Is It Time For You To Ask For a Salary Raise or Salary Increase?

There is such a thing as the pay scale index that allows people to track how salaries are trending by location, industry and job category. It monitors changes in pay and can be a great reference for anyone who wants to work abroad or for somebody who just wants to benchmark their current salary grade.PayScale recently released the Q3 2011 PayScale Index. This is just the thing for you. It will tell you when it's time for your salary increase because everyone else around the world is getting the same increase - this will keep your job at the level where it should be (if you're unhappy of course)

Everything you'll see below is in dollars, and if you're working in Cebu or anywhere else in the Philippines you may feel like you can't relate. But really given the rise of globalization, what are the chances that you won't end up working abroad some time in the future? Or that you'll probably get hired by a BPO company here in Cebu and you'll have to figure out what your value will be. Make sure you price yourself right as well

Here's the article from Payscale.com

 

 

Three Key Factors That Change Your Market Price

Your desire for a raise may be simple, "My rent has gone up; I need $200 more per month." However, your needs and wants have little to do with whether your employer will give you a raise, unless you work for a family member or yourself. :-)
While your boss's perception of your value and effectiveness will clearly be important, there are some objective factors that will impact your pay. The first question to answer is, are you worth more in the market today than you were a year ago?
There are three factors that change the market value of you doing your job:

1. Changes in market supply and demand for your job
   1. Are there more people willing to work than jobs available? When this happens, like construction workers in Las Vegas, wages can actually go down.
   2. Is there a shortage of workers in your specialty? A career that has weathered the recession well is physical therapist. This job requires an advanced degree, and aging baby boomers are creating strong demand.
2. Increased duties/efficiency/competency in your job
   1. These are all the characteristics of your qualifications and job that go on your resume.
   2. Are you managing a team of 10 now, when you started the year with only two?
   3. Did you learn a valuable new skill, or get a new certification, in the last year?
   4. Are you simply better at your job because of what you have learned in the last year?
3. General price inflation
   1. Inflation is when the government prints more money to buy the same goods and services.
   2. The consumer price index (CPI) for goods has risen about 3.8% over the last year.
   3. The CPI isn't exactly the right inflation; it is the rate of inflation of the price of goods, not employees, but is close enough.
   4. Inflation was a large factor (>10 percent/year in late 70's), but the lower inflation now (0 to 4 percent over the last few years depending on gas prices) makes this less important.

How to Figure Two Raise Factors: The PayScale Index

So you understand the three objective factors that go into any raise discussion. Now you need the data to make the case.
The PayScale Index answers two of the questions. By tracking the changes in wages with all employer, qualification, and responsibility factors held constant (not changing with time), The PayScale Index tracks the changes in market supply and demand for jobs and inflation together.
Strictly speaking, The PayScale Index tracks the nominal (actual dollar) changes in wages. This is made up of two parts: the real (if there were no price inflation) changes in wages, together with the effect of inflation. Hence, it tells for sets of jobs what is happening with factors one and three of the previous section.
As an example, The PayScale Index for the construction trade jobs, like carpenters, plumbers, and electricians, has dropped 1 percent in the last year. During the same time period, inflation has been risen 3.8 percent. Thus, real (inflation adjusted) wages for construction trades nationally are down 4.8 percent (1 + 3.8), because of an over supply of workers given the very weak demand.
Real wages dropping nearly 5 percent in a year is huge - people are not wrong when they say construction is in a depression, not a recession, in many parts of the country.
So find the location, job category, or industry The PayScale Index that most closely match your situation, and use that to set the first and third factors for a raise.

The Last Factor in a Raise: How You Have Changed

The last factor you need to determine if you are due for a raise based on market forces is to decide how much more able you, and how much more responsibility you have, at work.
If you are doing basically the same job, with the same proficiency, for the same employer this year as last, then the answer is you marketable skills have not change, and you are not due any bump for factor two.
However, if you have been in your career for 10 years or less, you are likely stll growing in proficiency, and that is recognized in your market price. For example, wages for a software developer nationally grow from about $50,000 per year to over $80,000 after 10 years, even without a promotion.

The Truth About Offshore Outsourced Jobs

I worked for sort of a BPO company for 4 years a few years back, and believe me it wasn't easy. But you know what, the pay was awesome! I had to work really really hard though. And I mean that with 16-hour work days and deliverables up to your neck. Not to mention in-your-face foreign bosses who sometimes just don't get (and don't want to get) the local culture.

This article from Bloomberg Businessweek sums it up quite nicely. Hope you don't mind but I'm reposting it here for those who are interested in working for a BPO or for the appreciation of those who currently are.

Developing countries are benefiting from business process outsourcing jobs (BPO) that are of "reasonably good quality" by local standards, but the industry has some way to go to improve stressful working conditions, according to a study by the International Labour Organization (ILO) released on Monday.

A large number of companies in countries such as the U.S. and the U.K. have outsourced call center and back-office work to low-cost locations such as India, the Philippines and Brazil. A lot of the work gets done at night because of the time zone differences.

Employees have benefited with higher salaries. The wages of Indian BPO workers are nearly double the average wages in other sectors of the Indian economy, according to the study titled "Offshoring and Working Conditions in Remote Work." In the Philippines, BPO employees earn 53 per cent more than workers of the same age in other industries.

On the flip side, the ILO study confirms to a large extent concerns raised by social workers and trade unions in India about stressful working conditions at BPO companies.

Workers have to cope with heavy and variable workloads driven by performance targets, tight rules and procedures enforced through electronic monitoring, and unpleasant tasks such as dealing with difficult customers over the phone, the study said.

Efforts by trade unions to introduce collective bargaining in the BPO industry in some key outsourcing places such as India and the Philippines have not been successful.

"We have not had any success in introducing collective bargaining in call centers and other BPO companies in the Philippines," said Anna Fos, who heads research at the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines, in a telephone interview on Tuesday.

A key reason is that BPO workers in the Philippines find it easy to move to another BPO job if they have a problem with their current employer, Fos said. "They will not come to us, if there is a problem, as there are lots of jobs available", she added.

Workers in BPO companies also do not join trade unions because they are scared of reprisals from employers, Fos said.

Moves to unionize Indian BPO workers have also been frustrated by lack of interest from employees, according to analysts.

The BPO industry employs about 1 million people in India, according to the National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom).

The work conditions faced by BPO workers constitute a "tailor-made recipe" for stress-related hazards, according to the ILO study. These problems are also clearly linked to the high rates of staff turnover in the industry -- which can be as high as 100 per cent annually in some companies -- and represents a serious problem for BPO companies, it added.

The study suggests a number of measures that governments and companies can take to improve working conditions, including measures to protect workers' health and safety at night. It also suggests a redesign of work processes, particularly in call centers, in order to allow BPO employees more discretion to "make use of their often considerable qualifications." ILO also recommends policies and practices aimed at improving workers' dialog with management.

Secrets Companies Don't Want You to Know about Sign-up Bonuses

Really the sign-up bonuses these days are just off the charts! I just saw one from Telus PLDT that was P 40,000! Amazing! I hear People Support gives out rather hefty sign up bonuses as well for specific accounts.

Employees and would-be applicants would do well to know what they're getting into before being blinded by such up front efforts to purchase their "skills." Here are some secrets that BPO companies don't what you to know about sign-up bonuses

1. I was told by a BPO company's president that the reason for this is that they want experience call center agents in the door, and they want them quickly.
2. These companies don't have or don't want to invest in training so you shouldn't expect much coming in the door
3. The average monthly compensation won't be as high - they just want you through the door
4. There is usually a bond to these sign-up bonuses. You don't get them for nothing. Companies will have you commit to staying for six months/ a year/ or perhaps for the duration of the account.
   

Depending on the deal, be careful about what you're getting into. Ask about the fine print on the sign-up bonus deals.