It’s long been my contention that your attitude plays a bigger role in salary negotiations than your skill set. Here are the must-haves when you’re negotiating a better wage.

Have Some Back-Up
If you’re like most people who want a raise, you might decide to saunter into your boss’s office and wing it. And when your boss asks you why he should dip into the company’s money for your sake, you’ll stumble through the most common excuses for “wanting” a raise, not “earning” one. Tenure with the company or higher personal expenses are too easy for your boss to shoot down. Instead, your boss needs irresistible proof - with “back-up” - that you’re pulling your weight, or more. The more specific you can be, the harder it will be to dispute, and the happier you’ll be with your raise. Whenever possible, provide facts, dates, figures, customer names, or anything tangible that will prove you’re effecting the company’s bottom line. Do your best to show how you are directly responsible for saving the company money, helping it earn more profit, maximizing productivity for others, or attracting new customers. Again, it’s critical that you be specific with names, dates, and numbers.

Do Some Research

There are countless reliable resources available to you to help determine your financial worth at work (government or industry research are often the most reliable sources; but if you’re really serious, make several phone calls to find other top performers outside of your company and explain to them that you are in a similar position, and that you are interested in gaging the proper salary for your job). Create your own simple comparison of what you’re being paid compared to other top performers in your industry who are paid more. Be sure to carefully select those jobs that closely match the duties, responsibilities and competencies that you have in your job. It’s difficult for employers to responsibly defend a lower wage for doing the same job as everyone else. Remember, you’ll need to provide clear written evidence that you are doing the same work for less money. Seek fair wages that will pay you equitably for the same work others are doing.

Have Some Confidence

This is easier said than done. But we all know people who are less qualified than we are, but who are paid more. And there’s nothing more frustrating. Why does this happen? In many (if not most) cases, wages are subjectively assigned to people. And in my experience, people with the most confidence, and who are not afraid to ask for more, get paid more. For many of us, the first step to having more confidence is to know what your “fair wage” should be (see previous two paragraphs); the second step might be to have the willingness to find another job if your current boss isn’t willing to pay a fair wage.

Now, and for the rest of my lifetime, North America will experience a severe shortage of skilled workers. If you’re one of the valuable and productive ones, prove what you’ve done with some back-up, show your boss what “top performers” in your position are making elsewhere, and walk confidently into that corner office and ask for that much-deserved raise.

One Last Thing

Honourable mention goes to the fourth point, “asking” for the raise. It’s somewhat rare to hear of someone receiving a significant raise without having asked for it. Keep in mind that HOW you ask for it is just as important as the asking itself. If you’re serious about that raise, lay out the reasons for earning it (with back-up and research), and then tell your boss how much you feel you deserve. If you’ve done your homework, your confidence and poise will pay off.