4 Reasons Employees Aren't Asked for a Raise

“Life isn’t fair,” your parents probably told you when kids were mean at the park or wouldn’t share their toys with you. And you were likely reminded of this cruel fact when all your friends got a car at 16 and you were stuck riding the bus to school (I’m not bitter).

But you know what should always be fair? Compensation. There are many reasons employers should pay their employees fairly (and we’ll give you five in an upcoming webinar). One huge reason is because your employees won’t stick around without fair compensation.

Money is the #3 reason employees leave their jobs.

But it’s not just their own salaries that employees are concerned about, they also want their coworkers to be compensated fairly. 83 percent of women and 74 percent of men are annoyed when they feel their coworkers are receiving unequal pay.

Pay is pretty important to employees. So what keeps them from asking for a raise when they feel they deserve it?

1. Negatively labeled millennials:

You’ve probably read, seen, heard or talked about how millennials are poised to take over your workplace in the upcoming years. Along with this projection, many people are talking pretty loudly about how entitled millennials are. Well guess what? Millennials can hear what you’re saying about them. They know they have been labeled as entitled and want to prove everyone wrong. What problem does that create? Millennials are afraid of asking for a raise or negotiating their pay even though they may really deserve it. They don’t want to perpetuate the stereotype that has been placed upon them as the entitled generation. But just because they aren’t asking doesn’t mean they don’t deserve it.

Millennials, often times, are extremely hard workers who are keen to succeed. And sometimes their performance—just like the performance of generations before them—goes unrecognized. Sometimes employees have to remind employers of their stellar performance in order to get the raise they deserve. But millennials aren’t comfortable doing this because they can hear you calling them entitled. Not a great situation.

2. Talking compensation is taboo:

Can any of us really remember how and when we learned that we shouldn’t ask someone how much they make? I know I can’t. Nevertheless, it greatly influences how we feel about compensation conversations. I’m not suggesting that every company needs to publicly post how much each employee makes, but compensation protocol does call for a little more transparency.

Don’t hide how much you’re willing to pay on job descriptions. Make the raise, commission and bonus processes at your company transparent to everyone so they feel comfortable approaching and reaching out to people who could fill positions. We’ve got to stop making compensation such a difficult topic for people. Otherwise, people won’t pursue the conversation. And what do they do instead? They just switch jobs.

3. Switching jobs is easier (and more lucrative):

The average raise employees could expect in 2014 was 3 percent. But if employees left their company for a new job, they could get a 10-20 percent increase in salary. In extreme cases, they may even see as much as a 50 percent increase. If that isn’t reason enough for your employees to leave you, they certainly will if they don’t think an increase request will be received well. If you aren’t checking to make sure your people are fairly compensated and taking action to make sure you adjust their compensation to fairly reflect their performance, they will get the message that the company’s culture doesn’t support increasing pay. And when that’s the type of culture you have at your company, people would rather find a new job than ask for a raise.

You don’t have to give them huge raises. Just give them fair raises. Try to give them the compensation they deserve before they have to ask for it. Show them how much you value them or another company will.

4. A lack of performance reviews:

In the past, employees knew that they would have periodical performance reviews—a time that provided a natural situation for employees to ask for a raise. However, companies are moving away from scheduled, periodic performance reviews.

This takes away this natural opportunity to talk about pay. Personally, I think this performance review shift is a step in the right direction, but employees still need a time to naturally get feedback and ask for increased compensation when needed.

Andrew S

Andrew S is a HR Go-To Person and a Blogger at ActiveHR.io. He is currently pursuing his Master's degree in digital journalism. He graduated with majors in journalism and English literature.