So for context for the most part I work in a healthy environment. It's a union job and management will work with you. For a few years it was really hard to get a raise outside of contract negotiations however, this contact has a specific paragraph about management merit raises being allowed.
I'm working towards a raise however the raise I'm seeking would place me at a higher rate than those with a job title one up from me.
So, I expect to hear something along the lines of, “it wouldn't be fair to the senior analysts,” the only difference between the senior analysts & me (analyst) is that they manage a team – I work separately on specialty projects that do not require a team.
Other than that, I match the senior analysts in skillset. Arguably I have a stonger overall skillset than the senior analysts as a i've been able to program vba macros to do complex processes at work and am looking towards expanding that knowledge with custom python code for other things. Plus, I design every marketing email campaign including flyers and various logos for events in photoshop.
Mangement is aware of this and agrees on the skillset aspect of it but I also want a good response for those in senior management that might not understand it that way for my performance review.