Stand Out While Doing Support Work

According to the U.S. 2012 Census there are 2,251,000 people employed in the classification “secretaries and administrative assistants” who earn a median wage of $669/ week. 2,146,000 (95%) of them are women. Here’s how you can stand out while doing support work giving you the opportunity to earn more.

1. Stepping in for the boss. My client, an executive assistant at a construction firm, told me of a time when her boss couldn’t make a meeting with an insurance vendor so she stepped in for him. The meeting was with an insurance vendor. Her relationship with her boss was so strong he felt confident that she could handle the meeting. And she did. Any time you step in for the boss frees him or her up to do higher value work (calculate his or her hourly rate – its pretty high!). When you take on more responsibility you increase your ‘compensable’ value. More responsibility means more opportunities for more earnings.

2. Participating on a sales team. Being asked to create the PowerPoint slides for a sales initiative is a great opportunity. When the sale is closed you can quantify your worth as a percentage of the contract amount. Stay involved with the sales team so by determining how the presentation and subsequent sales meeting go with the new client. If you can be at the sales pitch even better! In my own personal experience, I would rather have someone, who is PowerPoint savvy, as a dedicated technical support person. Use your expertise and become a valuable member of the sales team if at all possible. Then estimate your worth to the team by calculating the amount of the sale by a percentage that represents your participation. You ARE a valuable member of the team.

3. Unconscious bias in wage setting. In Minnesota we find that when public sector employers do “pay equity” audits there is an unconscious gender bias. In my work with the Pay Equity Coalition of Minnesota we notice the women in public sector’s (city, county, school district, etc) clerical positions often are underpaid when compared to their male colleagues working as custodians. Minnesota law prohibits wage setting practices which exhibit patterns of paying women less than men for jobs of similar value. Value is determined by skill, effort, working conditions, and responsibility. Make sure your work is not being undervalued because of your gender. A little detective work might be in order. You can learn more about Minnesota’s wage setting practices here.

Stand out while doing support work and earn more by increasing your ‘compensable’ value by taking on more responsibility (you probably are already doing this but aren’t getting the credit) and participating on the sales team. If at all possible make sure your employer has systems in place to make sure unconscious bias is kept in check.

Increase your compensable value and more by joining this tele-class especially for Executive and Administrative Assistants.  Negotiation: How Smart Executive and Administrative Assistants Ask and Stand Up For What They Want.