Underpaid? Here’s How to Know Your Worth & Ask A Fair Salary

So, do you really know your worth? Are you sure your company is paying you fairly for your experience, skills, and accomplishments?
It’s great if you are. But if you’re handling a ton of office work yet getting paid in pennies, it’s time for a reality check.

If you’re a fresh job seeker/new employee…

Many companies don’t reveal their employee salaries (even though you can find them all on the Internet). This lack of transparency is designed to benefit employers rather than workers. And it sucks if, one day, someone tells you you’re paid a fraction of the salary your next desk colleague receives.
That’s why you need to know your actual value in the job market to land a high-paying job. It’s not an easy answer – a lot of variables are involved. So, to help you with it, I’ve compiled a list of tools that’ll give you the exact info to understand your fair market pay. But before you dive into these tools…

Ask!

Your colleagues are the best source for the exact info about salary payouts across the company. However, it’s also the toughest way. Asking colleagues to reveal their pay packages is a taboo, at its least, and a downright invasion of privacy, at its worst.
But it’s not impossible too. If you have a (friendly) co-worker, who’s super comfortable with you, ask them out to lunch or coffee and then proceed discreetly. One tip here, though – people are more comfortable with salary brackets than revealing their exact pay. Focus on that.

In case this method fails, you can know your worth by reaching out to folks in the industry working in similar profiles. While they are an easier bet, they’re also less accurate since salaries for the same profile differ at each company.

Ok, let’s get on with the tools.

• Glassdoor’s tool – Know Your Worth

This tool gives you a customized salary based on your title, company, location, and experience. It tracks all its user’s salary ranges and market values weekly. As a result, you can know your worth in a specific area or in a local industry instantly.
The strength of Know Your Worth lies in its really accurate estimation of salary. This precision comes from Glassdoor’s huge database of salaries, job openings, employees, and companies, and millions of these data points churn out a pretty reliable understanding of fair market pay. Go ahead, try it.

• Paycheck.in

This is one of my favorite resources for salary research. On top of salary calculators and relocation adjustments, this site also gives you the cost of living, equal pay, and minimum wage checker.
And that’s just the half of it. From fresher paychecks & “women paychecks” to labor laws, this exhaustive resource makes sure you know your worth for every domain.

• Zuby.in

Zuby has a plain, straightforward interface that makes salary calculation really easy. You can know your worth in the job market and check if you’re underpaid by simply sharing your salary with Zuby. The website already has an extensive list of salaries for various job roles and companies.
Besides, Zuby also gives you the option to review your current company and record it to help others. And lastly, you can browse through its “trends” and career resources to get info on things like “Fresher salary” at various companies or “Engineering salary trends of various streams in India.”

• Indiasalary.in

If you’re looking for a quick list of salaries for various roles at Indian majors, drop by this site. Hosted on WordPress, Indiasalary.in is a no-nonsense, straight-talking bite of knowledge. It simply states the figures for companies and job profiles at companies like IBM, Microsoft, Infosys etc. However, it doesn’t have any salary calculators, so you can’t research and get a tailored value for your skills and experience.  
[Since most of you know about Payscale, I dropped it off the list]

Conclusion

With ever-shifting market trends and your constantly upgrading skills, it’s tough to keep track of your market value. But if you’re smart about it, knowing your worth can get you the best pay packages in companies.
Note: Is your current employer paying you poorly? Can’t find a company willing to shell out a worthy sum for your skills? Well, go through the links above, know your worth, and then come back to register at Instahyre. We bet our partner companies will match your skills with a satisfying income!