How do you ask for a raise? It's been almost a year now since I graduated and started working for my dream agency but my salary is pretty much shit at the moment. Any advice is much appreciated!

You don't ask for a raise at less than a year. You ask your supervisor how you're progressing and what you need to improve on to reach the next level. Once you're sure that your supervisor has an opinion of you as high as you do, then you ask what timeframe you should be looking at to be considered for promotion.

And it's never about your personal financial situation. It's about the value that you bring to the agency.

^ Is that a joke? What's a $10k raise compared to your salary costs to the agency? If companies paid our junior staff better we wouldn't have such terrible turnover and teams would t be understaffed all the time.

Pull that silver lion out of your drawers and drop it on the boss's desk.

^It's not your empoyer's responsibility to provide you a good quality of life (which is highly subjective in any case). It is your employer's responsibility to make a profit and pay their employees based on what the market will bear and the value that they contribute to the company. For entry-level in advertising, the market supports a relatively low wage.

Companies will pay for top talent that brings value, but you have to develop and demonstrate that talent (among other qualities) before they'll start to shell out the cash. And that takes time. Usually about 12-24 months.

@Strategic Planner 1: I didn't get the sense that people here are saying "oh you need to suffer and not afford food cause 30yrs ago I did too and that's how you pay your dues". I totally agree with what you're saying BUT let's take 1 quick step and reassess.

The OP did not state current salary, did not state living area, most importantly what the raise should be. Is it $100? 1K? 10K? 100K? We're conversing in this thread based on the assumption that "shit" pay is 30k(ish). The OP could be making 45K, let's say, which is tight, granted, BUT also is a accustomed to a life style that is not within his/her means. Then yes, the salary is "shit" and he/she needs more cause he/she likes nice stuff.

I think salary, or what we consider a good salary can become something relative (yes cost of living, inflation and that does count).

I think the takeaway from all this is for the OP to understand A: way are salaries within a certain range, B: how can he/she position can position him/ her self to be able to request a raise (aka am I worth more money), C: What that increase is

Some past might-night thoughts :)

"Almost" a year? Come on now.

How many junior staff are there in your agency? 300? So annually spend $3M to increase pay? Go ask your boss how much profit your account makes for the agency and figure out how to make that math work. That is only with the most junior. Guessing this feeling of being underpaid is prevalent across all levels so this approach won't stop there. Look, there are some rare gems who deserve a pay bump every now and then, but in my experience most of the ones who asked who have not brought anything special that benefit the agency or the client.

Wow talk about someone who needs to see a therapist

@starcom1 and others. Clients usually pay as much as 2x your salary to the agency, that pays for overhead like rent, utilities, subscriptions to tools, insurance and 401k etc. Usually at 5-10% profit. So your $40k salary costs a client about $80k, and your agency only profits $5-8k. So when you want a $10k raise your agency literally cannot afford it unless they ask the client for more money. Clients are usually on a 2-3 year contract that MAY include a 3-4% annual increase in fee. Which is why you'll normally only get 3e-4% raises untill you get promoted. The market has determined how much clients will pay for your talent and how much agencies will make from your labor, thus it is especially hard to give entry level positions raises.

You need to get promoted or switch agencies to make money. It will happen, your salary will 2-3x within 4-5 years, but don't expect more than 3% raise without a promotion

@Director 1, last I checked the agency was charging fees on a billion dollars of media on top of what the clients are paying. I think I know where the agency can front the money.

Since when did paying your dues become synonymous with barely being able to afford basic living costs? Some of you guys need a major reality check. The cost to rent a room in one of the boroughs is about 1k with 800 being like bare min (if you're the luckiest person in NYC and snag a reasonable room) so boom there goes your first biweekly paycheck of the month. Plus $120 for transportation, another $100-$200 for utility + internet bills, probably $80 phone bill, don't forget you're a fresh grad so you have to account for those student loans which range around another $100-$200. Most healthcare isn't fully covered so dock another $60-70. That leaves you with around $500 for general life expenses to cover basic hygiene, house items, food, etc. God forbid you get sick and need to go to a clinic, or get medicine, or have some other emergency that costs over $20 because you're fucked. Savings account? Lol cute. So yeah, I don't think asking for a raise is unreasonable after a year especially when cost of living is kind of a huge factor. Paying your dues should be reflected through work tasks and learning the more tedious pets of the job, not by withholding a livable wage.

It seems like opinions are polarized but I feel reality is somewhere in the middle

@op: there are a lot of factors that cause low entry level pay. Lack of experience would be number 1 but also many don't negotiate prior to accepting an offer. Also many feel that being good at your job warrants a raise. In some cases yes but for the most part if you perform within your job description that's called doing what you agreed to get paid for. If you're working well out of your scope I would agree that you can argue for an increase.
Before getting discouraged know that's it's still early. Right now you're making mistakes, receiving training and hopefully doing your due diligence to become, not good, but amazing at your job. I've talked to many people who believe that they should be making twice what they are but in reality... I'm sure you know a couple as well.
That being said... you talk to your manager and ask about your performance, if your within scope and doing ok ask what you can do to become amazing and what you can do to help beyond the day to day.
Do salary research on your position. Go online, ask people. You can also apply elsewhere and see what the offers are.

No one should be making poverty money but 1 year in an industry cannot generate 6 figures (in advertising). The more value you bring to the table the more $$$ and that comes with time

Best of luck ;)

I love that strat planner 1 thinks the rest of us don't have equivalent costs, or also all had to have 3 roommates, eat ramen, and shop at h&m for 3-5 years. News flash we've all done it. And fresh out of school u can defer most loan payments for up to 2 years.

AD1- $120 for transportation is based on NYC public transport. But you're right OP didn't specify where he/she is from. That being said, if OP is using a car to get to work that's a whole other list of costs. Even if we cut the cell bill down to $50 that's only a $30 difference so now OP gets to have one nice dinner a month to celebrate being able to afford eating out. As far as the student loan situation, while yes this is a flaw in our education system, it's also a reality for a gross majority of grads and if you as an employer want to provide your employees with a good quality of living this is something that becomes your responsibility. If you don't provide your employees with the means necessary to pay off student loans they will go into default and have chunks deducted directly from their paycheck which in turn makes the financial gap even larger. While yes, I agree that after a year an associate may not be ready for a raise in title, there needs to be a better system overall to set your employees up for success from the get go. Maybe OP can ask for a bonus to adjust for cost of living, but saying that he/she deserves to be scraping pennies because its part of 'paying your dues' is a pretty archaic and fucked up way off cultivating talent imo.

I just don't know how you made the leap that OP is scraping pennies. They said their salary is shit. People making twice the national average think so too. Btw, I come from a direly poor background most people can't fathom and paid college through 3-4 jobs non-stop while going to school full-time and putting tuition on credit cards and literally eating 1 cup of noodles for .33cents a day and 90lbs at one particular brutal period. I'm sorry but there's a Shit ton of ways to survive and be responsible with the means you have and financial discipline is one of the greatest skills I have rest of my life

Again the responses here have been tremendously helpful. I literally dived right in after college without much worry when I started applying. I was just ecstatic to be working at the shop I dreamed of working in when in college. // Just a little more background on my current situation, I'm located in Asia but applied remotely from my country to Hong Kong. It was a big decision but I decided to take a leap of faith. The salary is decent compared to my home country but if I'm looking at the cost of living here in HK it's basically just a bit over minimum wage. If I convert that to USD it'd be about 18k. I clearly didn't negotiate well enough when I started but I plan on making another jump stateside within the next couple of years. // In terms of what I'm aiming for is just going up to the market value, but at this rate I do plan to switch shops if necessary. I do have leverage in regards to contribution to the agency but ultimately I think I just need to get a feel of where I am with my team's head. // I'm embracing the grind but with my current situation it's pretty unreasonable for what I'm getting compensated with. Thank you again everyone!

@Havas1 @MD1 @C1 @CW1 @SAD1 @SVPD1 @AD1 @M|S1 Thank you again for your advice and support. I really appreciate it! ❤️🤙 Hope to be working alongside you guys one day.

Cool, I thought you might be based on the your style of English, hehe. Enjoy life outside the US and all the cultural awareness and connection with the world it brings, as a foreigner going on 20 years in the U.S., the bubble here is real, so you'll be incredibly ahead in terms of life experiences when you get back. Also, money is not everything, especially when young.

Speak up. Ive gotten 2 raises and a promotion in the last 2 and a half years by keeping track of my wins and simply asking....and being persistent with following up to make sure it happens....and semantics. Phrase and ask very carefully.

Copy1, it's beautiful what you're saying and I don't disagree from an ideal pursuing principle. But, what of that which you advise OP to do have you done yourself and how did it go? I'm not seeing what specific actions you recommend to make that real. And two, how many years of experience do you have, specifically, managing staff? Consider that you don't know what you don't know as not all info about running a business is readily available to you.
OP, I agree with advice above that you should meet and talk with your manager about your career goals, especially over the next three years. Discuss what ways they see for you to achieve those and what you can start on working on immediately as step 1 to getting there. Share your goal for salary increases in the context of career growth, not from a whiny I want more money perspective to make sure it's not just about you but about contributing to the business.

Rewrite your resume to focus on accomplishments not duties, and jump ship. You will get a way bigger raise that way.

I don't agree that juniors are underpaid. There was a junior cw at my last agency making close to 70k and got overtime. I started at 45k and didn't get a raise for a least 2 years, and I have student loan debt too, he did not, so that card don't work in my eyes. If you're a standout junior creative you'll move up fast. Look for opportunities to prove you're worth more money to the people in power...volunteer your skills on high profile stuff like new biz, but if you're just doing the base level amount of work, u need a better understanding of the industry.