A colleague's younger sister graduated from college and got a great job in a fantastic city. She was told upon hire she would have a salary review on her six-month anniversary. She did, had perfect marks and was given the highest increase: 3 percent.

As HR professionals, her sister and I were more surprised by the fact that she got the review on time and got the increase she was promised. My colleague's sister, on the other hand, was shocked that she had worked so hard for such an incremental increase.

The Paradox of Achilles and the Tortoise

Percentage increases are the problem with raises for most employees. If you make a low salary, getting an increase based on a percentage of that low salary is never going to get you where you want to be. Work your butt off like my colleague's sister and you still get 3-5 percent of something small. The two main ways around this are to get a salary adjustment or another job.

Salary adjustments happen when you can successfully argue that your pay is not in line with what it should be for your position. The most effective ways to do this include:

• showing how your job is no longer what it was when you were hired in at that salary
• showing how your position's importance has increased, and now your work has significant impact on a key metric and will continue to do so
• showing that someone else doing the same thing in the company, with the same skills and experience is making a lot more than you

Each of these methods can be successful but alas, as good as your arguments may be, your success is more likely up to your manager and his or her temperament than to the strength of your argument. The best you can do is give an airtight case and hope he/she agrees with and can fight for you.

Greener grass

The other way to get a raise is to get a new position — either within your current company or somewhere else. The former is more difficult. Many companies balk at the idea of giving an internal candidate too much of an increase.

For example, if there is an internal candidate and an external one, the company may tout that they promote from within, but that is because it is a lot cheaper for a number of reasons. That internal person may end up getting a 10-15 percent increase in salary, but that is likely still significantly lower than the company would have had to pay the external candidate. Further, some companies do not allow such large increases and instead offer them incrementally.

Getting promoted from within is not all bad though — you do not have to leave, learn new systems, change benefits etc. So, it may be worth it for you. On the other hand, being the external candidate that comes in with the amazing experience is usually the most effective way to get a significant raise.

Another paradox?

What should you do? Perhaps you are not ready to try to get another position quite yet but you would appreciate getting paid fairly for your work. Well, there are two sides to that equation: the amount of work you do = the amount your employer pays you. If your employer does not want to adjust their side of the equation, then perhaps you should adjust your side of the equation. Rethink the work you do: Getting paid fairly can be as much about what you do as your employer.