Welcome to Leadership: Your Questions Answered. Each fortnight, experienced and award-winning leaders Helen McCabe and Jamila Rizvi respond to your workplace queries, questions and conundrums.

Recently Rachel asked, ‘I don’t think my salary reflects the work I’m doing. How can I address this with senior management?’

Helen: Start by getting a sense of how the business is doing financially. If your management is constantly in meetings or you hear things that might suggest cost restraints are coming down the pipeline, approach with caution. You need to be careful about your timing to avoid becoming a target in an environment where redundancies are flowing through the economy.

Next, try to find out if the person who was previously doing your job was paid significantly more. If they were, they might have been overpaid and that could be why they no longer have that role, but that also means there is certainly room to argue that you are entitled to a pay bump.

Before having a conversation with your boss, it is crucial to know your worth. Do some research and talk to people in your industry at your level of seniority to identify the average salary for someone in your position. Document the tasks you are doing to demonstrate how you are taking on more responsibility than was perhaps originally envisaged.

Ultimately, being trusted with extra responsibilities is not a bad thing. The role above you might open up and you will probably be considered for it because of how well you are currently doing. Most bosses will also want to keep high-performing employees happy, so when you enter your next salary negotiation, have a range in mind and put it forward with confidence.

Jamila: This is a tricky situation to navigate in the current climate. Wages have not increased much over the last decade, and many employees are getting impatient waiting for a pay rise. At the same time, a lot of businesses are under pressure because they are not bringing in enough money to bump up salaries.

My top recommendation is to not wait until you are annoyed. If you let your frustration build until you make a snap decision to talk to your boss, you lose the benefits of having that carefully curated strategy Helen was talking about. Either initiate the conversation before those feelings start weighing on you or manage them by reminding yourself to wait for the opportune moment.

You should also consider how to respond if your employer says ‘no’. Salary negotiations do not have to be all-or-nothing conversations, so if you are prepared to ask for other benefits or suggest ways to prove you are worthy of a promotion, you can still walk away with a win.

Want more? Watch the whole discussion below