How to Ask for a Raise and/or Promotion

Being prepared to ask for a raise or promotion is a matter of internal and external preparation. Experts advise you to be ready to prove your worth when you decide to take that walk into a leader’s office with hopes of a boost.

Trailing every professional are two questions: How do I receive a promotion or increase my salary?

Those queries can be specific to your current job or future work. And finding a path to a better position or more money from your employer can be daunting.

When is the right time to ask for a raise? How receptive will my leader be to the conversation? What and how much should I ask for? What if they decline my request??

The process becomes a blend of emotions and tangible outcomes. You think, you know, you are worth more than the company is giving you. Convincing them to share your view is another matter entirely, especially as many companies move to lockstep salary increase systems and manage ongoing business chaos from the pandemic that still clouds the economy.?

Regardless, taking time to be organized, thorough, and reasonable can all help your chances of getting that raise you believe should come your way.

Getting ready for the before, during, and after

A career coach or CEO will tell you the same thing: be prepared.?

That means a clear approach to the initial discussion and what comes afterward. It also means having an honest conversation with yourself before asking for and entering the meeting.

“Have your facts straight,” said Jacquie Ottema, a career and leadership success coach with more than 23,000 followers on LinkedIn. “Are you performing well consistently? Prove it. What proof and evidence do you have? How are you contributing to the bottom-line business results?”

Ottema says to do your research internally and externally. Find other companies competing for the same talent level as you, and see what they pay. The increase you planned to ask for may be lower than what is provided in a comparable situation. Of course, the opposite can also be true. Overall, being rational can be a boost to moving forward.

Also don’t only think in terms of salary increase. Can your compensation package be adjusted in other meaningful ways? What about an increase in paid vacation time? Or an annual bonus? Your employer may be more amenable to those options because they live on different budget lines.

And don’t forget the IRS. If you receive a pay bump that changes your tax bracket, what will your net increase be? Will it even exist? Be sure to do that math beforehand. You may realize a slight pay bump could become detrimental during tax time.?

The same ideas hold when you are seeking a promotion as opposed to just a salary increase. Think more collaboratively than dictatorial.?

“It was always a good experience when someone approached me to have a conversation, rather than to ask a yes or no question,” said Deborah Liu, CEO of Ancestry.com. “Promotion is a process, not a binary decision. Those who start a dialogue about what they need to achieve — skills they need to demonstrate, and what scope they need to have — are enlisting me to help them reach a joint goal. This demonstrates their willingness to collaborate, learn, and take the right steps to get to where they want to be.

“The toughest promotion conversations have always been the ambiguous or misaligned ones. Either they came out of the blue, the ask was not clear, or we were not aligned about how prepared they were for the next level.

“Unfortunately, both managers and employees tend to shy away from these conversations. I make a point to actively talk about promotion and the path to the next level. This allows us to make sure we are on the same page. It also gives me a chance to help those on my team continue to grow.”

Is now the right time?

A scroll through the Get Hired and Get Ahead archives shows how asking for a raise became less prevalent during the pandemic. Work often became about recovery or survival as companies and employees recalculated their approach in a never-before-seen work environment. A societal shutdown was not the time to ask for a raise.

But wage growth, and the economy at large, have shown recovery signs. Normalcy previously looked like this: Wage growth from 2017 to 2019 averaged 3.61%, according to the Social Security Administration. In 2020, the growth dipped to 2.83% before a rebound of 5.0% growth for private industry workers for the 12 months ending in March of 2022.

A potent inflation rise counters the recent wage boost. Sigh-inducing prices at the grocery store are also finding their way into businesses for everything from supplies to travel.?

So where does that leave asking for a raise or promotion in this environment?

Be aware of the state of your company. Are you back and thriving? Or still managing in a new environment? One of your current arguments for a raise could well be superior performance during the challenges of the pandemic.

“But again, it really comes down to the impact the employee had overall themselves — individually — for the benefit of the company,” Ottema said of the timing.?

More work to be done

Your manager is unlikely to pop out of their desk chair and grant your request for a promotion or raise, then order a cake. Which puts more work on you.?

Ottema suggests following up with the details of your meeting in an email to the manager. Also, give them three solid reasons you want a raise. Among those reasons, try to quantify your accomplishments. Your daily verbal affirmations may be good for the soul, but math is best for business.

If your manager denies your request, ask for specific reasons why so you know where you can improve. The more boxes you check, the better your chances.?

“The answer is usually not a straight-up ‘no’”, Liu said. “It is often ‘not now.’ In these cases, it is incumbent on the manager to highlight what it would take to get there. For example, perhaps the scope is not there today, but there is an opportunity for the employee to grow their scope with a future reorg. Or maybe the employee needs to improve on communication. Either way, creating a plan to address the deficit is important to their growth and success.”

Once again, that is a dual-task. A manager needs to be open and responsive. An employee needs to be prepared and willing to work on improvements. Also, like any other part of career building, persistence is key.

“I have been promoted over my peers before, and I've also seen my peers get promoted over me,” Liu said. “Every employee is running their own race.”

(Reporting by Andrew Seaman and Todd Dybas, Editing by Todd Dybas)