How I Increased My Hourly Wage From $18 to $75 Without Having a Raise
The amazing concept of “true net hourly wage”
I recently listened to a podcast discussing the importance of increasing your true net hourly wage, which is the amount of money you’re paid for an hour of work—not on paper, but in reality. I thought it’s fascinating and relevant to my case.
So, on paper, I have a 9–5 job that pays an average wage. I work as a researcher for a non-profit organization. My take-home pay is about $3,000/month (after taxes, insurances, minimum retirement contribution, etc.). So, my net hourly wage is about $18.75/hour for a regular 8-hour workday ($3,000/40/4=$18.75)
However, in reality, I almost never work a full 8 hours! On average, I only work 2 hours per day or 10 hours per week for my job. This converts to $75/hour ($3,000/10/4=$75). This is my TRUE net hourly wage.
How is this even possible?—You may ask. Actually, it’s quite straightforward and simple. Here is how I did it:
Focus on Productivity
I’m all about productivity and hyper concentration. I make sure that the 2 hours I spend on my job is the most effective hours ever. This means no chit chat, no email, phone turned off, pomodoro technique in place. I particularly like the pomodoro technique, which breaks down work in 25-minute intervals with a 5-minute break in between, because it forces me to stay focused by creating the illusion that I’m “on the clock.”
By focusing and prioritizing, I often finish the same tasks that take others 8 hours to complete in only 2 hours. And that doesn’t sabotage the quality of my work at all. I actually perform better and become more creative during crunch time. In fact, my performance was rated “exceptional” in the last two consecutive evaluation terms.
For the remaining 6 hours in the office, I work on my side gigs and take courses to improve myself. The week that I launched my blog, I didn’t work for my main job at all. But everything was fine because I had covered all my anticipated tasks in the week before. So, I basically got a week's worth of paycheck without doing any work!
There have been some weeks that my main job is more demanding and I need to put in more hours; but it never gets near the 8-hour mark. I’ve gone several weeks in a row without working on my main job at all; however, I still managed to put in quality work right in time for end-of-the-month reports and evaluations.
Protect My Time and Space
In order to be hyper-productive, I’m very vigilant of my time and space.
I have my own office, making it easy for me to shut the door and do whatever I want without any disruption. People wanting to talk to me either need to knock on my door or shoot me an email, which I deliberately reply in 1 hour or more, unless it’s urgent. I try not to reply to emails right away because doing this can make people think that I’m always free and available. If people have work requests for me, I make sure to ask them: “what is the deadline for this?” or “when will you need this?” to set the right expectations about time.
I do walk out of my office sometime during the short break periods and make some small, friendly talks with my coworkers and supervisors. But other than that, I’m behind my closed door. This habit “trains” my colleagues to be respectful of my time and space and creates a common understanding in the office that I am busy with work and want to stay away from distractions.
I used to work in open-office spaces or places with an “open-door policy,” where shutting the door isn’t an option. In these workplaces, I tried to locate my computer in a way that its screen isn’t facing outward, so that people can’t see what I’m doing on my computer (which is important and necessary for data confidentiality anyways). I often put my big headphone on, even when I am not listening to anything. This way, people can’t just approach me and disrupt my workflow with casual chit chat, nonsense small talks in the office.
I may not appear to be the most approachable, friendly, and talkative person in the office, but I make up for that by helping my co-worker whenever they are overwhelmed at work. If I walk past a person that looks stressed out, I always offer help: “Hey, are you okay? If you need help, just let me know. I’m here for you.” One of the biggest reasons why my performance has always been rated “exceptional” is because I carve out time (from my typical 2-hour workday schedule, of course) to help people out when they need me the most.
Advocate for Myself
One important thing that makes this work is that I always advocate for myself. In routine meetings when supervisors ask us to share what we do, I always prepare and share a long, detailed list of what I have done and my amazing progress (100% truth, no lies). So they know I’ve been working hard.
I see so many women fail to advocate for themselves, even though they may work 10x times harder than I do. Some of my female coworkers rarely speak in such meetings and if they do, they only say stuff like: “Oh, I don’t know what to report. I just do regular work I guess. Nothing new.”
If you were a supervisor, what would you think about employees making that type of statement? To me, it sounds like they don’t do much and have tons of free time to waste, even though that isn’t true. GIRL, ADVOCATE FOR YOURSELF!
This concept is helpful because it shows you the true value of your job—not based on your employment paperwork, but on your everyday reality. It also motivates you to work smarter (not harder) to increase your true hourly rate. In other words, this is how you give yourself a raise when your boss won’t!
What is your true net hourly wage?
