I remember my first full-time salaried job. I had just graduated college and before that had been working hourly part-time and internships and was thrilled moving onto a salaried full-time position calculated at basically the same rate as what I had been earning.

About a year into the job I accidentally came across a piece of private paperwork a less experienced co-worker left on the shared printer that had her salary on it. It was almost twice what I was making!

I started a campaign to fix this discrepancy. I started keeping track of every task I performed, even little one-off tasks, and also the impact that completion of that task had. I often found that the tiny half-hour one-off tasks I was taking care of without a second thought were generating huge returns on efficiency for my company. A simple script that turned a 40 hour a week copy-and-past data entry job that was eating into corporate overhead into a 30 second run-once-a-week thing was freeing up an employee to work on higher billable hour tasks. I was not only saving the company money, but making it money by pinpointing and automating problems in their business processes.

The next evaluation period I walked in with a 20 page print out of every task I had worked on in the last year, what it was, and how it had impact on the company's bottom-line. I asked for as big of a pay raise as company policy would allow.

It worked, and it continues to work everywhere I go. Having an irrefutable record of your value to the company makes it impossible for them to turn you down. And when they do, you now have an excellent archive to use for resume filler when you go looking for your next job.

Things I never do:

- threaten to go somewhere else if they don't give me the raise, this is implicit. If they don't give it to you, leave the company. Simple as that. No threats. Managers don't like it and it's just as likely to backfire on you. I guarantee they'll muddle along somehow without you.

- get upset, what employees are paid is a complex business that you can only ever really understand when you're in the position to be paying them. Sometimes you'll end up getting paid less than an employee in a similar position. It sucks, but sometimes there's reasons for it that you aren't privy to. Don't compare your pay to others too much, compare it to yourself and where you want to be.

- demand pay that exceeds what you should be making in that position in that industry. It sucks, but if you work phone tech support or are a receptionist, you're not going to be making $250k/yr. If you want to make that kind of money, ask what the requirements are for that job then pursue them. Hold the company to that claim. When you fulfill those requirements, if they don't pay-up, move on. Congratulations you are now qualified for a better job at a competitor.

- take a raise, then quit immediately. I feel this is a point of honor, if I make a big fuss and my manager goes through a lot of trouble to get a silver bullet for me, I feel like I've just made at least 12 month commitment to them. You'd be surprised at how important this has been for me career-wise many years later. I've had old managers who've hired me back at new companies (or give me open offers) just because I stuck around after they put their neck on the line for me, even when the work environment sucked. As a manager it can be difficult justifying huge percentage pay increases for your people (my 20 page list of completed tasks usually helped them significantly).

- ask for it based on need. "I need to make more money to make my rent". I did this once, and my manager responded with, "well you should live in a cheaper place". And that was the last time I tried that. Your company is not responsible for your personal spending habits, full stop.