How to prepare to ask for a raise

Start by finding out how pay decisions are made where you work. In many organisations there is an annual cycle, pay bands for each level, a budget for increases, and approval above your manager. In others, particularly small businesses, the owner decides, sometimes quickly and sometimes on how the year has gone. Raises given with a promotion, raises given in the cycle and raises given outside it are often handled differently. Knowing this tells you where the opening is. If the budget for the year is fixed in February, a request in November is unlikely to find money, however good the case.

Next, build the case, and build it on the work. Make a list of what you have delivered since your pay last changed. Be specific: the project that ran on time, the customer you kept, the process that now takes less time, the new responsibility you took on that was not in your job description. Note how your role has grown: more people, bigger problems, or work that used to belong to someone more senior. Include feedback from customers, colleagues or your manager if you have it. Then write one page that someone who has never seen your work could understand. This is the page your manager can take to the person who approves the decision, and the easier it is to repeat, the easier it is to support.

Your needs and rising costs are real, but they are rarely what moves a pay decision, which turns on the value of the work and what the business can afford. Lead with the work.

Then look at the market, carefully. Comparisons with what others are paid for similar work are often persuasive, but pay data is easy to misuse. Use more than one source: published salary surveys, job listings that show ranges, and conversations with people doing similar work in similar organisations, who may be willing to talk in general terms. Adjust for city, the size and sector of the employer, and experience. Be cautious about a single number from a website, and about hearsay from a colleague, since neither may be accurate or comparable. Note the source and the date of every figure you intend to use. Pay information goes out of date quickly, and you need to be able to say where each number came from. Think in ranges, not single figures.

Choose the moment. Ask before the budget is set, not after. Ask after a visible success, when your value is fresh, rather than during a layoff, a bad quarter or a crisis for your manager. Do not raise it in a corridor or at the end of a meeting. Send a short message asking for a proper conversation, mentioning that you would like to discuss your role and pay. This gives your manager time to think, and, importantly, to find out what is possible.

In the conversation, start with the work and say what you are asking for, clearly. For example, you might say that since your last pay review you have taken on these responsibilities and delivered these results, and that you would like to discuss moving your pay to a particular range. Then stop and listen. Silence is uncomfortable, and many people rush to fill it by lowering their request. Let your manager respond. Ask questions: what would be needed for this to be possible, who decides, and when. Avoid threats, and avoid mentioning other offers you do not intend to take.

Plan your responses before you go in. If the answer is yes, ask when it takes effect, and ask for it in writing. If it is a smaller figure than you hoped, ask whether other things might be adjusted, such as scope, title, review date or other parts of the package, and what the next review will depend on. If it is not now, ask why, and agree a specific date and the specific things that would change the answer. If it is no, ask for the reason and what the path looks like. Whatever the answer, send a short message afterwards summarising what was said and agreed. Vague reassurance, without a date or a condition, is a no that has been postponed.

Think, too, about what you will do if the answer is no, because it is the part people avoid. You may decide that the reasons are fair and the path is open, and carry on. You may decide to build what is missing. Or you may decide that your pay will not move here and begin to look elsewhere. Moving employers is often the route to larger changes in pay, and it is a legitimate one, but weigh the whole package, not only the headline figure, and read your contract for notice and other terms. If you are unsure what you have agreed to, ask a lawyer before you act. Using an outside offer as leverage can work and can also backfire, so do it only if you would genuinely take the offer.

Asking well is a skill that improves with practice, and the first conversation is the hardest. Whatever the outcome, you will know more about how decisions are made here.