How to radically increase your salary?

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it." -Upton Sinclair

Joke aside, there is no easy answer to the question. However, for those who enjoy challenges, there is indeed an answer, and that is

Work extremely hard to  

1. Become more valuable - or better yet, invaluable 
2. Get closer to the money - the closer you are to the money, the more you earn

1. How to become more valuable?

a) Work harder and longer hours
There is no better way to demonstrate your commitment to your company than working harder and longer hours than everybody else.

This may seem hard, but actually there is a trick to it that will make it effortless: choose a job you love.

b) Work smarter 
Ask questions, take courses, do own reading. Do everything to become better and more efficient.

c) Help your boss do better 
Make him or her look good, your boss will do the same to you.


After doing all these, you boss will become your strongest supporter when it comes to increasing your income. However, although these are essential things to do to increase your pay, they are not very efficient by themselves. To be more efficient in increasing your pay, get closer to the money.


2. How to get closer to the money?

There are generally 3 types of jobs

• Administrative 
• Technical
• Profit-Generating

The distance from "money" is the furthest in the Administrative jobs and the closest in the Profit-Generating jobs. Examples of Profit-Generating jobs: marketers, salespeople, people who create new products, managers of all these people, and CEO. 

A Technical job can also earn a lot. However, a Profit-Generating job has much much greater potential for income growth.

The fastest way to sky-rocket your salary is become the key profit generator in your company. Rule-of-thumb: If you want to get a raise of $1000, generate at least $10,000 to $20,000 in additional net profit for the company.

If your current job is not a Profit-Generating job, you should either switch roles or expand your role so that it includes Profit-Generating aspects. Work hard and work smart to learn more about the new role, look for opportunities, and then, ease yourself into into your new role. 

The last step is to, as stated earlier, work extremely hard to become more and more valuable, and your salary will definitely increase exponentially! 


Idea adapted from:

Automatic Wealth: The Six Steps to Financial Independence (Agora Series)