DALLAS — Employees in the Dallas-metro area increasingly are feeling underpaid, and some are comparing notes with their colleagues as leverage to get a pay raise, according to a new study.
Thirty-nine percent of employees in Dallas' competitive job market say that they feel underpaid, according to a new study from Robert Half International Inc.
That rate wasn't the highest in the state though: Employees surveyed in 48 percent of employees in both Austin and Houston feel underpaid. The Dallas percentage reflects a two percent year-over-year increase.
Dallasites also fall below national numbers in the metric - 46 percent of survey respondents across the country feel underpaid.
Raleigh, N.C., and Portland had the workers who felt most underpaid, according to Robert Half, with 53 percent and 52 percent respectively.
Dallas ranked in the No. 2 spot behind Los Angeles for cities in which employees use salary information from colleagues to negotiate a new job offer. Where Dallas showed 30 percent of respondents using this information, L.A. reflected that 31 percent did.
The study shows that 46 percent of Dallas workers said they’ve compared notes on salary and compensation with colleagues, and 35 percent have used that information as leverage to ask for a raise.
Overall, the study shows that 82 percent of professionals nationwide said they feel they're well-informed for how much they should be earning, and more than half of employees surveyed feel that the economy has helped their earning potential.
Senior Regional Vice President for Robert Half Technology Nicole Sims said she was surprised to find that Dallas had a high percentage of its employees aren’t receiving the compensation they think they should be receiving.
“What isn’t surprising is that these employees are utilizing their knowledge of the market and including our salary guide to negotiate a higher salary,” Sims said.
The Robert Half survey was taken by 2,800 workers in a variety of industries in 28 major U.S. cities and distributed through an online survey by an independent research firm.
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