So I've lurked and now I have questions and see what can happen. But first some background: I teach freshmen English comp in TX. I've been with the university for about 7 years now, I have a M.A in Lit and am working on my Ph.D. online at a different institution. My focus in lit is in cultural, technology, and game studies and the department I'm with focuses more on rhetorical and composition. My current 9 month contract is around 34k, and I teach 4/4/1 load as a full-time non-tenure track employee. I recently found out that some of my colleagues make 40k and they were hired roughly 3~4 years after me, one has a Ph. D. and the other has a M.F.A. Each year we have to do performance reviews which some of my colleagues say its good to learn from each other and get ideas. I agree to an extent because this is all done through official documents and almost never leads to salary increases. I consistently get a “good job” since I teach the class well and don't cause any issues. I hardly do any extra work since I'm not usually on campus outside of class times. Thats mostly because I'm working on my doctoral work.
So I have a meeting with the chair of English next week and I want to know what I can do/say to get an raise. I did some preliminary research and found that I'm getting paid significantly less compared to the national average. I have a kid on the way and while I absolutely plan on leaving the current university for a tenure job (or they heavily increase my salary), thats not for a couple of years. So I guess I'm looking for advice, feedback, anything. I can't just leave the position since I dont have anything else lined up but I'm not opposed to leaving academics.