How I Found Out I Was Being Underpaid by $35K
Matt Bridges
April 3, 2026
I was an Account Director at a SaaS company in Sydney. Three years in. Good reviews. Promoted twice. I thought I was being paid well — AUD 125K base plus commission. Then I went for a coffee with a mate who'd just started at a competitor. Same title, same market, similar experience. He was on 160K base. Thirty-five thousand dollars more. For essentially the same job.
How does this even happen?
It happens because you get promoted internally. When you move from Account Manager to Senior AE to Account Director within the same company, each bump is 8-12%. Sounds decent. But externally, the market moves faster. The person they'd hire off the street for your role today is getting the current market rate. You're getting 2019's rate plus incremental bumps. I'd been loyal. And loyalty had cost me 35 grand a year.
What I did
I didn't storm into my boss's office. I spent two weeks gathering data. Talked to three recruiters. Looked at job ads. Used salary tools to benchmark the role properly. Then I asked for a meeting. I said I loved the company and wanted to stay, but I'd become aware that my compensation was significantly below market. I showed the data. I wasn't emotional. I wasn't threatening. Just factual.
What happened
They offered me a 10K adjustment. Not 35K. Ten. I thanked them, took the adjustment, and started interviewing. Two months later I had an offer for 155K base at a competitor. I resigned. My boss was surprised. He shouldn't have been.
The lesson
Check your market value every year. Even if you're happy. Even if you're not looking. Because the only way to know if you're being paid fairly is to know what other people are paying for the same work. And if you find a gap, address it early — before it becomes a 35K problem.
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