Career Management

How to Ask Your Chair for a Raise

Victor L. Schuster, M.D.
Chairman, Department of Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, NY

Edited by Sandra K. Masur, Ph.D., Associate Dean for Faculty Development, President WFG, MSSM.

Take Home Lesson: Focus on interests. (An alternative in which you focus on positions is likely to lead to confrontational negotiations and bad feelings, see below.)

How do you focus on interests? You must learn what are your Chair's interests

• There are unmet needs of the Department
• He/she wants people (you) to meet these needs
• He/she wants you do a lot of this activity, and to do it well and efficiently for new revenue
• He/she wants to then reward you with a raise using the new revenue you generated

What your interests should be therefore:

• To learn the Department's unmet needs
• To see if you can help meet those needs
• To meet/exceed productivity standards
• As a result, you can to earn more money

Economics Behind a Raise for a Basic Scientist

Individual generates more grant dollars

Direct and Indirect costs increase sufficiently to cover increased salary and fringe benefits

Economics Behind a Raise in a Clinical Department

How a Clinical Chair Thinks about Billings, wRVUs (Work Relative Value Units), and Salary
Example: a general internist

• Base salary = $100,000 from practice
  Associated fringe benefits = $31,000
  Total cash required = $131,000

Practice expenses vary but are usually 50 percent.

So collections required to cover the base salary are 2 x $131,000 = $262,000

Collection rates vary from 30-35+ percent
At 33 percent, $262,000 requires billings = $786,000

Principles of Asking for a Raise

1. Do your homework first.
   • What do you do now for the Department?
   • How much do you bill (wRVUs generated)?
   • How much salary do you bring in grants?
   • For comparable salaries for your peers (Are they known? See AAMC benchmarks) are there guidelines on Department and Institutional Web sites?
   • What has the Chair said about the Department's needs and missions?
   • What might you do that is new or more?
2. Schedule the meeting and say that it's about "compensation", not "personal."
3. Be on time, come prepared, make your case calmly, and above all, no whining.
4. If you are rebuffed (likely on the first meeting):
   • Ask specifically why. Write it down and try to flesh it out more fully on the spot.
   • Ask "What specific goals of the Department could I fill that, in your opinion, might get me the raise I seek?"

Explore creative solutions:

• Pay it as a bonus out of a new grant
• Propose a trial increase tied to targets
• Ask for names of mentors (research, clinical)



Re-examine whether only straight salary will do.

• Alternatives could be: flexible time, training for new skills, daycare.

Sadly, some chairs are clueless. A combination of collaboration and some confrontation may be needed.

An alternative approach is confrontational negotiation

This often is not effective and makes it harder to have a long-term relationship with the Chair.

In confrontational negotiation, one takes positions (rather than examining interests as discussed above). Simply put:

• Your position: "I need a raise to bring me to a salary of $150,000."
• The Chair's position: "I can't afford it. Have a nice day".

Real-life Examples of Confrontational Negotiation that Were Not Successful

1. "I've been looking at other jobs. If I leave, you'll be in trouble on this service. To stay, I'll need a raise."
   The Chair may be thinking: "I'd really like to keep you, but no job has been offered yet, and maybe none will be. I have a file of applicants who have been calling and writing, wanting your position, who appear 'hungrier' than you to succeed. I've weathered defections before, no problem."
   Conclusion: A very confrontational approach, extremely risky, be prepared to have your offer accepted.
2. "I've been offered a terrific position elsewhere, and unless I get a raise, I'm leaving."
   The Chair may think: "If it's such a great position, why are you negotiating? Why aren't you simply leaving? What else is at play? I have applicants for your job who appear to be 'hungrier' to succeed and, being more junior, may be cheaper than you. I don't believe you; show me the written offer."
   Conclusion: This approach may be viewed as a "terrorist" approach less risky than strategy 1 (job in hand) be prepared to have your offer accepted if successful, short term gain, long term loss.
3. "I work like a dog, 60-70 hours a week, I need a raise."
   The Chair may think: "I'm delighted you're so dedicated to us, but for all those hours, what are your grant dollars? Your productivity? Your billings? Your clinic visit volume? Maybe you're just very inefficient, you don't want to go home, you have no life outside the hospital or lab. Maybe you work on things that don't generate revenue or are not aligned with our goals for the Department. Maybe you should travel less and give fewer drug company talks for honoraria while 'working' on my dime."
   Conclusion: Without productivity data relative to your peers, this argument will likely fall on deaf ears.
4. "As you know from my evaluations, I'm a great teacher. I'm planning new courses and lectures that I'd like to discuss with you. And I'll need a raise to support this new teaching activity."
   The Chair may think: "The School pays us little for teaching and there's no new money on the horizon from them. The Hospital teaching budget is fixed; the Chair will cringe at using practice income for teaching therefore we don't have money to pay for your new courses. We have already plenty of teaching, what I really need is to decrease the waiting time for new patients, or what we really need is to fund you on a center grant."
   Conclusion: Know the goals and needs of the Department before you propose a new job for yourself.
5. "I run the only canine renal clearance lab in the United States. This is a national resource. I need a raise because of this national prominence."
   The Chair may think: "He's internationally famous, on the 7th floor. Everything that can be learned from canine renal clearance has been learned already. I need someone doing mouse genetics."
   Conclusion: Make sure you're really hot before you portray yourself as such. A risky approach unless you're well tuned in to the very large external world of medicine or science.
6. "I deserve a raise."
   The Chair may think: "The people of Iraq 'deserve' peace, and so on."
   Conclusion: Not a compelling argument.
7. "My children are starting college." or "We have payments due on renovations to our upstate cottage."
   The Chair may think: "Live within your means. Save, save, save. Plan ahead. Simplify. Invest for your children's college early on. Not my problem." Or: "If we do this for you, we've set a precedent, and we'll have everyone in here pleading their own special case."
   Conclusion: Not an effective strategy.
8. "My Division Chiefs earns X; I am a Full Professor with several grants, so I deserve to earn at least Y."
   The Chair may think: "Where on earth did you get the idea that your Division Chief earns X? ( In fact, your Division Chief earns only 0.65X, except I'm not going to tell you that)."
   Conclusion: Know your facts before you make a comparison argument.
9. "My colleagues at nearby institution X earn 30 percent more than I do, and I want parity."
   Conclusion: It may be an apples and oranges comparison if they bring in a higher percent of salary than you do, be careful what you ask for.
10. "I believe I'm underpaid because I'm a woman (minority) and therefore I deserve a raise."
    The Chair may think: "Historically, that might have been true, but because of EEOP and Affirmative Action, we go over our salaries every year with precisely this thought in mind. I guarantee you that if you are in my department, you are not underpaid."
    Conclusion: Again, check your facts very carefully.
11. "I looked up the AAMC 75 percentile Northeast salaries for my specialty and I am underpaid for my rank."
    The Chair may think: "Yes, I know we pay less than the AAMC and I wish we were at parity, or even above, but we cannot afford it."
    Conclusion: Seems dead-end at first, however this may be the beginning of a useful approach. Use an external benchmark – AAMC data may engender a wider discussion, a transdepartmental salary analysis, and so on.