I've been an IBM contractor for the last four years working as a full-time salaried employee of a placement company. No raise in that time and salary well below market, but I'm 100% remote so I live with it. Whenever I ask the placement company for a raise, they shrug and say there's no budget. (Yeah, right, all your spare money went to stock buybacks.) I'm wondering if I should ask my IBM manager about a raise. I barely know her -- my team lead is my daily contact -- but she is manager on paper to a bunch of us in my role in different projects. Is there any chance she will say yes? (Not getting my hopes up.) Or could it go horribly wrong, since we're not supposed to talk money with the client company? Any advice on how to proceed?
No BATNA, no raise https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Best_alternative_to_a_negotiated_agreement
Offer to cut the contracting company out and work for the same rate. You do know that the contracting firm is charging an 80-100% premium over your hourly right? If you are being paid $80/hr the firm you work for is likely charging IBM $140-$160/hr. Talk to your IBM manager and offer to work directly for 20% less than what the current firm is being paid. They will save money and you will add 60-80% to your TC.
Why don't you ask for full time with IBM instead of contracting?
This. IBM can't help or won't help due to legal stuff. Your only way out of this is to interview outside.
Full-time isn’t going to happen. IBM tends to contract these roles, even though we’ve been around forever. It seems IBM could cough up more money, if the contract company is paying me the max possible under the contract.