How much of a $ bump should I ask for when considering a jump into management?

In My Humble Opinion
1

So, I’m in contention for a management position at my company; I’ve never had much interest in becoming a “suit,” but this job plays to a lot of my strengths and would give me the opportunity to see more of my ideas realized.

The biggest difference between this job and my current one is that I’d be required to carry a Blackberry at all times, and essentially be “on call” on weekends. Most stuff can be handled by phone/email, but since I live within walking distance, I’d probably be the first manager asked to come in on short notice.

So, if it gets to the salary discussion phase: is there any rule of thumb for the percentage increase I should ask for when jumping from salaried employee to salaried manager? I’ve gotten wind of what some other entry-level managers are making, and it’s only about 10% higher than what I make at my current job. 10% is great for a raise, but given the increase in responsibility, am I selling myself short if I don’t ask for a little more?

I should note that I get great reviews, and make a bit more than the average salary at my current job, which may explain the not-so-huge spread. There are other advantages to the management job, such as the fact that it’s in a more prominent department, and offers much more room for advancement, albeit into an abyss of suitdom.

2

If you are going from hourly to salary, at least 20% just to make up for the extra hours, and another 10% to compensate for the increased responsibility.

If you’re already salary and the extra hours aren’t an issue, at least 15% for the increased responsibility.

Of course, good luck getting that. Depends on so many factors.
Roddy

3

Years ago when I made the jump from a salaried employee to a salaried manager (of the same group I’d been an employee in) I received no immediate salary raise at all.

I remember being rather upset at the time, but my boss told me this was normal. Our company paid its employees based on the “Hay point system”, and I was moving from a situation where I was a super-duper technical guy who was being paid more than the average for that position to being a new (and presumably inexperienced) manager who was being paid less than the average for that position. As a result my raises for the next couple of years would probably be higher than average (rather than the lower-than-average I would reasonably expect had I stayed an overpaid technical guy) as I gained management expertise and my salary moved up to the norm for that position.

…And he was exactly right. A couple of years later I was pulling down significantly more money than I would have as a technical guy. (And as a practical matter I was not a particularly good manager.)

4

It’s hard to guage unless we know stuff like size of company, industry, functional area etc. A manager of a Starbuck’s salary is very different from a manager of capital markets and weather machines at Goldman Sachs.

I would recommend going to a site like Glassdoor.com and looking at jobs at comparable companies.
Also keep in mind, the title itself may often help your resume significantly, even if there isn’t that big a salary bump. One I became a “manager”, a whole set of new doors opened up for me.

Also “management” isn’t always “dork in a suit”. In larger companies, yeah, I was basically a do-nothing “manager of managers”. In the small start-up where I work now, I’m very hands on and there is very little role differentiation (other than I have more influence and more responsibility when things go to shit).

5

working at a fabrication company in 2001 i was hired at around 17.50 plus company paid my car bill, around $450. Just a 9 to 5er making parts on machines.

Became manager around 2003 and went to about $24 hr plus car was paid off, and was offered 1% of total profit for the year. Didn’t care to much about the 1% profit sharing in fact i made a big stick about it, but when the first year I got a check for about 11k and the next year it was about 24k. After that it leveled back to around 10k a year.

They also matched the profit if we put it into a charles schwab MMA account. I did this for a year or two but decided the money in my bank was better for me at the time.

Becoming a manager was more money, and the job was to make sure production stayed where it was at or better.
2008 laid off when company moved, recieved a bill from company to pay back a weeks pay (around 7 or 8 hundred) Compained that this was unfair, upper management was not pleased with the HR mistake and gave me a 10k severance.

Working at a radio shack a long long time ago, i made around $400 a week. Went to assistant manager and pay went down to $350 and lost all perks like selling spiffs. Also alot more stress involved.

Different companies treat people / workers completely different. Now self employed and glad that I make more and work less.

6

From an H/R person’s perspective. First of all forget all you know if you haven’t looked for a job since 2008. The rules have really changed.

Remember the job has been budgeted for already, so they know the maximum they will pay you.

The only way to trump that is if you have someone in the company who is going to really press for you.

You really need to get a gauge on what the job is paying in your area. Do your basic calculations on how much extra time you’d have to put in. Then I’d figure out what you’d get if you worked all those hours straight time. THEN shave OFF 10%.

Companies pay salary as they are interested in saving the money.

The real problem is this, since 2008 I have never had less than five fully qualified candidates for any full or part time job my company has opened up.

In the old days, I was lucky to narrow it down between two fully qualified people. Now that has not been an issue in years. If you ask for too much, you’re going to quickly be eliminated.

Also remember companies are not thrilled to offer or invite you to apply for a position and then have you turn it down. If you do this, they aren’t likely to ever offer it again. Companies try to push you into management or other jobs if you’re making too much money or if the job situations change.

For instance, where I am a file clerk used to be about $10 - $11 per hour. Now it is a minimum wage job, part time no benefits. If you were in that position now, we’d be overpaying you. So we would either offer you another job, for the same salary, get you to quit, or eliminate it.

As hard as it is for people to realize, it’s possible to be underpaid for a job in 2007 and be making the same wages (or salary) and now be over paid for the same job.

Not all markets have changed this much, but it’s something to consider.

The bottom line is you want to avoid, applying for the job and then having to turn it down because it isn’t enough money. Good luck but as an H/R person you want to avoid this bottom line at all costs