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How I Gave Myself a 25% Raise — Even Though I’m a Freelancer

The world isn’t set up to promote freelancers or give influencers raises

Zulie Rane
Index
8 min readFeb 18, 2022

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Photo: Mariana Kurnyk/Pexels

“I’m going through a performance review in March,” my sister told me on the phone recently.

“Huh,” I said, thinking how lucky I was to not have to do that kind of corporate garbage anymore as I petted my cat in my comfortable home office.

“Yep. I’m angling for a promotion and a raise,” she continued.

“Oh,” I said, suddenly interested and extremely jealous. “Wow. Good luck!”

Hours after we’d finished our conversation, I found myself still thinking about the concept of a raise. My husband will be up for one in a few months. My dad has climbed the corporate ladder through promotions. My friends have leveraged their skills and experience to find new roles with a higher salary and better responsibilities.

And me? I stagnate. There’s no one I can appeal to in order to give myself a raise or promotion. What would I even be promoted to? Senior Executive Content Creator?

Just call me SEC-C.

The world isn’t set up to promote freelancers or give influencers raises

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Index
Index

Published in Index

Index is a former publication from Medium about work. Currently inactive and not taking submissions.

Zulie Rane
Zulie Rane

Written by Zulie Rane

Writer and cat mom. Opinions are my own. This is my just-for-fun profile! My official Medium profile is @Zulie_at_Medium.

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