I’ve been working at a small, privately-owned company for about 3.5 years. I was hired to do a narrowly defined job but I’ve expanded my role significantly as I’ve identified needs at the company and been allowed to address them.

As part of a reorganization this summer – that I helped shape – my informal responsibilities became a formal, newly-created position within the company directing corporate strategy and communications.

I now have the title, and the expectations that go with it, but I don’t feel I have the salary.

The VP and owner put through a $12,000 pay increase without talking to me. That’s approximately $22k below what my research showed is the minimum market rate for the new position, and only $7,500 above my expected compensation for next year in my original job, despite a huge increase in responsibility and authority. I raised this with the VP and she openly acknowledged that they hadn’t done any research when setting the salary for the new position and that they’d look into it and get back to me.

Now it’s been two weeks and they both seem to be avoiding me.

Complicating things somewhat is that I’m 4.5 months pregnant with my first child, though I haven’t told anyone at work yet. I’m well enough established with this company to arrange for a part-time schedule and/or significant telecommuting, but might not find that at a new company, which would mean far more significant monetary or parenting sacrifices.

So: do I 1) keep pushing on the salary and try to get it raised to where I think it should be, 2) drop it and suck up the low salary because the overall position is likely to provide a level of flexibility most parents don’t have, or 3) use the next few months to build a strong resume under the new title then look for a new, better paying job and hope I can make it flexible?