LEVEL OF EDUCATION HARDLY AFFECTS PAY RAISE NEGOTIATION – RESEARCH

A research by payscale.com, a leading American startup that regularly provides data and insights around salary and career topics for various publications, has shown that level of education hardly affects negotiation for pay increase by employees.

The survey, which has over 35,000 participants, reveals that the percentage of participants that got pay raise did not differ significantly across degree levels. 49% of employees with Bachelor’s degree got pay raise when they asked for it, while 50% got for Master’s degree holders. MBA holders however tends to get a little higher attention, as 55% of them have their request granted. Holding PhD did not boost internal pay raise negotiation either, as only 51% got it when they asked.

Remarkably, the survey reveals that the higher an employee is up the ladder, the higher the negotiation power, as 76% of CEOs that ever asked for payrise had their demand met by employers.  Workers in the lowest rung of the career ladder, like cashiers, operating workers, drivers, technicians, security guards, attendants etc, fared worst here, as not less than 30% of survey participants from that cadre ever got their salary raise demand acquiesced to. This may be connected to the ease of replaceability at the lower level of career ladder that makes employees in that category afraid of asking for higher lay, in contrast to the top guys whose skills are not usually commonplace.

Relatedly, those earning megabucks are more likely to ask for more, as more than half of people earning more than US$110,000 (>N18,000,000) per annmum had at one point or the other asked their employers for more pay. Almost two-third of them got it.

57% of survey respondents had never asked for payrise. Out of this group, 38% said they had never done so before their employers gave them pay raise before asking for it, 28% and 19% gave reasons of uncomfortability with asking and negative perception of being seen as pushy, respectively. Interestingly, civil engineers are most likely to give the latter reason.

Although the respondents are mostly drawn from America, this study no doubt gives a good insight into salary negotiation behavior in the workplace globally. I only have the feeling that the rate of employees that had ever asked for raise – 43% according to the survey – will be far lower in Nigeria, as Nigerians are generally fearful of asking employers for payrise, except in unionized companies and, as the survey also confirms, by top level executives.

See also: How to Negotiate Salary or Ask for a Raise

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