Each week the New Zealand Herald and Newstalk ZB's Cooking The Books podcast tackles a different money problem. Today, it's how to find out if you're getting paid enough, and what to do about it. Hosted by Frances Cook.

If you're a regular Joe reading the news lately, you could be forgiven for feeling sulky about the state of your pay.

 Fonterra's CEO Theo Spierings has almost doubled his total pay packet to $8 million. Not bad if you can get it.

 Meanwhile our politicians are still wrangling over who will be in Government, and yet they're getting a raise too. It looks more reasonable on paper, at 2.5 percent, but keep in mind they're already paid a lot.

 In real dollars, that means even a lowly backbencher gets an extra $4,000. The Prime Minister, whoever that is, will get more than $11,000 extra.

 These aren't one off incidents either. Otago University research had found that between 1997 and 2015, chief executives’ pay packets have increased 228 percent.

 In comparison, the average worker's pay has gone up 91 percent.

 If you're feeling a bit irritated by now, and thinking it's time to ask for a raise, then good. So you should.

 I called up E Tu union national secretary Bill Newson, for his best tips on how to get that raise.

 We talked about how to find out what you're paid, how to prepare for asking for a raise, and other sweeteners you can ask for if money is tight.

 For the interview, listen to the podcast.

 

If you have a question about this podcast, or something you want me to look into in the future, come and talk to me about it. I'm on Facebook here https://www.facebook.com/FrancesCookJournalist/ and Twitter here https://twitter.com/FrancesCook.