Hi All,
I have recently been promoted and I would like your advice.
In short, I have received a significant promotion and the way the organisation is structured, I am now the same level as my new boss.
The promotion was an advertised position which I interviewed for and successful got. When given the news of the success - I accepted it gracefully. I did not raise compensation in that discussion, instead my new manager did and informed me that I will be told in due course about the increase.
Earlier this week I was informed..... it was a grand total of 1%. The argument given to me regarding this was that my salary is currently higher than the market reference for my new role. To illustrate the point (not real numbers)
My current salary: $65,000
New salary: $65,650 (1% increase on current)
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Previous Role Salary Market Reference: $50,000
New Promoted Role Salary Market Reference: $60,000
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The reason why my currently salary is high is that I was an external higher 4 years ago and that is what the market is driving.
So whilst I understand that my current salary is above the promoted role market salary reference point, I do feel cheated. I have accepted a promoted position which significant more accountability and responsibility vs what I had currently - yet the increase doesn't match. I feel cheated.
Whilst I accept that the role will be better for my career prospects... I don't feel as if I have been rewarded.
Thoughts? I'm I off base here?
Thanks

Different job, different pay -- not necessarily *more* pay
It seems to me that you've either been overpaid for the past 4 years, or the "Previous Role Salary Market Reference" number is way, way off. If the former, you just need to accept that you've been lucky until now. If the latter, then either your new role's market reference figure is off too (prove it and get your pay increase) or accept that your new role is just "worth" less, in the market, than your previous role, and act accordingly.
As to your comment that you don't feel "rewarded"... you're responsible for your own feelings. If the only thing that makes you feel rewarded is big bags of cash, I'd suggest you might feel better rewarded in investment banking. Otherwise, you should probably try to find reward in whatever it is that you'll be doing. For me, my reward is seeing my people do better than they did before, and taking the company (or at least my little corner of it) to new and exciting places and levels. I've got enough money to support myself and my family in the modest lifestyle we're happy with, and so I'm not overly worried about the exact number.
Yeah, that sucks
That does suck, but you'll need to prove that your new role generally commands a bigger increase in the marketplace in order to get more cash.
Your scenario is not uncommon. In one of my previous roles, due to market forces that particular position actually paid more than my boss. (And because we were reasonably close, my boss let her unhappiness about the way the company structured these things be known on a couple of occasions.) When I was promoted to be a peer of my then boss I got a $0 increase. And it kinda sucked to be me right then, even though I knew it was a whole new set of skills I'd need to use and would therefore have to prove my value.
So I know the feeling. All I can say is life is a marathon not a sprint. Get the experience and move on and up.
(Having said that, I hope you at least got a fancy new title. Those are free and oddly enough do make a difference on how you're perceived inside the company.)
In my view I'm not really
In my view
I'm not really sure how much "market reference" means unless you are talking about a huge disparity. Even though say a "Senior IT analyst" could be paid X, what that person actually does from company to company can vary hugely.
Companies trot out market reference points to justify what they want to give you, not actually pay you whatever "market" is.
If you think you are worth more, and you've asked once or twice about a raise and have not got anywhere, find somewhere else that will pay you that.
Note - if your skill set, results or potential are very difficult to replace then the above might not apply to you. But I'd suspect that such people are about 1% - 5% in a company. If your companies salary practices are at the tail end of the bell curve, your experience may vary as well.
All of the above is really just a hypothesis, I'd be quite pleased to hear I'm wrong!
This is not uncommon, especially in this job market
I understand why you might feel that way, but you weren't cheated.
I'm used to seeing a range rather than just one market rate (e.g. 10th percentile is $40,000, 25th percentile is $48,500, 50th is $60,000, and 75th is $75,000, etc.). As has been stated in other posts here, there's really not just one rate per job. But even with percentiles, if you're brand new in a role you are not likely to command top dollar.
Think of it this way -- although the 1% is not signficant, it does show they were somewhat sensitive to the fact that you would expect some sort of a raise even though it wasn't "justified" by the numbers. Had you not been promoted, you certainly would not have been given a huge raise this year anyway. At least the new role puts you on a new track with a little more headroom so you can receive raises from time to time in the future. Companies are reluctant to reduce pay directly, so they typically just hold back raises until market rates "catch up" with your salary.
Now that you're in the new role, focus on producing at this level in order to make a case for higher pay.