Know your value
I’m an IT Manager for a large mechanical contractor in the midwest. 400 employees (closer to 200 when I started 5 years ago) and over 100M in annual revenue. I started out handling general IT Support for office and field staff. Setting up devices, troubleshooting, primarily making sure expensive field staff could stay out working in the field and not eating up labor costs standing around the office waiting for IT help. Fast forward a few years - we've gone all digital. Added two new physical locations along with expansion of original facility. Number of deployed devices has easily tripled. Migrated to a new mobile carrier and upgraded all cell phones. Migrated to Exchange Online/M365. Initiated search for (and switched) managed services provider. Upgraded server hardware + VMWare. Upgraded WiFi AP system in all locations. Now responsible for building alarm & surveillance systems. Just switched ERP platform. The manager part of the job title is somewhat misleading as I only have 1 other person directly reporting to me. I'm more like IT Support with a ton of project management mixed in. MSP does a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to server infrastructure & management. I mainly coordinate and make sure project deadlines are met on time. I have an Associate's degree and 12 years experience. $75k/year. Other people in the IT field tell me I'm underpaid and say things like "know your value". IT is such a wide spectrum that I don't know if I'm being misled or if I'm in the ballpark of where I should be. Thoughts?
12 years experience and 75k means you’re underpaid and likely viewer by your employer as a sucker. Gtfo and get double asap, don’t tell whoever you go to next you only made 75k.
I know in some states employers cannot ask how much you making now and try to lowball you.. That's almost illegal
I will note that the Midwest often falls in lowest pay groups in the US. That being said, this is low. You should be 90k-100k. First line agents in tech support at Slack make ~65-70k in similar pay band locations. You’re underpaid likely!
I read your first note as you being an associate manager. I see it was about an associates degree. You are severely underpaid. 100 K should be your floor.
TL;DR please
TL;DR - just read 1st & last paragraphs. However that eliminates context.
Yes you are. Most of new grads with a CS degree start at 85/year. With some experience in IT support in college, new grads at big techs TC are 120+/year and a return offer is usually 150+
You are very experienced, switching jobs will drastically change your TC.