Being an in-house designer, but not paid for that...what to do???
Hey All!
So, i've gotten myself into a lil bit of a pickle, relative to my current job responsibilities and pay rate, which i'll be negotiating during a review meeting in about a week. I was hoping to get some guidance and real-life examples to help me kind of navigate this. I think i remember people mentioning this same situation once or twice while commenting on posts, but i dont think it's ever been posted about on its own.
Ok, to give some context: I freelanced while I was in school for Art and Design and for about two years afterward- Ultimately, i decided that i don't like consistently dealing with the stress of difficult clients, and i now take on freelance work very selectively.
In order to supplement my income, i currently work in retail, where i make $11.50 an hr... About 8 or 9 months ago my manager and the owner of the store, got wind of the fact that i had an art and graphic design background, and asked me to take on a couple of ongoing projects including our email lists, creating signage for our store, designing coupons and flyers, etc. I've also been tasked with supervising the social media team, which involves making graphics for posts, and as of last week I'm now involved with designing the website ( wont do the actual designing, cause i'm more a print kinda gal, but I'm helping to round out the content and layout, in order to give it to another designer and coder)...I'm happy to do all of this, but at this point i've essentially become their in house designer, IN ADDITION to being a sales associate and store supervisor. I have a review coming up in the next week or so, and I intend to negotiate a significant pay raise because of all the work i do in excess of my original job description. I was charging around $20/hr when i was doing freelance work, and now that I'm doing a similar volume of work (12 or more hours of design work during my 36 hour work week), but in an in-house capacity, rather than freelancing, I'm realizing that the $11.50 retail wages aren't cutting it for the work i do. My current plan is to recommend a weighted average of the the hours i do design work and my rate for that, with the hours i do retail work, and my rate for that.
SO- My questions to you all (And more specifically those of you in the Bay Area, CA or in Northern California, as i live in Marin County) are several-fold:
- Have any of you been in this, or a somewhat similar situations? How did you handle it?
- If you are now, or have been, an in-house designer for a company ( particularly a small company, and particularly in the Bay Area) what are your hourly rates???
- Can you recommend any resources or backing material for use during my negotiations?
Thanks in advance for any wisdom!!
So, i've gotten myself into a lil bit of a pickle, relative to my current job responsibilities and pay rate, which i'll be negotiating during a review meeting in about a week. I was hoping to get some guidance and real-life examples to help me kind of navigate this. I think i remember people mentioning this same situation once or twice while commenting on posts, but i dont think it's ever been posted about on its own.
Ok, to give some context: I freelanced while I was in school for Art and Design and for about two years afterward- Ultimately, i decided that i don't like consistently dealing with the stress of difficult clients, and i now take on freelance work very selectively.
In order to supplement my income, i currently work in retail, where i make $11.50 an hr... About 8 or 9 months ago my manager and the owner of the store, got wind of the fact that i had an art and graphic design background, and asked me to take on a couple of ongoing projects including our email lists, creating signage for our store, designing coupons and flyers, etc. I've also been tasked with supervising the social media team, which involves making graphics for posts, and as of last week I'm now involved with designing the website ( wont do the actual designing, cause i'm more a print kinda gal, but I'm helping to round out the content and layout, in order to give it to another designer and coder)...I'm happy to do all of this, but at this point i've essentially become their in house designer, IN ADDITION to being a sales associate and store supervisor. I have a review coming up in the next week or so, and I intend to negotiate a significant pay raise because of all the work i do in excess of my original job description. I was charging around $20/hr when i was doing freelance work, and now that I'm doing a similar volume of work (12 or more hours of design work during my 36 hour work week), but in an in-house capacity, rather than freelancing, I'm realizing that the $11.50 retail wages aren't cutting it for the work i do. My current plan is to recommend a weighted average of the the hours i do design work and my rate for that, with the hours i do retail work, and my rate for that.
SO- My questions to you all (And more specifically those of you in the Bay Area, CA or in Northern California, as i live in Marin County) are several-fold:
- Have any of you been in this, or a somewhat similar situations? How did you handle it?
- If you are now, or have been, an in-house designer for a company ( particularly a small company, and particularly in the Bay Area) what are your hourly rates???
- Can you recommend any resources or backing material for use during my negotiations?
Thanks in advance for any wisdom!!