Are You Worth More Than You're Being Paid? Here's The Harsh Reality - LFG Daily, November 6, 2025
- Luke Lloyd
- Nov 6
- 6 min read
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Luke Lloyd, CEO Lloyd Financial Group
Stop Complaining About Not Getting a Raise — Start Quantifying Your Value
It’s a complaint you hear all the time: “I’m not getting paid enough,” or “My company doesn’t appreciate me.” But in a free-market economy, pay isn’t based on how long you’ve been there, how hard you think you work, or how much you need the money. It’s based on the measurable value you bring to the table.
If you want to make more money — whether as an employee, entrepreneur, or investor — you have to think like a capitalist. You have to learn how to quantify your worth.
The Harsh but Honest Truth: You’re Paid for Results, Not Effort
In capitalism, compensation follows contribution. That means your paycheck reflects the value you create for others — not how much time you clock in or how hard the work feels.
Think of it this way:
If you generate $500,000 in revenue for your company, a $100,000 salary makes sense.
If you generate $10,000 in value, your employer can’t pay you $100,000 just because you “deserve” it.
Value is objective — it can be measured in dollars, productivity, impact, or savings. The market doesn’t reward effort; it rewards outcomes.
Step 1: Quantify Your Value
Before asking for a raise or complaining about pay, ask yourself: What is my economic impact?
Here’s how to calculate it:
Revenue Contribution – How much revenue do your actions directly or indirectly drive? (Sales closed, leads converted, clients retained.)
Cost Savings – How much have you saved your company in time, efficiency, or reduced mistakes?
Time Leverage – Have you created systems, tools, or processes that make others more effective or scalable?
Customer Impact – Are your clients happier, spending more, or staying longer because of you?
Market Knowledge – Do you bring rare skills or insights that give your organization a competitive edge?
The clearer you can define these numbers, the easier it is to justify higher pay — or higher prices if you’re in business for yourself.
Step 2: Learn How to Articulate That Value
Your value doesn’t speak for itself — you do.
Track your wins and data points throughout the year.
Use numbers, not adjectives, when discussing performance. (“I helped increase revenue by 15%” beats “I work really hard.”)
Frame your raise request or salary negotiation around ROI, not emotion. (“Here’s how my work increased efficiency and saved the firm $250,000 this year.”)
This is how high performers think — not in terms of fairness, but in terms of return on investment.
Step 3: Build Scarcity Around Your Skill Set
If you can be easily replaced, you won’t get paid more. Period.But if you possess rare, valuable, or hard-to-replace skills — your market value rises automatically.
That’s why ongoing education, networking, and specialization matter. The more unique and useful your knowledge becomes, the more leverage you gain in a capitalist system.
Step 4: Think Like an Owner, Not an Employee
Instead of asking, “Why don’t they pay me more?”, ask, “How can I create more value?”Owners think about profits, systems, and long-term results — not hours worked.
Even if you’re not self-employed, act like a mini-business inside your company:
Treat your boss like a client.
Look for inefficiencies and solve them.
Think about revenue, not just tasks.
That’s how you shift from being an expense to being an asset. Assets get rewarded. Expenses get cut.
The Financial Planning Tie-In: Monetize Momentum
When your income grows, don’t let lifestyle inflation swallow it whole. Channel raises and bonuses into wealth-building assets — investments, businesses, or education that compound over time.
In capitalism, the people who own capital — not just work for it — win long term.The goal isn’t just to make more; it’s to own more.
Final Thought
Stop focusing on what you think you deserve and start focusing on the value you deliver.In a capitalist system, complaining doesn’t get you paid — creating, improving, and producing does.
Once you understand and quantify your worth, you won’t need to beg for a raise.The market will reward you automatically.
Don’t leave your financial future up to chance. Let’s build a plan that gives you confidence today and peace of mind for tomorrow. Click here to schedule a meeting — I’m here to help you take the next step toward financial freedom.
Colin Symons, CIO Lloyd Financial Group
ADP Employment was 42K vs. est. 25K.
ISM Services was 52.4 vs. exp. 50.8, with strong New Orders, though Prices Paid stayed high. The economy continues to look pretty good.
Delinquent Consumer Debt hit the highest since 2020, much of it student debt.
The Supreme Court expressed skepticism that a 1977 economic emergency law grants the power to impose unilateral tariffs.
The Transportation Department announced mandatory flight cuts at major airports starting Friday, unless the government reopens. More pressure to open the government.
The Treasury is talking about having bigger bond auctions several quarters from now. So, in a year?
Roughly 500 Fed speeches, today. Apparently, Trump has an announcement about the economy at 11EST.
An extended market got some liquidity issues, lately, with SOFR stress, repo access, FX moves and credit spreads widening.
It seems like that stress may have peaked with the yen strengthening overnight, then weakening. This caused a lot of different assets to stop at resistance and turn around.
It’s worth noting SPX is a bit more than 2% from highs. Obviously higher beta was hit more, though.
I don’t really see anything wrong, except for what now looks more clearly like positioning risk.
Some areas, most notably AI, received an awful lot of capital and created some extremely high expectations. We’re seeing the seemingly inevitable disappointment, which is why I’ve been saying I’ve largely been avoiding the area.
I still think crypto is best suited for gains into year-end. The deep flush we’ve seen just makes for better positioning to get a rally.
I view crypto as the farthest end of credit risk. While there are certainly risks, there, that’s become reasonably priced in. I’m happy to push against that.
To get more comfortable, I’d like to see the government reopen to allow for liquidity. I’d also like to see the dollar drop, rate stress fade, and credit spreads drop back down. I expect all of that to happen.
What does it all mean? Markets bounced with relaxing liquidity and vol. Can we keep that trend going?
Don’t leave your financial future up to chance. Let’s build a plan that gives you confidence today and peace of mind for tomorrow. Click here to schedule a meeting — I’m here to help you take the next step toward financial freedom.
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