It is guilt-ridden in a number of ways. Software devs make more than average. I've had that used against me in emerging software dev departments. "We can't bring you up to market value because you would be making more than engineers who have been here longer than you." "If we give you a 6% raise, we have to give someone else a 0% raise to balance our raise budget."
Also, there's the responsibility for being in the desirable position of making more than average. I need to use some of my extra resources to help people. Not like this. but more like this or this.
Kim Arnett [she/her] leads the mobile team at Deque Systems, bringing expertise in iOS development and a strong focus on accessibility, user experience, and team dynamics.
That was when I discovered my market value was 50% more than what I was making at the time. Can you imagine a 50% raise? I had to leave to get the bump. But I stayed for a while until the interesting work died off.
People stayed because it was a decent working environment and it provided a service to the state. I think underpaying is one of the ways they always managed to win the contract bid.
Speaking as someone who has experienced those same circumstances, it can be really rough getting comfortable with jumping from "making enough money to be more or less comfortable" to jumping all the way up to "market value" and making so much more.
Asking for market value salary.
It is guilt-ridden in a number of ways. Software devs make more than average. I've had that used against me in emerging software dev departments. "We can't bring you up to market value because you would be making more than engineers who have been here longer than you." "If we give you a 6% raise, we have to give someone else a 0% raise to balance our raise budget."
Also, there's the responsibility for being in the desirable position of making more than average. I need to use some of my extra resources to help people. Not like this. but more like this or this.
That's a huge red flag! If they're not paying market value for their current employees, what keeps someone there?! Wow.
That was when I discovered my market value was 50% more than what I was making at the time. Can you imagine a 50% raise? I had to leave to get the bump. But I stayed for a while until the interesting work died off.
People stayed because it was a decent working environment and it provided a service to the state. I think underpaying is one of the ways they always managed to win the contract bid.
Sometimes it's the work environment, for sure.
Speaking as someone who has experienced those same circumstances, it can be really rough getting comfortable with jumping from "making enough money to be more or less comfortable" to jumping all the way up to "market value" and making so much more.
Asking about salary upfront at all, really.