“Feel empowered for your next conversation, go armed with stats”

Creative Career Conundrums is a weekly advice column from If You Could Jobs. Each week their selected panel of professionals from the creative industry answers your burning career questions to help you navigate the creative journey.

This week’s question:

I’m a senior designer at an independent studio in London and I started the role just off the back of Covid. It’s been an ongoing conversation with the founder about a pay review or pay raise; the first time we had a chat about it was when I had just passed my probation and one year review. Their response was, “we’re a new studio and we need to prioritise studio hiring and culture building”. They would even sometimes say they’re not even paying themselves as founders – which is obviously not true.

How should I approach this conversation moving forward? With the current state of the industry and economic landscape, it feels like the studio has the upper-hand of the ‘pay’ situation. I find it quite hard to navigate, and I’ve even considering quitting, but I also worry that it's not the best time to do so. I’ve ended up feeling undervalued and powerless.

Why is it so difficult to ask for a pay raise or pay review, and should I leave?

Katie Cadwell, co-founder of branding studio Lucky Dip and The NDA Podcast:

Money negotiation is one of those skills we’re all pretty bad at. It’s tricky because we don’t get much practice. Building up to an annual, 30 minute conversation, puts a lot of pressure on an already awkward conversation.

Firstly, there’s no right way to ask for a pay review. If there isn’t a system in place (like annually from the date you joined) then get that locked in. Schedule a meeting and let them know you want to talk about your progression and salary – and would like to establish a clear plan going forward for when those conversations will happen.

In preparation for that meeting, there are some things you can do. Even though the emphasis should be on your employer to know if they’re paying you fairly, quite often they haven’t done any research. To help you feel empowered for your next conversation, go armed with stats. What are equivalent roles being paid? Resources like Major Players, or recruiters like Gabriele have statistics on the latest average salaries. Ask your friends, check out new job listings. The more proof you have that they’re falling below industry standard, the better. It also reminds them you could jump ship for a better paycheck.

I also have some practical advice when heading into pay reviews.

1. Don’t commit to anything in the room. If you start to chat figures, that’s great. But allow yourself the space and time to reflect on what they offer. Saying something simple like “That’s great to know, could you follow up after this meeting with that number in writing for me to consider” allows you time to counter if you want, and gives them a little time to stew.
2. Have your golden number in mind in case they ask. Make sure you start at the top of your range.
3. Pause. Someone told me this about negotiating prices anywhere (it is particularly handy in car showrooms). Leaving a lengthy pause after a salary offer can be really powerful. Quite often, they’ll jump back in with another number if you hold your ground long enough!

They only have the upper hand if you let them. If building culture and attracting talent is their priority, losing you will only damage that. Make it clear that you’re willing to walk away if it comes to it, sadly that might be the wake up they need to see your value.

Huge luck.

In answering your creative career conundrums we realise that some issues need expert support, so we’ve collated a list of additional resources that can support you across things that might arise at work.

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