How to get a pay hike

Inspired by a piece my colleague Charles Assisi shared on Facebook earlier today, I did some research on a subject that's probably more relevant these days - how to get a hike. I am happy to report I have found five definite ways to get one.

But before you go on, two points. There weren't too many studies available for India, but I assumed what works for someone somewhere, will work for anyone anywhere. And two, I have been rather generous in interpreting certain factors, as you will see. This apart, i can assure you it's all solid research, and guaranteed to work.

Grow: Taller people get more salary. For every inch that you add to height, you will get $789, according to a study by researchers Timothy A. Judge, and Daniel M. Cable. They published their paper in 2004, and just account for the inflation and the weak rupee, the hike must be pretty handful. It's here: 'The effect of physical height on workplace success and income: preliminary test of a theoretical model.'

Lose weight, ladies (gentlemen, listen up): If you are a woman, get thinner. If you are a man, it's a bit more complex: put on weight if you are thin; shed some fat, if you are obese; either way hit the gym to add more muscle. For this tip, we have to thank Judge and Cable again. Their paper — 'When it comes to pay, do the thin win? The effect of weight on pay for men and women' — says that Women who are about 11 kgs below average weight earn over $15000 a year, but men who are 11 kgs below average earn $8000 less. Check your BMI now.

Be a man: Yes. The glass ceiling and all that. Some consolation, though: "Gender differentials in wages continue to exist, but have been declining over the years," say Anup K. Karan & Sakthivel Selvaraj in 'Trends in wages and earnings in India: Increasing wage differentials in a segmented labour market.' For casual labourers and those in rural areas, however, the wage gap between genders is even wider.

Lighten up: I realise am on a slightly shaky ground now - because I not only have to depend on a proxy, but also connect that to India. The USA may have a black president, but the median annual earnings of black men is 74.5% of white men, and that of black women is 86.5% of what their white sisters take home. To extend that to India, well, all those fairness creams seem to be selling well enough, and our matrimonial ads still hold fair skin to be a virtue. I.e., in India too, changing colour can earn you much more. More here.

Change your name: This is somewhat related to the previous tip, and I must say, in India it has a rather limited application. You might have read about this in Freakonomics, by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner: a chapter talks about an experiment which showed CVs with "white-sounding" names got a better response from prospective employers than the "black-sounding" names. MIT economist Abhijit Banerjee et al, repeated that experiment in India using names that are usually identified with specific castes or religions. They found that such discrimination did not exist here. But it must be said that they conducted this experiment in new economy companies in and around Delhi. Even so, when it came to jobs demanding soft skills, candidates from Other Backward Classes, Scheduled Tribe, or Scheduled Caste backgrounds are at a substantial disadvantage, they found. Lesson: Try changing your name that sounds like upper caste, and it might work.

If none of these work, a friend says, citing that repository of all knowledge, Twitter: Try becoming petrol: it already got three hikes this year.

The thoughts and opinions shared here are of the author.