But also the it's not really for
Speaker 1: them about inflation. It's about the cost of labor and
Speaker 1: because of inflation. This is basically like it's like a
Speaker 1: corporation's version of like, ooh, we're stressed about the price
Speaker 1: of cereal and laundry detergent going up or eggs, right,
Speaker 1: Like we obsess over a gallon of gas and what
Speaker 1: that cost us, and how inflation is making it go up.
Speaker 1: But if you're running a company, your people are your
Speaker 1: biggest expense, and when our lives get more expensive, we
Speaker 1: start looking for jobs that can pay us more. That
Speaker 1: means that our asking prices, our salaries are going to
Speaker 1: go up. So if you're a company, that means you're
Speaker 1: going to be paying more for talent. So they will
Speaker 1: put these salary increases across the board to try and
Speaker 1: get ahead of that. Don't let them tell you it's
Speaker 1: to help y'all keep pace with inflation. N No, they
Speaker 1: are just doing this to keep to help themselves stay
Speaker 1: a little bit more competitive in a more expensive market
Speaker 1: for talent for people. Right that being said, two point
Speaker 1: five percent ain't nothing, okay, And yes, I would say
Speaker 1: that this is like kind of in the standard range.
Speaker 1: I think it's about right in the standard range for
Speaker 1: like what a typical salary increase could be, like a
Speaker 1: cost of living adjustment could be, I would say between
Speaker 1: two to four percent. You may have seen hire during
Speaker 1: the pandemic years while companies were in their you know,
Speaker 1: just to save face with their employees, like taking into
Speaker 1: account how much more expensive things we're getting. But two
Speaker 1: point five percent is like, fine, these are really underwhelming numbers.
Speaker 1: And basically what you're hearing is like your salary is
Speaker 1: going to remain flat for the time being. Now you
Speaker 1: say that, you feel like job hopping and racking up
Speaker 1: signing bonuses an equity is the only way to make
Speaker 1: more money in the corporate world. That's a little bit
Speaker 1: too big of a thought. Okay, that's kind of like, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm doing everything wrong. What am I going to do?
Speaker 1: I'm going to be a job hopping and racking up
Speaker 1: looking for signing bonuses and equity forever. Well, that's a
Speaker 1: big again, that's like big, big picture. It can feel overwhelming.
Speaker 1: But let's just like sit with where you are in
Speaker 1: this moment, all right. If you want your pay to
Speaker 1: substantially increase, a couple of things are going to have
Speaker 1: to happen. You don't have to quit necessarily, but you
Speaker 1: do need to get a competing offer from a competitor,
Speaker 1: from a comparable size company or wherever, and that will
Speaker 1: give you some leverage you be able. You may be
Speaker 1: able to leverage a outside job offer for higher pay
Speaker 1: where you are, and then you can see those big
Speaker 1: twenty percent raises, thirty percent raises, whatever. That typically only
Speaker 1: happens when someone has gone outside and got a competing offer.
Speaker 1: You can also job hop. Yes, so let's say you
Speaker 1: you know you're okay with your pay right now, but
Speaker 1: the fact that you're only going to get one percent
Speaker 1: based bonus and like a salary increase of about two
Speaker 1: percent every year, you're just like, uugh, let me move
Speaker 1: on to someplace where I've got a little bit room,
Speaker 1: a little bit more room to go up. That's a
Speaker 1: fair thought, But you can't just consider, you know, salary
Speaker 1: and pay when you're thinking about job hopping. You want
Speaker 1: to like where you work. You want to like your commute,
Speaker 1: you want to like the work that you're doing. It's
Speaker 1: got a lay into your overall career path, like what skills,
Speaker 1: what opportunities am I going to get here? And where
Speaker 1: do I see myself going by staying here? Maybe right now,
Speaker 1: you're happy where you are, You love your team, and
Speaker 1: you know that in a year or two you'll be
Speaker 1: eligible for a promotion or a management position or what
Speaker 1: or whatever, and so you decide to stick around. There's
Speaker 1: no shame in that. But if you decide to go outside.
Speaker 1: Of course, you want to look for a higher salary,
Speaker 1: but just don't forget to also look for things like
Speaker 1: the culture fit your schedule of course, like the commute,
Speaker 1: the the you know the team that you're going to
Speaker 1: be working for. Is there a good vibe when you
Speaker 1: do your interviews. Those things are going to matter as well. Hey,
Speaker 1: ba fan, we're going to take a quick break and
Speaker 1: we'll be right back now. Signing bonus is an equity.
Speaker 1: Those are nice. Those are sprinkles on top of the
Speaker 1: compensation cupcake. I love them. I talk about them a lot.
Speaker 1: A signing bonus you really can get when you leave
Speaker 1: and join another company. So if that's what you're after,
Speaker 1: those those like little windfalls, Yes, those do come when
Speaker 1: you leave. However, you can also negotiate a spot bonus
Speaker 1: for yourself. You can negotiate a retention bonus. So if you,
Speaker 1: for example, get an outside job offer and it's like
Speaker 1: a twenty percent raise, you bring it to your manager
Speaker 1: and hr the whole team is like, ugh, we really
Speaker 1: want to keep you, but we can't afford twenty percent.
Speaker 1: Maybe you could negotiate, well, can I have a one
Speaker 1: time bonus retention bonus in the amount that you know
Speaker 1: you would have been getting if you left, And that's
Speaker 1: kind of sweet because then you get a lump sum
Speaker 1: and you don't have to work, you know, and rack
Speaker 1: up that money over time, like in the form of
Speaker 1: additional salary, Like you just kind of get that money
Speaker 1: in one fell swoop. There's always strings attached when it
Speaker 1: comes to bonuses, signing bonuses, retention bonus. Typically they require
Speaker 1: you to stay with the company for at least a year.
Speaker 1: Got those golden handcuffs locked, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: I know I'm going on and there's a lot of
Speaker 1: things to consider right here, but there's possibilities for you
Speaker 1: to get you know, richer, get more wealth while you're
Speaker 1: in your current company. But the key, if you're kind
Speaker 1: of following where I'm going here, the key is to
Speaker 1: have outside offers. And in order to do that, you
Speaker 1: want to be investing in spending a lot of time
Speaker 1: getting on LinkedIn, going to you know, different company events
Speaker 1: like industry events, conferences. You want to be upskilling at
Speaker 1: all times, like and I don't mean going back to
Speaker 1: school and getting degrees. I mean looking for new ways
Speaker 1: to improve your skills at work, whether it's taking a
Speaker 1: training that they can you know, they can cover the
Speaker 1: cost for you, or you shadow other workers, you learn
Speaker 1: new skills, but be gaining new skills and be gaining
Speaker 1: more specialization. The more unique you are, the more likely
Speaker 1: they are to want to fight to keep you. Right,
Speaker 1: What else can I say? Get more specialized? Oh? Right?
Speaker 1: So when you're investing your professional brand, why are we
Speaker 1: doing that? One because you want to be more appealing
Speaker 1: to your current company. But two, it's so that outside companies, recruiters,
Speaker 1: hiring managers, they're going to start to say like, oh,
Speaker 1: Penelope is the shit like I want to poacher or
Speaker 1: I really want her to work on our team. And
Speaker 1: when they come to you for job opportunities, the chances
Speaker 1: that you're going to get a really competitive salary and
Speaker 1: those juicy benefits like bonuses and equity is a lot higher. Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna leave it there, Penelope girl, But thank you
Speaker 1: so much for this question. And I'm glad that you're
Speaker 1: doing the work that you're doing right now to get
Speaker 1: the pay that you want to get. Yeah, thank you,
Speaker 1: okaba fam, thank you for tuning into this week's be AQA.
Speaker 1: Don't forget that broad ambition is on three times a
Speaker 1: week now. We have our throwback how to episodes on Monday,
Speaker 1: main show on Wednesday, and on Friday. It is all
Speaker 1: about you, babes. It is all about our listeners and
Speaker 1: answering y'all's questions. So until next time, Bye,