How to get a pay rise using behavioural science
Let’s imagine you’re at the end of a job interview, when the tricky subject of your salary expectation comes up.
The common feeling is that the first person to say a number loses, right?
Some good advice for the applicant here is to ask for the pay range that this role has, to see if that tempts the hiring manager into revealing any ballpark figure.
But let’s be honest, most people don’t want to be seen as being greedy.
I say ‘most people’, but perhaps it’s just a British thing… so, let’s test this out.
Fear of Being Seen as Greedy
Try to really put yourself in the mindset of an interview pressure situation at the crux moment.
The hiring manager/recruitment person telss you (the job applicant) that the role’s salary range is 40K - 60K.
So, what salary would you ask for?
Was there a 50 somewhere in your answer?
The fear of being seen as greedy, FOBSAG for short, is a powerful bias that can strongly influence the answer you give to salary expectation questions and therefore also your ‘lower than it should have been’ take home pay for years to come.
So, the first step in how to get a pay rise, is to begin a new job by not underselling yourself at interview and asking for a salary that is closely related to your skills and experience, rather than coming from a ‘just want to get my foot in the door and will ask for lower than I should’ principal.
How many times have you heard someone complain that they didn’t ask for enough when they interviewed?
So, avoid FOBSAG at the start and your salary base camp will be at a much higher position.
Anchoring Effect
The Behavioural Science heuristic most commonly at play in asking for a pay rise is probably the anchoring effect.
This a cognitive bias that describes the human tendency to use an initial piece of information to make subsequent judgments.
When making decisions, we heavily rely on a first piece of information, the anchor. Once an anchor is set, other judgments are made by adjusting away from that anchor, and there is a bias toward interpreting other information around the anchor.
Here are some Behavioural Science research examples of the Anchoring Effect…
And here’s Steve Jobs, cleverly employing the Anchoring Effect to great effect...
Set up a new anchor
Imagine that last year, you received a pay rise of 4%.
That becomes a powerful anchor in this year’s negotiation and/or expectation.
It would probably seem a bit crazy to ask, or insist, this year on a pay rise of 20% (based on your stellar performance across the year, of course).
But ignoring that 4% anchor and setting the bar high at 20%, sets up a new anchor in your line manager’s mind.
Why are they asking for 20%? Have they got a job offer? Have they been looking around at the market, asking friends and now know some info about local possibilities in other companies?
It might mean that you gain a 10% pay rise… if your boss really wants you to stay because you are brilliant for the team.
Even if your manager reduces down by 12%, all the way down to 8%, that would still be a 100% increase on the previous year’s offering.
Without setting that new anchor, you may have only been offered another 4% rise.
So, inflate your pay rise demand.
Set up a new anchor.
See what happens.
And if you get me a massive pay rise, you owe me a beer :)
Behavioural Science online courses
Learn more about the fascinating world of Behavioural Science in our courses:
Behavioural Economics (with Rory Rutherland)
Applied Behavioural Science (with Rory Sutherland, Dan Bennet and Tara Austin)
Behavioural Science for Brands (with Richard Shotton)
