Decent, Not Great, Not Terrible

Well, I got a raise today. I asked for it in June by going into my chair's office and explaining why I should get a raise. She then had to take the request to the department and they voted in favor of it. It then got sent to the dean who had the final say on the amount. I was warned that the dean's average award is very small. Meanwhile, my chair and my mentor crafted this big argument for why I should get a much bigger raise than the typical crappy raise she awards (and it was a pretty good argument because I am in a high demand field and had some letters from other universities trying to recruit me).

The raise I got is somewhat bigger than the typical small raise the dean gives, but not a lot bigger. I feel decent about it. Not great, not too terrible. I am making less than I could make at some other institutions, but I'm making more than I was before. I guess it pays to ask.

Chair was apologetic that it wasn't as much as they asked for but noted that it's something in these horrible budget times. (For instance, our merit raises, which is our most typical avenue for getting a raise, have been nonexistent for the past several years as there has been no money in the budget for merit increases -- salaries have been officially frozen.) Mentor on the other hand was annoyed that the amount wasn't bigger and wrote, "I really dislike our dean!"

Because I am at public university, our salaries are available online. You can see what anybody makes. In our department there is a 91K range amongst the full professors who are all roughly the same age. So the highest paid professor makes 91K more than the lowest paid full professor. This tells me that it pays (literally) to do what it takes to keep getting raises: get outside offers (so be awesome), do lots of publishing to get high merit scores (assuming merit raises ever return), get tenure and then full promotions as quickly as possible, and keep advocating for salary adjustments every few years.