Contract for RA position about to expire, do I ask for a raise?

[1|]010ls10o]

Was hired on an R01 for a 1-year contract as an RA. I train/supervise interns and other RAs. My contract is about to expire, and I was wondering if anyone else has gone through this period where the supervisors/PIs want to renew your contract.

Do I ask for a raise? Are raises even given out for grant-funded contracts, generally? I'd like to continue working on the project. But I was also offered a similar position with similar tasks at a different institution on a different grant.

Does anyone have experience with this?

[jk616]

I've worked an RA job for the past few years and I've found that my payment is pretty set and based on the amount allotted for employees in the grant. I do get a yearly raise ( maybe ~ 50 cents an hour, probably less) based on standards set by the university I work at. I have personally never asked for a raise but I have inquired about potential reimbursement for traveling to conferences. This could also be a time to talk with your PI about the kind of things you'd like to work on or get more experience in during the next year. I've heard it looks really good if you stick with a project for a while. It's also easier to get posters/papers that way if that's something you're interested in! 

[Timemachines]

I would try to stick with the R01 you're on as to not skip around, especially if the experience you'll be getting will be almost identical. I think you can openly have this discussion if you've made empirical contributions to the lab on behalf of the grant (pubs, presentations, posters etc). Its a little trickier otherwise. 

[1|]010ls10o]

On 2/13/2018 at 2:53 PM, Timemachines said:

I would try to stick with the R01 you're on as to not skip around, especially if the experience you'll be getting will be almost identical. I think you can openly have this discussion if you've made empirical contributions to the lab on behalf of the grant (pubs, presentations, posters etc). Its a little trickier otherwise. 

What if no one's produced anything tangible for the project? We're just finishing up data collection; nothing's been officially analyzed for a pub/prez/poster. 

On 2/13/2018 at 2:34 PM, jk616 said:

I've worked an RA job for the past few years and I've found that my payment is pretty set and based on the amount allotted for employees in the grant. I do get a yearly raise ( maybe ~ 50 cents an hour, probably less) based on standards set by the university I work at. I have personally never asked for a raise but I have inquired about potential reimbursement for traveling to conferences. This could also be a time to talk with your PI about the kind of things you'd like to work on or get more experience in during the next year. I've heard it looks really good if you stick with a project for a while. It's also easier to get posters/papers that way if that's something you're interested in! 

I'd be on posters/papers, I think, if I were to leave as well. (I think) I already put in the time and effort to deserve it.

 

Slightly shocked that not that many people on TGC have experienced a contract renewal before.

[Timemachines]

Ive experienced contract renewal in a research fellowship. I didnt have any conversations about a raise with my mentor because they were more than generous as I was given a mid-year raise in addition to an annual raise totaling a 15% increase over the year. When it came time for research productivity, I realized that I was not active enough to be competitive for graduate school, so I left for a 10K pay cut at another lab. If you feel static, I would definitely go elsewhere. As a quantitative example of the outcome, I got 1 interview last time...and 9 this time. Id aim towards making an educated decision about whether or not it's worth jumping ship, opportunity to publish being the most important factor. 

[Eigen]

The vast majority of grant funded RAs can't just change lab (much less institution), and tend to be in institutions where there's no pay discretion, so negotiating a "raise" is pointless. 

I also honestly can't imagine you have any leverage to negotiate a raise, even if it is allowed. 

Are we perhaps using RA differently? You mention going to another institution, but I've never seen a graduate RAship that would let you work at a different institution than the one you're currently attending. Or if you do, it's a job, not an RAship. 

[1|]010ls10o]

2 hours ago, Timemachines said:

Ive experienced contract renewal in a research fellowship. I didnt have any conversations about a raise with my mentor because they were more than generous as I was given a mid-year raise in addition to an annual raise totaling a 15% increase over the year. When it came time for research productivity, I realized that I was not active enough to be competitive for graduate school, so I left for a 10K pay cut at another lab. If you feel static, I would definitely go elsewhere. As a quantitative example of the outcome, I got 1 interview last time...and 9 this time. Id aim towards making an educated decision about whether or not it's worth jumping ship, opportunity to publish being the most important factor. 

Oh, wow, nice. 15% is a lot. Yeah, I haven't been given a raise despite being the only person without a PhD on the project who handles data. The other paid RAs on the project only collect/enter data and assist with intervention delivery/maintenance, which I do as well. 

Perhaps I should've mentioned, I asked for an increase in pay from the original offer before even signing on. I thought I would be more productive, but it's been nearly a year and I'm primarily doing what I think an undergrad/intern can do. In fact, I train and supervise interns/volunteers to do what I do 90% of the time. 

Basically, I'm getting little to nothing done in terms of output. But perhaps it's my own fault? I'm used to having structure and deadlines when working on papers, whereas now, I can technically use old data but that's strictly on my own time with little to no supervision. What was (or is) your supervision like for the lab you joined? Did you have to work on pubs on your own time, or could you use "paid" time to make progress?

57 minutes ago, Eigen said:

The vast majority of grant funded RAs can't just change lab (much less institution), and tend to be in institutions where there's no pay discretion, so negotiating a "raise" is pointless. 

I also honestly can't imagine you have any leverage to negotiate a raise, even if it is allowed. 

Are we perhaps using RA differently? You mention going to another institution, but I've never seen a graduate RAship that would let you work at a different institution than the one you're currently attending. Or if you do, it's a job, not an RAship. 

Interesting. I suppose in this case it's only because my contract is about to expire? 

I'm not familiar with how grant money allocation works -- personnel don't generally receive raises? Even to keep up with inflation? Was @Timemachines an exception, then?

I think we might be using the term RA differently. I have an M.A., I'm not in a PhD program yet (waiting for decisions ATM). But my nametag says research assistant, even though on the IRB I'm listed as a study coordinator. So, I'm not in a research assistantship. Is the initialism RA not used outside of being a doctoral student? 

So, if it is a job, does that change your previous two sentences? 

 

Edited February 15, 2018 by 21ny14

[Eigen]

If it's a job, yes.

RA usually denotes a research assistantship, which while that's your nametag may or not be your actual job description, as it usually refers to someone who's doing it concurrently with a degree. 

You're more likely to be able to negotiate a raise, especially in light of another job offer- and especially if you're truly willing to leave for that other job. Different grant budgets are different- some require pay at particular levels set during the budgeting, some allow more flexibility on the part of the grants PI. Some institutions are also better than others (ie, public vs private) in flexibility of pay. 

My advice for negotiations is to know what you want, and ask for something fair and honest. You can easily present your case as not wanting to leave, but needing to make ends meet especially in light of this other offer. 

You can also "soft" negotiate, where you inquire as to the potential for a raise without directly asking for one- the response there tells you how likely you are to be able to negotiate. 

For most RAships, it's not typical to receive even COL raises, but sometimes they are built in. When they are, it's usually small and not something negotiated, but something built into the payscale. 

I would also suspect that if you want broader advice on job negotiations you ask in the Job forum- that's the only one that really has much discussion of people not currently in/applying to grad school, and you'll probably get more replies there from people who've been in/are in similar places. 

[TakeruK]

Just jumping in to say that RA does have meaning outside of "research assistantship". I currently work at a place that employs no students (we're a national lab type place) and one of the "ranks" of staff researchers here is "Research Assistant". There is also "Research Associate", which is also shortened to RA. But even outside of my current workplace, a research assistant, abbreviated as RA, is a job title I've seen often for someone who works in a lab as employed staff (in both Canada and USA) rather than a degree-seeking student.

56 minutes ago, 21ny14 said:

I'm not familiar with how grant money allocation works -- personnel don't generally receive raises? Even to keep up with inflation? Was @Timemachines an exception, then?

The grants I'm familiar with will have to allocate these raises ahead of time in the grant request, or there has to be room for it somehow. From my (albeit limited) experience, most grants will budget X dollars for personnel salary (for say, N FTE) with a certain amount of expertise. They will use the host institution's pay scale for this estimate, and if they are looking for a FTE over several years, then the standard increases in pay are factored into the grant budget. For some fields, the grants use the granting agency's payscales instead. 

So it is possible that the money available to pay salaries is capped based on whatever they asked for. But maybe they did factor in some additional money in case they were going to hire at one salary grade higher and they were able to hire you at a salary grade lower than budgeted so there could be extra room. Or maybe the grant allows for some shuffling of money from one area to another. Or the University itself has sources of funds that a PI can apply for to cover extra costs like this in order to keep a over-performing RA on staff. 

It's hard to say because financials are often opaque and it might be possible for the PI to pay you from different sources of funding so it's not like you are only limited by the grant (but you might also be).

I second Eigen's advice above. One really important thing to do with raises is to find out what is reasonable. Perhaps you can talk to your HR department (assuming you are still an employee of the University even though you are paid from a grant, rather than an independent contractor) and see what the pay scales are for your position. Then, a reasonable raise might be to ask one extra step on the scale than what you might normally get. Or, if your school doesn't have discrete steps but percentage increases instead, ask for a slightly higher than normal percentage increase. However, if you are asking for a raise not just because of "merit" but because you think you have been undervalued, you should look up what other schools in the area pay their RAs or find out what your colleagues are getting paid (careful, although most states have laws that prevent you getting punished for asking about your colleagues' salaries, this doesn't stop schools from acting against you). If you are at a public school, these salaries may be published online (or you can check the ones for the public school nearby).

[Eigen]

Interesting, I've only ever seen that with Research Assistant Professor/Research Associate Professor. 

Outside of that it was always "staff researcher".