how to ask for a raise and get it

by Alison Green on October 15, 2024

I’m always surprised by how many people tell me they’ve gone their career without ever asking for a raise. Sometimes they feel awkward starting the conversation or aren’t sure when the right time to broach it is, or they’re not sure how much is reasonable to ask for, or they’re even worried they’ll seem greedy. As a result, they end up earning far less than if they had overcome their fears and spoken up.

So I’m here to tell you: Asking for a raise is a totally normal thing to do! At New York Magazine today, I have a guide on how to do it.

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  1. I'm just here for the cats!!*

    Darn I wish I could ask for a raise but I work for a State university and we only get COL increases (that don’t cover COL). Our pay is set by the legislature and the only way you can get an increase is changing roles (at least for staff. I don’t know how it works for faculty). I recently learned that some of my department went as a group about the unfair pay (they are licensed mental health professionals) and was told if they don’t like it to leave. Most of them did leave.

      1. Orv*

        If it’s like what I make, it’s well below market rate. The old expectation was that good health insurance and pension benefits would make up for it, but that’s less and less true as time goes on.

        1. WellRed*

          Well yes, or I wouldn’t have asked it. It isn’t inherently “unfair” to be lower paid than, say the private sector, it is unfair to be lower paid than your coworker for the same work. But I appreciate Orvs snarkfree context, above.

          1. I'm just here for the cats!!*

            There was a lot of politics involved. basically there was an audit and titles were evaluated. people who have high degrees and do the same clinical work as other places in the state (even other universities) get paid drastically lower than then others for the same job. yes higher Ed is often paid lower than other places. But for the level that my coworkers have (clinical mental health specialists with advanced degrees like social work, counselors or psychologists) were not making enough to live. they have extra licensing requirements that were not considered. I know people who had to do things like Uber to be able to make rent.

      3. Blue Pen*

        Because people like to feel like they’re being compensated fairly and incentivized to continue doing good work for their organization.

      4. I'm just here for the cats!!*

        there is a lot of complicated political stuff that I cannot get into here. But my coworkers are all mental health professionals that make a quarter of what they would make a other places. Even state owned clinics. These are people with masters or PhD’s, who have state licensure requirements including licensure fees every year and they make less than $19/hr.

      5. Dek*

        I’m in the same boat, and what’s unfair about it is that our “Cost of Living” adjustment (which is actually a *merit* based raised, not a CoL), is at most 4%, and our insurance alone goes up by 6%, so every year we get a -2% raise.

        Literally we make less money every year. With no actual opportunity to increase our wages.

        I’ve been where I am for a decade now, and still have to have a roommate to make ends meet. State employees should at least be able to live in their state on their own, y’know?

    2. Blue Pen*

      This is generally the case with my private university, too. We do receive annual COL increases (that also don’t really cover much tbh), but like you said, the only way we would get a *real* raise is to either be promoted on the team or change to a higher-paying position in another division.

      I don’t know if this is across the board in all of higher education, but as far as I know, it’s pretty prevalent and can (understandably) be a major sticking point for some people. I do feel like I’m fairly paid for what I do (and I think the benefits are great here), so I’m not too up in arms about it at the moment, but I know if nothing changes on my end after a couple years or so, I know it’s going to tick me off.

      1. Blue Pen*

        ETA: Or you can make a case to have your job reclassified with HR at a different pay grade, but from my understanding, that is a long uphill battle and is rarely granted.

        1. Orv*

          I successfully did it once, in an earlier job, but I had a lot of support from both faculty and staff in that department and my job description had legitimately changed since I was hired. It took about a year, as I recall, but I did get a substantial raise out of it, and a bump in vacation accrual. I was still well below market, but closer to it than before.

      2. I'm just here for the cats!!*

        Yeah, Unfortunatly at my university they took away career progression a while ago. There used to be raises after X many years you would get a seniority raise, etc. But they don’t do that, at least of staff. So you have to wait and find another position that opens up on the university and try to get that. I love my job but I hate the politics.

    3. Academia is a Calling, not a Raise*

      I also work for a state university and when I got direct reports of my own I found out that there is an option to give someone a raise for “permanent additional duties” added to their official role. With the exception of the report whose main work goal was to slack off as much as possible, most people improve year over year and get more responsibility which I can make official in order to give them a raise. So check if that option exists and if it does, ask to get a raise.

    4. tjames*

      Fellow state university employee here. Same raise policy. I once made a case for a larger raise with my boss, putting together a report that showed how much work I do, that I perform it well, and that I should get a bigger raise. My boss (who is apparently much nicer than your boss) said she agreed that I should be getting paid more based on the quality of my work. Then she pointed out that I’ve been working here for 20 years, I know what the raise policy is, and there’s nothing she can do about it. I tried.

      1. Dek*

        Well…darn.

        I’ve been tossing around the idea of appealing to HR to at least move me up to the next bracket for my division because of how long I’ve been here, but these stories aren’t giving me a wealth of confidence.

  2. Underpaid analyst*

    On the flip side, my recent request to HR and my (new) boss for a raise following a recent reorganization that gave me significantly higher accountability and made me the SME, resulted in “your salary is market value” (it’s definitely not), “nothing’s changed” (it has), and a threat to downgrade me if I brought it up again.

    Anyone has success stories to share? Because f my employer. Currently in the middle of a productive, but not yet successful, job hunt.

    1. Chirpy*

      No advice, because SAME. I got told “well, everyone wants more money, but no” when I pointed out I still don’t even get a living wage after working here for years. Low pay is on every employee satisfaction survey we’ve done while I’ve worked here, and corporate always responds “money isn’t everything, you should all just take more pride in your work” (pretty sure they all make double what I do while living in a lower cost of living city). So, I feel your pain.

      1. Lab Boss*

        That’s been my company for years, we used to actually be known in our segment of the industry for it. We finally got big enough and felt enough pressure that managment got around to doing a full salary structure overhaul to get people properly market-rate aligned… 5years ago. Watching the process drag on as the decision makers squirm and give any possible reason to keep lowering the salary bands that the consulting firm says are appropriate is both disgusting and fascinating, like watching someone have to pull their own teeth out.

        1. Chirpy*

          Yeah, there’s a bit of “look, you finally got $15/hr like you wanted, it’s double minimum wage, what are you complaining about” but, well, a living wage for my state has now gone up to $20-25/hr for a single person, no dependents, living in a 1-bedroom apartment.

          And minimum wage hasn’t gone up in 20 years. It needs to double just to keep pace with inflation.

    2. Susie*

      Sending positive vibes you have success job searching soon!
      I was told once that if I negotiated my salary, I’d be taking money away from students (I was working at a charter school).
      So I left that job and successfully negotiated salary and vacation time at my next job at a nonprofit. And I successfully negotiated salary the two times I was promoted there. I’m now in a union position that pays significantly more than either prior workplace…it’s nice to have my experience valued financially.

    3. Parcae*

      I don’t have a successful salary negotiation story to tell (all my past requests for a raise just made things worse because my employers were not reasonable people), but five years ago I too was in the middle of a not-yet-successful job hunt. I now make twice as much as I did before, and in a government job where I don’t have to beg for regular small increases. I wish you the same luck!

    4. Lacey*

      Just commiseration. Last year I researched what market rate would be for my job and used the governments inflation calculator to show that I was effectively making less than when I started.

      They gave me a slightly larger raise than usual and then told me that my next raise would be less that “extra” amount.

      There are some nice perks keeping me at my job, but eventually the lack of a real raise is going to outweigh those and force me out.

    5. Garlic Knot*

      I got a higher half-year bonus, but a big no for a raise. This is the third time, and I’m now looking elsewhere. I only managed to negotiate a higher salary before being hired, but I’m pretty sure that it negatively affected the subsequent dynamic of my salary over the years.

  3. Medium Sized Manager*

    I asked for a raise and didn’t get it, but I actually feel really good about it. They won’t give off-cycle raises without a promotion (not currently in the cards) or a job offer in hand (I am not interested in a new job). However, I expressed what I wanted/why I wanted it, and I had the support of my boss, her boss, and her boss’ boss (COO of the company), so I feel confident that they will be thinking about this come annual review season. We start budgeting for them in a couple months, so I wanted to keep “give her more money” in their mind.

    I knew when I asked that a) I wouldn’t likely get an off-cycle raise and b) it wouldn’t be a 20% now or at annual reviews. I am hoping to get closer to an 8-10% raise at annual review season, but we will see. The other benefits of this job meet my goals, and I am not in a “must get a raise” territory. Still, it was really good practice – I know I will be less nervous and do better next time, even if my poor delivery wasn’t the reason for the no.

      1. Medium Sized Manager*

        I’ve gotten strong raises/bonuses in the past couple of years, so I am hopeful this will help continue that trend!

    2. Trout 'Waver*

      “We only give raises with a job offer in hand” is terrible policy, for a lot of reasons.

      Not the least of which is: If you need a job offer to get a raise, you should probably take the other job and not the raise.

      1. FunkyMunky*

        agreed, I don’t think that whole situation as positive as the commentator is framing it to be

        1. Medium Sized Manager*

          Oh, it’s a terrible policy – both my manager and I agree about that. But, the pros of the job outweigh the cons for me, and it’s all information on how to work within the system to get what I want. The job posting that I used to support why I should get a raise requires set hours when I am flexible, requires some nights and weekends when I don’t have any, and I would have to interview to see if I even want that job.

          If I get to the point where I’m interviewing and accepting job offers, then I am not interested in bringing it to my employer anyway. So this is just me learning more about how raises are handled in my company and how to be more effective in the future.

    3. namuh*

      I heard a story at my work of someone recently who asked for a raise, was told to go out and get an offer so they could justify the raise, and when they came back with the offer told them “Okay, go have fun at your new job then I GUESS,” completely disgusted they’d accepted an offer elsewhere. And we can’t figure out why we’re hemorrhaging good people…

  4. Paint N Drip*

    This is very timely. My boss doesn’t mess around with smaller 1-2-3 percent COL raises regularly (my last one was last spring, 5%) but I wish there was a schedule or something where I knew what his plans were – I haven’t had a scheduled sit-down review in YEARS!

  5. DE*

    The author here will never say it, because she is management, but what you should actually do is join a union. Negotiating is much easier when you don’t have to do it alone.

    3. Paint N Drip*

      FYI I’ve never seen any anti-union sentiments from Alison, and I’ve been reading for years. She often recommends banding together as employees to push for improvements, so I get the feeling she respects the power of collective bargaining but doesn’t deal with unions often in the non-profit world.

    4. Orv*

      That works if you’re in a job unions are interested in organizing. If you’re white- or beige-collar you’re sort of out of luck.

        1. Orv*

          What I always tell people about IT is the unions think we’re management and the management thinks we’re janitors.

      2. Statler von Waldorf*

        I don’t think it’s the unions that aren’t interesting in organizing white collar workers. Unions are made up from workers after all. It’s the white collar workers who don’t want to unionize, for a variety of reasons.

        I’ve worked blue collar jobs and now I work a white collar job, and I’ve seen both sides. In my experience, the reason blue collar workers tend to unionize more is that in my experience, they are treated worse by management than white collar workers are. Thus, they benefit more from a union than white collar workers do.

        And for those calling out DE and defending Alison, he’s not actually wrong. While Alison frequently promotes the power of collective bargaining to resolve issues, in the years I’ve been reading here, I’ve never seen her actually advise a letter writer to form a union to solve their problem.

        1. nnn*

          I just searched the site for “unionize” and while it’s hard to sort out the times it appears in comments rather than posts I did find these where it’s clearly Alison’s advice:

          https://www.askamanager.org/2021/02/my-company-punishes-single-people-who-have-to-quarantine-more-than-once-but-not-married-people.html

          https://www.askamanager.org/2020/08/our-library-staff-have-all-been-reassigned-to-do-childcare-for-county-workers.html

          https://www.askamanager.org/2020/06/our-ceos-plans-for-re-opening-are-loony-and-stressful.html

          https://www.askamanager.org/2018/11/my-employer-fined-me-90-for-being-late.html

          https://www.askamanager.org/2021/03/pink-hair-at-a-job-interview-coworkers-who-dont-knock-and-more.html

          https://www.askamanager.org/2021/08/i-got-covid-at-work-and-my-company-wont-cover-my-sick-time-horrible-new-coworker-wants-to-be-friends-and-more.html

          1. Statler von Waldorf*

            To be fair, I didn’t search the site, I was just going from my impressions of Alison mostly sitting on the fence on the issue when I’ve seen it brought up.

            Honestly I found most of those statements pretty wish-washy, (This is why people unionize, you should consider a union, etc) but I will concede that the two with the CEO plans for re-opening and the library staff being assigned to childcare were a fairly hard call for workers to unionize. I’m a big enough person to admit I was wrong, so here’s me eating that crow. Mmm … crow.

            Still, that’s only two letters over many years, and in both cases management was completely toxic and a union was the only real chance of pushing back. I don’t think Alison is anti-union, but I still don’t think she’s exactly pro-union either.

            1. mreasy*

              Alison is very pro union and has become moreso over the years. She’s also realistic that one person cannot single-handedly unionize a workplace and that it’s not always the right solution to each problem.

        2. Orv*

          I think the problem is a lot of tech jobs are, at least on paper, management-level, which puts them off limits for unions. My job is like that even though I don’t actually manage anyone; I’m salaried/exempt.

          1. Zee*

            My workplace has a union. I was allowed to join even though I’m management-level on paper (high-level IC, don’t supervise anyone, but have ‘manager’ in my title) but don’t actually get to access the majority of the benefits given to union members at different classifications, such as having a union rep at meetings with HR. And the things that the union negotiates (like a minimum wage) apply to all employees, regardless of union membership. So I’m not exactly shocked that the majority of other people at my level aren’t willing to basically donate money to the union.

      3. A Significant Tree*

        It is industry dependent, but I’ve been part of two unions as a white-collar engineering-adjacent professional. The first union actually made a point to expand its base by including typically non-represented people. In both cases the unions have ensured that we get steady raises. I know it can be a mixed bag but I’ve definitely benefited from being represented by a union.

    6. Blue Pen*

      Others have already mentioned Alison’s pro-union stance, which I’m 100% all for, but “join a union” or “form a union” can be an arduous process, if it’s even successful. It takes a lot of dedication and long, hard work to organize people in the workplace. And that’s not at all to say that someone shouldn’t do this—more people should!—but since the US is not so union-friendly, this isn’t so easy to do.

      1. KitKat*

        Yeah – I think if anything Alison’s bias is toward “practical advice that suits the amount of effort most people are willing to put in,” which is one of the best things about this site. She does mention the utility of unions (and much more often the utility of informally organizing groups to advocate for change) but in most scenarios, most people aren’t up for forming a union to get a raise when they could look for a new job instead. That may be ideologically unsatisfying to some, but in my opinion it’s pretty solid advice giving.

      1. evens*

        Exactly. Unions are great if the whole group is underpaid or there are unsafe working conditions. They are less helpful if you are a great worker that deserves more. In fact, unions often lock you in to getting the same pay as the least productive member of your job.

        There is a place for unions, but they are not necessarily a panacea.

        1. Unionized*

          This is not true. I’m in a union and we can get merit raises – in fact, our union contract has language about what percentages are appropriate in what circumstances, which helps us know how much is reasonable to ask for/if our manager is trying to lowball us. Our contract requires our employer to publish salary bands for different positions but people can make different amounts within the bands based on performance.

  6. Trout 'Waver*

    Speaking to the timing issue, when I’ve been able to secure raises for my team, it was always at least 4 months away from the annual review cycle. In the 4 months before the annual review cycle, the answer was always, “We’ll address it at the annual review.” At the annual review, there was a zero-sum mentality which made it very difficult to give appreciable raises. And the 4 months after the annual review cycle, the answer was, “We just addressed this a couple months ago.”

    My advice would be to make the ask 4 months after the annual review cycle and hope it can get pushed through before the window closes. Also, the point about preparing a short document is spot on. You want to prepare something very short and impactful that your manager can easily forward along to the decision makers.

    Just my experience, though.

    1. Lab Boss*

      Mine as well. The company had a process in mind for the company-wide annual “Merit-based” (actually just COL) raise cycle and if I wanted to give someone more I had to give someone less. Also, no raises for 4 months after annual raises. Also also, if you got a raise in the 4 months prior to annual raises, you weren’t eligible for an annual raise. Of course that just meant I gamed the system and gave raises during the safe 4 months.

  7. WellRed*

    I went to way too long without any increase. When we got acquired I planned to ask for one, got caught sort of off guard when they gave everyone 3% increase off the bat. I wish I’d said “I haven’t had an increase in x years, can you make it x%?”

  8. dulcinea47*

    You don’t get to ask for an individual raise if you work at a large research university, it just doesn’t work that way. (we do have a brand new union that hasn’t done anything yet.) The one job where I did ask for a raise based on the quality and amount of my work, I wasn’t taken seriously at all, and that was one of the many reasons I left.

    1. Trout 'Waver*

      What? When I worked as a research technician in undergraduate at a state university, I asked for a raise and got it. The pay rate was completely discretionary to the professor who ran the lab.

      1. Coco*

        I work at a similar institution. Research roles are often funded by grants. If the grant money is already accounted for, then a raise is unlikely to happen.

        1. Nicosloanica*

          That said, we often renew our grant applications with new budgets that often have a standard salary increase. I note that not all employees actually *receive* that increase, because it doesn’t seem to be automatic. Some people – probably the ones who ASK for it – are getting a larger-than average adjustment and others are getting nothing.

      2. Jaunty Banana Hat I*

        It depends on the job/position and how it’s funded, and that varies by university and by state. A lab/research tech job and others that might be at least partially funded by grants usually has much more flexibility in pay than other roles.

        1. i am a human*

          Yeah, this. My advice to anyone is to understand how the system works. Every university is different which is why it’s important to familiarize yourself with how classification and compensation is set up. Read university policy. Find people in your same job classification and compare notes. Find someone who has successfully navigated a raise or promotion and find out what magic words they used to make it happen. Maybe your supervisor will advocate for you, but if they’re faculty, it’s more likely they don’t know how to the staff system works, so you have to do the legwork yourself.

          Budget lines on individual staff are flexible, to an extent. The grant often gets reported out with salaries and wages all in one lump sum, so the grantors don’t know/don’t care if you get a raise. Plus most budgets are built with a 3% escalation per year. We were in a scenario for several years at my university where no one got raises, including soft funded staff, which was infuriating because we’d budgeted for it, but it was deemed “unfair.” Well, I don’t have the job security of people on non-grant money, how is that fair? Seems like a decent trade off..

      3. dulcinea47*

        our pay rates are set and approved by the university. We *usually* get an annual raise, but it’s not for cost of living (it’s always less than cost of living) and we don’t even get it every year. In 20 years I’ve never, ever heard of anyone in the libraries, either staff or faculty, asking for/getting a raise outside of that structure. (with exceptions for when they did market studies and found some of us were being paid way too little.)

        1. dulcinea47*

          (I’ve been in four different jobs with progressive responsibility, is how I manage to keep making this work.)

      4. Pescadero*

        Soft money vs. hard money.

        When you’re hired by a particular researcher, with money from a particular grant – they can give you raises, but when the grant ends – you might not have a job anymore.

        With hard money – it’s coming out of the general fund, and thus “central” administration ends up involved.

  9. Fitz*

    I’m having a day so I’m just going to say it: Did anyone else read the headline and think, “Is the answer ‘be a man’?”

    1. Scarlet ribbons in her hair*

      I didn’t, because the men at my former company didn’t fare any better than the women. My post about my former company is several posts below this one.

    2. Lab Boss*

      At the risk of sounding defensive, one of my main goals as a manager has been making sure my entire team (all women for most of my time managing) has advanced faster than I did, and is paid better for their titles than I was at that stage. Blanket sexism accusations aren’t fair, and they’re not useful.

    5. amoeba*

      Luckily not in my company, at least.

      (I mean, in my role it’s also basically impossible to ask for a raise outside the annual merit raise or a promotion/title change – but those are handled fairly and we’re well paid, so that’s OK.)

  10. Connie*

    I’ve never asked for a raise because I’ve always worked in the public sector in Canada in a unionized environment. Raises are not a thing. When you are hired your education and experience levels are used to place you on the salary scale for your occupation. Salary increases occur as per our collective agreement. When our collective agreement is due to expire negotiations take place and sometimes we strike.

    Personally I think this is much more fair than giving raises willy-nilly according to the higher-ups’ whims and which employees are assertive and which aren’t.

  11. Scarlet ribbons in her hair*

    I worked at one of my former companies for over eleven years. I knew from the very beginning that in order to get a raise, I had to ask for one. It was because TPTB figured that if we didn’t ask for a raise, that meant that we were happy with the salary we were getting, so why should they waste money by giving us a raise that we didn’t even ask for. Other employees said that they didn’t want to have to beg for a raise, but I said that it didn’t count as begging, because it was the only way we could get a raise.

    Every time I asked for a raise, I got one. Until the last time. My supervisor told me that I agreed that I deserved a raise, and he went to tell the office manager that. Then he turned, and he told me that TPTB had decided (instead of making us ask for a raise) that a committee would meet to evaluate whether or not an employee was deserving of a raise. Unfortunately, he said, the committee was unable to meet, because someone was always out sick, on vacation, or away on a business trip. When I told my supervisor that I didn’t care for this plan, he said, “Well, there’s nothing I can do about it.”

    For the next six weeks, every time my supervisor called me in, I was sure that he was going to tell me that the committee had met, and I was going to get my raise. It never happened. I never asked him or the office manager or anyone else if they had any idea as to when the committee would meet. (This might have been a mistake, since maybe TPTB figured that since I wasn’t nagging anyone about getting a raise, that meant that I really didn’t want one.) I found out that there were lots of other employees waiting for the committee to meet. We weren’t told who was on the committee, so we were unable to say that all of them were in the office every single day that week, so why couldn’t they meet.

    After six weeks, I decided to look for another job. It took me a few weeks to get one. When I gave two weeks notice, part of me was triumphant, and part of me was very hurt that TPTB didn’t think enough of me to try to keep me by giving me a raise. I joined the chorus of many, many other employees who said, “I got tired of waiting for the committee to meet.” TPTB guaranteed that the committee would meet by the end of the year. (This was at the end of July.) I said that I didn’t want to wait that long. The committee did not meet at the end of the year. I eventually found out that the committee didn’t even meet by the following March.

    I just can’t believe in advice that tells you how to get a raise, because NOTHING would have worked on my former company. TPTB would just have told you to wait for the committee to meet. And I have a feeling that if I had asked regularly for any updates as to when the committee would meet, they would have fired me.

    2. WellRed*

      But that’s because your company didn’t give a sht. They probably never planned to allow raises or they would have pressed this shadow committee to meet. If it even existed. I’m curious if In hindsight, you see that there were other problems? You did the same night thing by not sticking around.

      1. Scarlet ribbons in her hair*

        Yes, I realize now that their plan was not to give anyone a raise. As for other problems, I honestly can’t say that I saw any at the time. And whenever I heard someone say “People leave managers, not companies,” I want to say not in my case! I loved my manager, I loved the people in my department, I loved my job, and most of my co-workers liked me. (If they didn’t like me, at least they respected me because I did my job very well.) The only reason that I left was because I wasn’t given a raise.

        However, several years later, the company moved from New York to Connecticut, and I heard that they fired practically everyone before the move. But there was no way I could have known this when I left.

        But again, articles that claim to tell you how you can get your company to give you a raise really pi$$ me off, because some companies won’t give you a raise no matter what.

        1. PlanetShifting*

          You are aiming your ire at the wrong target. Don’t get pissed off with the article! Get mad at the company that won’t give raises no matter what, and then go DO something about it.

        2. amoeba*

          Well, yes, *some* won’t and then the advice is obviously, find a new company. (Although it does sound like you successfully asked for raises in the past at that same company, so I guess it did work, at least for a while?)
          But that doesn’t negate the need for advice for everybody working at other companies, because generally “I want more money, please give it to me” isn’t the most compelling argument, even in reasonable places.

        3. Adam*

          If you’re getting pissed off because generalized advice column advice didn’t apply to your specific situation, you might need to take a step back and reevaluate things. General advice can’t ever suit every situation, that’s a fact of life, it’s concerning to have such a strong emotional response to that.

    4. Lab Boss*

      That’s wild, and I’m torn between thinking it was a deliberate ruse to fend off raise requests, or if that’s overcomplicating something as simple as “none of TBTB cared enough to notice the problem.”

    5. nnn*

      This is like getting angry at any article on “how to make friends” or “how to have a fun picnic” because you didn’t have success with it. If you try to befriend a jerk or you picnic on an anthill, the advice won’t work. It’s not a problem with the advice, it’s a problem with the jerk or anthill.

  12. maelen*

    I’ve been lucky that the company I work for (tech, but not a giant tech) gives at least small raises every year. Occasionally, I’ve heard of someone who’s at the top of their salary band getting close to zero. They also state that they do not do COL. If you go up a level, depending on your current salary, they may or may not increase your salary as part of the level change. As an example, if your salary is in the upper range of your current job and it would be relatively high in the new level’s range, then you might get no or a minor raise.

    OTOH, the company does something that I really like. Everyone does reviews (you self-review and then manager comments), *then* managers work out how to divvy up the money the group has been alloted for raises. Before that point, they’ve also worked out who’s getting a promotion and there some separate money allocated for that. Increases have the same set date each year, so no matter when increases are processed, you get retro back to that date.

  13. Seeking Confidence*

    Has anyone else struggled with reacquiring the confidence for asking for a raise when you’ve been shut down in the past? The first time I tried, I was given a flat no, and the second (different job) I ended up being laid off. The latter there really makes it difficult to go into it with the mindset of “the worst they can say is no!” even though I am aware that asking for the raise was not what triggered the layoff.

    1. Lab Boss*

      Yes. I have rejection issues broadly, so it was very hard for me the first time I had to ask for more salary. When my grandboss gasped at the amount I asked for, I very nearly just melted through the floor in embarrassment and shame. The saving grace was that I had practiced my poker face and didn’t let THEM know how I felt, just faked confidence and ease.

  14. Bird Lady*

    I’d also like to point out in all of this, as managers, it’s our jobs to advocate for staff raises and address pay inequities. It’s not just on the employee to advocate for themself.

    1. Elle*

      Hear, hear. I think about this a lot. Most of the people currently under me are overpaid according to industry norms/my company’s algorithm/my assessment of their work, so this looks a little different for me at the moment, though.

      1. Bird Lady*

        I come from an industry where the Executive Director makes a six-figure salary, and everyone else is making substance wages while doing three to four full time jobs. I used all my capital to get my staff pay increases. It wasn’t nearly enough, but it was the best I could do.

    2. Lab Boss*

      Hard agree! The more power you have the more you can push, and if you’ve got some capital you can make a bit of a nuisance of yourself to whatever Powers that Be regarding pay without worrying about consequences like a lower-prestige employee might.

    3. Pillow Castle*

      While I agree with this, it’s not always clear what fair wages are for a role. Inequalities tend to be easy to spot, but whether someone is at the correct market rate can be harder. From my own recent job search, I saw salaries for seemingly similar jobs be 50% less than I’m making now to 75% more than I am. I’m sure there are differences between them, but there was nothing glaringly obvious that would explain the discrepancies.

      HR can help pull comp rates, pay bands, etc., but the figures I’ve seen feel suspect at best. To be clear – I don’t think HR is lying about the figures – just that there is more nuance than the systems designed to give these figures can handle.

  15. K Smith*

    I successfully did this, based on the advice Alison has given here, and got a decent raise and promotion (a promotion in name/title only, but a promotion nonetheless). So a sincere thank you to Alison – I wouldn’t have done this if not for this site and the great advice given here. And it never would have happened if I hadn’t asked.

    It had been ~2 years since I was hired, and I’d only gotten meager cost of living/standard company wide salary increases. I’m a top performer, based on my performance evaluations.

    I simply… asked for a raise and promotion. I didn’t go into a lot of detail as to why I thought I deserved it, since I thought that was self-evident based on the regular praise I get. My boss basically said ‘yeah I agree you deserve this’… and eventually made it happen. I’m a woman in a STEM field for reference, and I’m never been good at advocating for myself.

  16. Spooky*

    I’ve never worked anywhere that allowed this :( I’ve gone from retail to healthcare administration; the healthcare facilities (one private, one nonprofit) only do raises at year-end according to what rating you got. Asking for a raise at any other time, no matter how much your workload or responsibilities have changed, gets you a confused and disapproving “no”.

    My husband was at the same private healthcare place and basically took on a workload a level up; our manager fought for six months to get him $1/hr raise for it and they finally begrudgingly gave him 50 cents and said “never again, we don’t do this”

  18. Statler von Waldorf*

    As a former blue-collar worker, I find this entire subject fascinating, because the entire concept of this conversation is so alien to me.

    You see, In the trades, especially the oil and gas industry, if you want a raise, you have to get a new job. That’s just how it’s done. With the exception of promotions or getting some trade-specific certification that makes you more valuable, in over 20 years I have never seen a routine raise for someone continuing to do the same job. Even with people getting a new certification, I’ve seen multiple people who had to switch jobs to get that raise. It’s a thing, and it’s stupid, and most of people I’ve seen involved in it even agree that it’s stupid, but it’s still a thing.

  19. Trout 'Waver*

    I’m not pointing this comment at anyone in particular, but in my experience, a lot of places have “reasons” why they don’t give raises. These “reasons” are almost always BS and places find all kinds of ways to give raises in spite of them.

    The vast majority of people who insist “My employer doesn’t do raises because of X” are wrong. Don’t believe those people.

    1. Lab Boss*

      I think it can be helpful to know the reason, though. If I want to argue for a raise against an objection, I’ll argue differently for “we give annual 3% raises and that’s it” than I will “we don’t have the budget for raises” or “if we give you one it’s not fair to everyone else.”

    2. Blue Pen*

      In general, I agree, and I’m not at all condoning keeping quiet when it comes to your career.

      But in my case, and it seems like in many higher ed employees’ cases, we don’t have the ability to negotiate because it’s not our managers who say “yes” or “no” to these raise requests. My employer is humongous, and so HR is centralized to such a point where it’s almost like a bloodless machine. And when they start throwing out terms like “internal equity,” we’re not getting anywhere. The bottom line is that, if someone elsewhere in the company has a similar job title or set of responsibilities as I do and isn’t paid at the level I do, then it’s something of a liability for the company. The only way we get real raises is either through a promotion on the team, a job transfer to another division, or—in the exceedingly rare case—a job/salary grade reclassification.

      Again, I’m not at all defending this; it rankles *a lot* of people here. But the culture here is such where someone would look completely out of touch for pushing and pushing for a raise that simply will not come. It’s just not done here.

      1. Trout 'Waver*

        I do want to point out that it is rare in corporate environments for managers to have the authority to give raises to their employees.

  20. RogueTrainer*

    My current company does not negotiate raises. Raises are tied to annual reviews- you self-evaluate, send the self evaluation to your supervisor, then your supervisor writes their own evaluation to give to the higher ups who make raise decisions. You cannot ask for a specific raise amount because you never speak to the people who set the amount, and while your manager can advocate for you, the general amount is 3-4%, with most people getting around the 3.5% mark. I was told to be happy when my first year resulted in a 4%, and my supervisor had pushed for the 4 “because I earned it.” However, I found out about halfway through my second year that new hires were coming in at a higher rate than I was getting, and most of my department was also below that amount. I took it to my supervisor, and she managed to argue for those of us under the new hire rate a raise to $0.10 more than the new hire rate, with the understanding that our annual would be calculated from the higher amount. Once my review rolled around, I only got a 3% raise because “they just gave me one”, but my total raise from year one to year 2 was still not enough to cover COL, and those people hired in at the higher rate will still be paid more than I am with the regular increase amount year over year. So, the people I am training are able to get paid more than me, forever, because my company doesn’t want to pay reasonably for increased experience and skill. We are underpaid overall for our field and experience, but have no direct negotiation power, and our supervisor has not shown any inclination to negotiate on our behalf beyond the normal range because that’s all she ever got when she was on our level, and she already went to bat for us once so we should be happy now. Almost everyone in my department is looking for new positions outside the company, because inside it there’s no advancement opportunities and a general attitude that we should be grateful for the job we have and all of the “great benefits” that really aren’t that great.

    1. A reader among many*

      That’s such a terrible, soul-crushing situation to be in because the problem is SO OBVIOUS, but the people above refuse to acknowledge it and there’s usually nothing you can do about it–it sounds like you’ve exhausted the options that are available to you.

      Best of luck with whatever direction you choose from here.

  21. anon here*

    Curious if the commentariat thinks I should ask for a raise: I work in an underpaid section (think small private college or govt) of a normally well-remunerated profession. I got an enormous raise in spring of 2023, without asking. (20%ish increase.) However, beginning in summer of 2023, I took on two new large responsibilities and have done a very good job at both (became a supervisor and took co-lead on an important recurring office priority). Worth asking?

    1. Blue Pen*

      Did your initial raise come because your employer knew you’d be taking on those responsibilities? Or was that a separate, unrelated occurrence?

      1. anon here*

        I had asked for the supervisory role and it was in the extremely initial still tentative possibly not gonna happen planning stages when I got the raise; the second was entirely unexpected.

        1. Phony Genius*

          Maybe asking for a formal promotion is in order, especially with the supervisory role. A higher title comes with higher pay.

          1. anon here*

            I already got the promotion/title change! As of February of this year. Just…no raise came with it.

            1. Zee*

              That’s crummy. You should’ve gotten one then, if not even earlier. I think it’s reasonable to ask for one now, but another option would be to ask in February when it’s the anniversary of your official promotion.

  22. Wait What*

    My start-up actually offers COL raises (but technically, they’re “merit raises” that just happen to be 3% or less). Otherwise, I haven’t received anything out-of-band in four years.

    Sadly, from light job searching, I still make more than I should expect elsewhere. So unless the start-up folds, I need to get used to this salary. The only way to possibly make more would be to give up remote work or the other flexibilities I’ve built up or somehow become an SME and be coveted by Big Name Tech.

  23. Introvert girl*

    Thx to our union we got a small increase in May of this year but overall it’s nowhere near inflation. I have a second job but haven’t been paid since July for that one so my finances are a bit tight. Retention budgets are just too low to get a significant raise.

  24. Pillow Castle*

    I’ve managed to get raises I’ve asked for twice (out of four attempts at different times/places). Once, I got recruited for a similar role and realized I was being underpaid. Took it to my boss, I got about halfway to the other role’s salary immediately and the rest of the way there a few months later. I truly don’t think there was any ill intent in how I ended up underpaid in the first place – it was just weird circumstances.

    Second success was at an offer stage. They had already come up from their original stated range quite a bit (I mentioned in interviews I thought their range was off) and I was nervous about asking for more, but I did and got it.

  26. rach*

    My current company definitely won’t give out raises to anyone who simply asks, but they do have a system where if you hit “exceeding” 2 quarters in a row, you can get a tiny raise. I like that we can drive our own success, but the standards by which we are judged are insanely high for how small the raise is. I definitely don’t feel all that motivated to even try, but I know if I actually say that, it won’t look great for me. It’s a good system in theory, but at least for my team, the standard we are held to is insane.

    I attempted to negotiate my pay when I was hired but they held firm that the role only paid $X.

  27. Jane*

    I work at a nonprofit and when we got new management I decided to take my chance and got a 78% raise (for technically 10 more hours a week but salaried). I prepared multiple documents and just ground on it for over two weeks and kept pushing. I am a confident person but this whole thing made me incredibly anxious despite my best attempts to talk myself out of the anxiety. But I did it and I’m in an infinitely better position now for me, my loved ones and my future. IT’S WORTH IT!

  28. A reader among many*

    Good luck to everyone who’s asking for a raise or preparing to!

    I just let my boss know (she’s supportive and advocating for me but does not set pay) that HR’s recent reclassification of my unique position, which involved a promotion with no pay increase when I’m already hugely underpaid compared to the people HR says that they’re comparing me to, is unacceptable and that I’ll need to walk away to a much easier job THAT PAYS THE SAME in a neighboring department if they don’t make a better offer. The other department always has openings and it’s a guaranteed transfer if I want it.

    I’m hoping that my boss can use this to put pressure on HR to *get* me that better offer because I’d love to do my current job till I retire if the pay feels fair–great team, I’m in touch with people around the world, job pushes me to grow and makes use of my knowledge and skills, etc. But, if HR remains steadfast in their decision to undervalue a certain class of professionals in my department (definitely not just me) then maybe I can provide some benefit to the others by providing a data point that tells HR that they need to offer more to the rest of them, too.

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