I'm thinking about negotiating for a pay raise. Not so much because money is tight (its not, when I am unable to pay an extra $510/mo on my credit cards I'll start to think $$$ is tight).

The reason I'm considering asking for a pay raise is simply because, when I think about what I do for the company - I feel like I am underpaid.

I'm the main accounting/financial manager for the marketing department. I prepare the budget, update it accordingly, let management know, collect our contracts, and make sure our advertisers are billing us accordingly.

All for $16/hr... or $33K/year. To put that into perspective, I'm the lowest paid person in the department.

I'm not going to ask for a huge pay raise, but I'm also at a point where I'm being asked to take on even more. In addition, I haven't received a pay raise in 2 years because of budget cuts.

Now the company is doing better and doing quarterly reviews.

I think if I asked for a pay raise that kept just ahead of inflation, I'd be happy.

There is a certain perk that goes along with working from home, namely not having to pay for childcare so I've held back on my pay raise requests because of that intangible benefit.

Childcare for the four kids would easily be $24K/yr. So in order to be making what I do now, I'd have to make $57K/yr if I worked outside the house.

However, there should be a balance. Regardless of my personal situation, I should be compensated at a fair wage (i.e., I shouldn't factor childcare into the equation, just because I have kids doesn't mean I should demand less compensation from a work at home job than a single woman with no kids).

I have to put together an analysis to really see what I'm really worth to the company. The negotiations class I took told us to always do our research first. And I have to think that someone who does what I do & has 5 years of experience in the workforce (all with this company) and is considered one of their "A" players... should be worth more than what I'm currently being paid. Especially with a master's degree that I did not ask them to help me with.