How To Get Paid More As A Developer Part 3 - Suggest Solutions

This is Part 3 of my series on how to get paid more as a developer from an employer's perspective.

Part 1 can be found here http://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-get-paid-more-developer-employers-perspective-part-petras-surna?trk=prof-post

Part 2 can be found here http://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-get-paid-more-developer-part-2-check-your-work-petras-surna?trk=prof-post

Stop whining and suggest solutions

"There's no source control"
"This code is really hard to extend"
"This place sucks"

Winging indicates a lack of professional maturity and a poor attitude that can become endemic in an organization. It's far better to identify problems and propose solutions so every one can see how to move forward. 

"There's no source control" - set up GitHub and show everyone how it works.
"This code is really hard to extend" - show how the refactored code would work better with a partial implementation.
"This place sucks" - I suggest you get a new job, negative attitudes destroys team culture.

It is not enough to simply suggest solutions, you should implement them so people can see how they work. Once you have implemented solutions, ask your team who agrees with your suggestions. From my experience, people who propose and then enact solutions usually have them adopted with little issue from others. 

A proactive employee saves me an enormous amount of time as a business owner as it means I am not drawn into operational issues that are best solved by technical specialists. This means we become more efficient as a business and efficiency equals more profits and more profits mean a higher pay for you the proactive solution solver.