How do you know what a fair salary for your work is?

How do you know what a fair salary for your work is?

I apologize for length. I'll start off by saying that it is truly sinking in that my workplace is at best, terribly managed, and at worst, toxic. I feel in my gut that I should find somewhere else to work, but until that happens, I'd at least like to try and do something for myself while I'm working here. I was told I will be getting a raise this month, but I don't know by how much. I know I deserve to make more money. I just don't know what's fair, or how to figure that out. I want to stand up for myself, even though it scares me to do so.

I was hired as an admin assistant for $15/hour in May 2019 to a law firm comprised of 7 other people: my boss (lawyer), 2 associate lawyers, 2 legal assistants, another admin assistant, and an intake consultant. At the end of 2019, an additional associate lawyer was added to make it 8.

I now make approximately $24/hour, and I say approximately because along the way, my job became salary rather than hourly. (Not that I ever got paid OT anyway.) The firm now consists of 3 other people: my boss (lawyer), 1 "supervising lawyer," and 1 associate lawyer.

One month into my employment, I basically became the intake consultant (intake consultant quit June 2019). One year into my employment, I took on some of the legal assistant responsibilities for the workload of 3 attorneys (2 legal assistants laid off April 2020, 1 attorney quit June 2020 and her work was redistributed to the other 2). 1.5 years into my employment, I started assisting my boss more as needed (other admin assistant quit January 2021). My raises have not coincided with my job responsibilities increasing. 2 of them were for anniversaries, 2 of them were performance based, I guess? They were given at random times with little explanation.

The pandemic took a toll on our business, so I know that's been a factor in all of this, but I am increasingly realizing that it is not as big of a factor as I thought. I want to stop making myself believe that because I have made a 60% wage increase since I started, and our business took a financial hit, that this is all okay. The red flags were there before the pandemic, and the pandemic just exacerbated problems that were already there. I kind of knew this all along, but this year, I've been doing inner work on myself, discovering my self-worth, and learning how to set boundaries, and a couple weeks ago, it finally started to actually click with me how I feel underappreciated and taken advantage of, and why.

We had new client signup goals for this summer that my boss wanted to hit for June-August. I hit them all, and exceeded them by 10%. We had a meeting, where I mentioned how August was the best month we've had since February 2020. 76% of those signups were mine. And what did my boss say and do? Not a direct quote, but she basically said, "I am glad THE FIRM is getting more business. I am hoping this trend continues, and that we can get back to the numbers we used to make before the pandemic." No recognition. No thanks, not even privately. Mind you, the more signups I get as intake consultant, the more work I create for myself as admin assistant and legal assistant, so I've basically been having to work harder the harder I work. She told me earlier this year that my raise would be dependent upon how the summer goes, and in my opinion, it went very well. But I obviously don't trust her to feel the same way, and I doubt her raise will be remotely fair.

It seems to me like she gives credit to the firm, which is "hers," and not the actual people that make up the firm. I wasn't expecting a parade or anything, but I EXCEEDED the goal she had in mind, and all it did was make her want more. She then emailed me the Tuesday after Labor Day, essentially giving me even more responsibility because of my success in getting signups. She doesn't seem to care about the effort that me and the 2 attorneys are putting in, all she cares about is where she thinks the firm "should" be, because of where it was in the past. I'm at my breaking point. It gives me solace to know that if I quit, she would have a very hard time training someone new, and she would lose a lot of business in the meantime. Maybe she'll realize that and give me the raise that I want, and I'll at least make more money until I find something new. The problem is I don't know what I should ask for, and I have no knowledge of the firm's revenue whatsoever... and part of me still doesn't even trust my own judgment.