How to Ask for a Salary Increase?

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Asking for a salary increase is often embarrassing and stressful for an employee. To be fully ready on the day, you must be perfectly prepared. You don’t want to be too cool and arrive with your hands in your pockets. 

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The most important thing for a salary raise is to have the correct arguments, to have in mind the salary policy of your company, to do it at the right time, not to stress, and to talk to the right person.

Reasons Why You Should Ask for a Salary Increase

Generally, you don’t get a pay raise for any reason. Different aspects influence managers and are a great reason to offer you the opportunity to negotiate a raise. Find out more about these aspects.

When Objectives Have Been Met

If your various objectives have been met, you have already completed a significant challenge, and success after success, you should ask for a raise because you simply deserve it.

Important point: a raise and an exceptional bonus are not the same. The complete success of a project does not necessarily justify the request for a raise. For such a situation, a bonus is usually a more justified reward. Often, a raise represents recognition for continued work or a change in responsibility.

If Your Salary is Not in Line with the Market

For various reasons, your compensation is below the average for your position, considering your experience. For this case, a salary catch-up of around 5% should be discussed in the annual budgets. The employee should not present his manager with the given fact but discuss this point with him well before the budgets are closed.

Knowing how to prepare the employee before the negotiation is opened is essential. Make sure you are well informed about your company’s salary policy. This will prevent you from being too greedy. If the group is used to giving increases of about 4%, don’t ask for double or triple!

Know the Financial Health of the Company Before Asking for a Raise

First, we recommend you learn more from your manager about the realities of the company’s economic health: 

Is the company close to bankruptcy? Has the company managed to keep its head above water? Has the group benefited from the Coronavirus to make a profit? Depending on the answer to this first question, you will be able to see whether or not you can apply for an increase.

Don’t get carried away, and be realistic about your desired rate of increase.

Have you made a strong impression during the Coronavirus crisis, and are you looking for a raise? 

Once you have proven your value to the company, you need to indicate the amount of money you want. So, what rate of increase to ask for? On this point, be as realistic as possible. Don’t ask for too big a raise!

Requesting a salary increase after the Coronavirus pandemic may seem highly complicated. However, with the correct information about the company’s economic context and your manager’s leeway, but also by listing your achievements during the whole year, don’t hesitate for a second to ask for the desired increase.

How to Ask for a Raise

Start the meeting with simple topics. Stress is removed by talking about peripheral topics such as a simple positive fact or the current atmosphere in the company. Make sure you are courteous and confident (but not arrogant). And during your pitch, seek your manager’s opinion.

Here are two examples of questions you can ask your manager:

“What is your position on my request?”. Don’t hesitate to feed the exchange with arguments.

“Do my results not allow the company to benefit from real added value?

Give preference to questions that lead to affirmative answers from the manager.

When Should You Make Your Request?

There are different critical moments in the life of a company to request a salary increase.

Following a Promotion

Most of the time, a promotion means a salary increase. An evolution or a change of position is an ideal moment to negotiate a raise. An additional workload justifies a new salary. It is, therefore, the ideal moment to discuss this subject.

During an Annual Appraisal Interview

Such a meeting with your manager is the perfect opportunity to take stock of the past year and put forward your projects, expectations, or desires. 

However, everything depends on the corporate culture. If, in the latter, increases are negotiated during the annual meeting, don’t be afraid and make your request. It is recommended to ask for a raise only once a year.