Understanding money in business is the route to power and control over your own career. If you want to do something realistic about being underpaid, no matter what your position, you should learn everything you can about the budget that drives your company and your department. If you plead that you can't control or influence corporate budgets so why bother with it, you and your career will be deferred. Again, budgets are the single greatest influence over whether or not you get a raise, and how much of a raise you do get. You remain ignorant at your own peril.
Budgets are like a pie that has to be cut into enough pieces to go around the table after dinner.
If you do not know either the size of the pie or when the slices are going to be cut, you have no influence over the size of your piece of the pie. That may be all right for dinner, but it is no way to be successful in business. Your comments and suggestions are always welcome. All rights reserved. The advice and suggestions in the Women in Business column are solely those of the author.