Salary QuestionI accepted a position 6 months ago which I love. It was a lateral move in salary but I was not aware of the lack of health coverage (with my previous employers, while I paid a monthly premium, charges were covered 100%). With my new employer I am racking up some major health bills that I did not account for. In addition, while I am the manager of a department, I just hired someone making ONLY $10K less than me. While I feel I did my due diligence in the interview process, I feel like I should have negotiated at a higher salary. Is it too late to go back to my boss and discuss this? If so, how should I approach it? Yes, it is too late to negotiate your hire salary you' d be looking at asking for a raise. You can' t sell a raise based on your medical expense costs and you can' t sell a raise based on the fact that you don' t think you make enough more than your subordinate. It is also unlikely you' re going to convince your boss to give you a raise after only 6 months. In most companies those occur annually. If you really want to try, make a list of everything that you' ve actually done that is above and beyond what they hired you for, then ask your boss for a performance review and see how it goes. Be warned however, this may not go over well. It would be much smarter to wait for the annual review and tackle it then. "...I was not aware of the lack of health coverage...." Unfortunately, you apparently did NOT do your due diligence (how could you accept a job not knowing what the health benefits were, if any, especially when making a lateral move?), and I really don' t think you can ask at this point for a higher salary to offset your medical expenses. The first thing you need to do is get health insurance if you haven' t already. You can get a policy that won' t cost an arm & a leg, even if it' s a low-premium, high-deductible plans--they will cover 50 to 80% of costs once you meet your deductible, which can be anywhere from $250 to $5000, depending on what plan you choose. Second, if your company does not have a formal performance review process, and if you think you have outperformed expectations, you can always ask for a review at this point and make a case for an increase based solely on your stellar performance and nothing else. And, I' m not sure why you think that making $10k more than a subordinate isn' t "enough." Sounds OK to me.... I used to supervise people making less than $10k less than me, and no big deal, IMHO. YOUR pay is the one that matters, not somebody else' s. If your company does not review prior to 1 year, I think you' re stuck waiting that long, especially if you knew this policy going in. No, you can' t go back after six months on the job and ask to renegotiate your starting salary! At this point, you' d be asking for a raise. Maybe you can approach it from a performance and salary review standpoint, but not as renegotiating of your starting salary. Secondly, with no offense intended, why on earth didn' t you ask about their benefit package before you took the job! It' s partly their fault for not telling you about their benefits, but it' s also partly yours for not asking. All you can do at this point is ask about a performance and salary review, as I see it. To clarify the statements about my due diligence and benefits.... For the past 20 years, I have worked for financial institutions in which you contributed a portion to your health benefits. My bills were always paid 100%. I never saw an invoice from an insurance carrier. This is the first time in my work experience in which I contribute a monthly fee to my insurance but I am getting bills coming out of the wood work. Did I ask if they had health insurance? Yes, of course I did. I' m an educated woman. Did I ask what what my portion would be? Yes, I did and it was in the ball park of what I normally have paid. I was not aware that they wouldn' t be paying 100% of the bills as I have become accustomed to. Had I known that, I still would have accepted the job, but would have negotiated a higher salary to accommodate for it. You really should have asked for a written benefits summary once negotiations got down to the nitty gritty. Shame on them for not providing it, but shame on you for not asking for one when it wasn't provided. It sounds as if this was a verbal exchange, and you did not see a formal summary. Just knowing what your contribution toward premiums is is not sufficient, since almost NO companies' health insurance pays 100% of anything anymore. In fact, I personally know of no company that offers that kind of coverage any more, and are very surprised you expected it when changing jobs... (My DH's insurance is the best I've seen in ages, and we still have a doctor-visit co-pay, but there is no deductible.) You will have deductibles, co-pays, out-of-network bills, and the like. A benefits summary will, or should, show the plan's premiums as well as the aforementioned costs. Hey, I understand where you're coming from, since the last insurance we had through an employer cost not only an arm & a leg for premiums, but our co-pays & deductibles were costing us a fortune. However, you still cannot go back & negotiate a higher salary based on this. It has to be on your outstanding performance and contributions to the company in your six months there. Pay no attention to these naysayers! Go ahead and try to get your starting pay raised six months after the fact. Make sure you get back pay too. Then, make sure you come back here and tell us all how you did it! Almost no plans pay 100% anymore. Those that do have high premiums which of course are passed along to the employee. Some will pay 100% of some things and only if the service was provided "in network" and only if the moon is full and the stars are in alignment. Most pay 80% of "usual and customary" services which means 80% of what the insurance company wants to pay and the other 20% plus whatever is over and above what the insurance company wants to pay is on you, plus the deductable too. | |
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