Ask HN: Salary Valuation

I need the advice from those who are far more experienced than I am at salary valuations.

Background: I was hired in late February of this year as the copywriter for an Internet marketing company that has seen a lot of success since its inception last year. Since then, my responsibilities have expanded to that of what I'd consider the responsibilities of a product manager.

I'm essentially the jack of all trades for the company. I can pretty much play the role of anyone in the company in the off chance they are out of the office, although my main responsibility remains as a copywriter. However, lately I've been given the ability to hire people as I deem fit to complete projects. Next week, I sit down with my boss (the CEO) and his partner to discuss putting me on salary (I work hourly right now), and I don't know how to go about valuating my skills and the responsibilities I've been given.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. By the way, I'm 19.

You don't get what your skills are worth. You don't get what your responsibilities are worth. You get what you can negotiate. This is the most important lesson about salary.

Your negotiating position is stronger because you're difficult to replace and weaker because the comparable for your salary is your hourly wage. Your bosses have had the milk for nearly free; any price for the cow is going to look expensive by comparison. (For example, if you're currently working for $10/hr and step up to $60k -- which is aggressive but, hey, key employees should be aggressive -- that would cost them on the order of five times more, when factoring in taxes and benefits.)

Oh yeah, benefits. You're 19, so you may not get the importance of this now, but professional white-collar workers either a) get them or b) have an hourly many times what you're making right now so that they can buy them for themselves. Typically this includes healthcare, some retirement option with employer match, paid vacation, and such other perks as may be standard or negotiated.

Thanks for commenting, patio11. Appreciate it!

Without trying to sound like an arrogant blow-hard, I would say I'm one of the most vital employees in the company bar none. As the months pass by, I continue to take on more & more responsibilities & today my boss pretty much confided in me that other than him, I am THE creative force in the company.

When I go into the meeting, I don't want to come off cocky. I want to come off confident, which is why I'm trying to gather as much info as I can about this stuff.

I really think the benefits thing should be factored into the equation. It makes sense, right? I know benefits are necessary. But, how do you quantify that? Just do some research into what it'd cost to buy those benefits myself and factor it in?

This subject is very relevant to me, as I'm in a similar position.

I accepted a "full-time freelance" position in a hard time in my life for $15/hr, no benefits, no contract of any kind (contractor). I'm the only developer at an 8-month old, online-only print services provider, so I'd say I'm a pretty important cog.

Since I accepted the "job" I fixed the mess that the original (cheap) web agency made of the site, redesigned the entire UX of ordering prints (now with cropping! sliders! previews!) and will be launching a new e-commerce site that I built from scratch for them in the last couple months. I do server admin, design, development, UX, API, as well as occasional customer service with a smile.

What would the average market price be for the value I can bring to a startup or small business? What are my skills and services really worth? To rephrase that, what hourly range would someone with my skills and knowledge normally charge?

Sorry, I'm going to splash some cold water on this situation. Except for senior management and engineering, pretty much everyone is replaceable. As others have suggested, your currently pay will serve as baseline and it's hard to think anoff would be mre than 20 or 30% above that. But I have two tips for you: 1) ask for a review after 6 months at which point you might be able to earn a raise. 2) if this is a tech startup that you think has a lot of potential and stock options are a component of pay, it might be smart to trade a few k in salary for more than a few k in addiional stock.