A long time ago, I worked as a cashier for a local grocery chain. I was only 15 at the time. I made $5.15/hr. I would alternate between working long hours on my feet at the checkout and working in a teeny tiny office on Sundays to help deliver payroll for the whole store. I asked for a raise after about 6 months, but I was denied. Finally, I got sick of it, and I quit. I wish I had understood then what I’m about to tell you now.

Here’s the deal: I didn’t know back then that cashiers actually weren’t valuable to the store. I don’t mean that cashiers aren’t valuable as human beings. I mean that cashiers did not generate revenue for the store. The store wasn’t incentivized to pay me more because I was not contributing to their revenue.

In the case of a grocery store, their revenue is generated by selling a variety of food and household products for a profit. Like eggs. Vegetables. Hams. Things like that. It is a delicate balance. They have to spend money to get the food. They then have to sell enough of the food before it goes bad. They have to avoid spending too much money on overhead (like cashiers, baggers, inventory workers, managers, etc) in order to stay profitable.

The bad news: I am not able to be a ham that generates revenue directly😭. However, just one section over on the deli counter were people who cut ham into nice little slices for people to buy.

It is a more specialized job than a cashier. And it contributes to the store’s revenue - because you are part of creating a product that people pay money for. And so this type of work often pays better than cashiering.

Why did I tell you this story?

Because I invite you to consider that your mission for EVERYplace you work is to find out what “the Ham” is in that company.

I like this analogy because it makes me chuckle, but in plain terms, I’m saying, find out what the company is selling that directly makes it money.  Is it money from client contracts? Is it subscriptions to a streaming service? Is it revenue from selling ads?

And THEN, consider how close to being a source of revenue your job actually is.

Not just your job, but the type of job that you do. The department that you work in.

This is going to be a major factor for how easy or hard it is for you to get a promotion, a raise, or avoid a layoff. Proximity to revenue is incredible leverage.

And you should know that that’s how your business is thinking of it, too. They are constantly weighing the expense of being in business against the revenue generated.

And so my second point is: make sure you are RECORDING how much you’re helping the company with their revenue/business goals. Make sure people know. This is one of the keys to creating leverage where you might feel powerless.

When you get to the group lead level (if you haven’t already), your job is going to involve ensuring that people easily understand the value your team is contributing to the company, and that it feels self-evident.