How to Ask for a Raise: 7 Steps (With Scripts)

Timing matters more than eloquence. Pay decisions are made against a budget that is set at a particular point in the year, so aim to land your request while the budget is still being shaped.

• Your scope has permanently grown. You have absorbed a departed colleague's work, taken on a team, started owning a client relationship, or picked up on-call duty. Ask once the change has held for a couple of months and is clearly not temporary.
• You are six to ten weeks out from the pay or review cycle. Budgets are usually proposed before they are approved. Ask before your manager submits their numbers, not after they come back.
• You have just finished something measurable. A launch, a migration, an audit passed, a backlog cleared, a renewal signed. The memory is fresh and the evidence writes itself.
• Market rates for your role have moved. Check job ads for your title in your city, published pay scales in your sector, and official wage data — in the United States that is the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics programme and the Occupational Outlook Handbook; elsewhere, your national statistics agency or a sector union. The BLS Employment Cost Index also tracks how wages and salaries for civilian workers moved over the twelve months ending in June 2026 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, June 2026), which tells you the general direction of pay in your economy.
• You are doing the job one level up. If your work matches the next job description, you are asking for a promotion, not a merit bump — and those are budgeted differently. SHRM reported that employers expected to promote roughly 10% of their workforce in 2025, up from 8% in 2024 (SHRM, 2025), so the promotion route is real but rationed.

Not yet: if your team is in a hiring freeze, has just had layoffs, or you are inside a formal performance improvement process, wait. So should you if your manager changed in the last month — they have no first-hand evidence of your work and no political capital to spend on you yet. Use the waiting time to build the record and to book a scope conversation instead, so the raise ask lands later on prepared ground.

1. Benchmark the role, not your feelings. Pull three sources: current job ads with posted ranges for your title and location, any published pay scale for your sector, and official wage data such as the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics tables or your country's equivalent. Recruitment firms also publish annual salary guides — Robert Half, for example, publishes guidance on benchmarking your salary before you ask (Robert Half, undated). Lead time: 3–5 hours of work spread over a week.
2. Write a one-page evidence document. One line per achievement, each with a date, what you did, and the result in numbers you can defend: tickets closed, revenue retained, hours saved, error rate down, headcount covered. Pull the raw figures from the systems you actually use — your CRM, ticketing tool, analytics dashboard, or project tracker — so nothing is estimated from memory. Robert Half's guidance on asking for a raise also stresses quantifying achievements (Robert Half, undated). Lead time: 1–2 weeks, because you will need to chase data.
3. Set a number and a floor. Decide the figure you will name, and the lowest figure you would accept without changing your plans. Distinguish a merit increase from a promotion increase: SHRM reported that in 2025 employers delivered an average merit increase and a larger average total increase covering merit, promotions and other adjustments (SHRM, 2025), and that among companies using five performance ratings, top performers received higher average increases than the 3.3% given to the middle category (SHRM, 2025). Where your rating sits shapes what your manager can approve without escalating. Lead time: one evening, after the benchmarking is done.
4. Book a dedicated meeting with your manager. Send a calendar invite for 25–30 minutes titled something plain like "Compensation and scope check-in". Do not ambush them in a corridor or bolt it onto a status stand-up. If your organisation has an HR business partner, ask them privately when pay decisions are finalised so you can place the meeting before that date. Lead time: book 1–2 weeks out; hold it 6–10 weeks before the budget closes.
5. Rehearse out loud, twice. Say the number without softening it. Record yourself on your phone, or run it past a peer or mentor outside your reporting line. The goal is to name the figure and then stop talking. Pew Research Center has reported that most U.S. women and men do not ask for higher pay when negotiating starting salaries (Pew Research Center, April 2023) — the same reluctance shows up in raise conversations, and rehearsal is the cheapest fix. Lead time: two sessions of 20 minutes in the week before.
6. Hold the conversation and name the figure. Lead with scope and results, state the number, then let silence do the work. Take notes on what your manager says about budget, timing and approval chain. If they need to consult someone, ask who and by when. Lead time: 20–30 minutes.
7. Send a written follow-up within 48 hours. Summarise your case, the number, and what was agreed, and attach or paste the evidence page. Robert Half publishes specific guidance on making the request by email or letter (Robert Half, undated), and a written version gives your manager something to forward upward verbatim. Lead time: 30 minutes, same or next working day.
8. Diarise the decision date. Put a reminder in your own calendar for the date you were given, plus three working days. If nothing has come back, send a two-line nudge. Lead time: typically 2–8 weeks between the ask and a firm answer, longer if the decision needs a finance or HR cycle to close.

Keep the spoken version to about ninety seconds before you name the number. Replace everything in brackets with your own specifics.

Opening the meeting (spoken)

"Thanks for making time. I want to talk about my compensation, and I've put my reasoning in writing so you can pass it on if you need to.

Since [month/year], my role has changed in three ways: I've taken on [responsibility], I now own [project or account], and I cover [duty] that used to sit with [role or person]. On [project], that meant [specific result with a number — e.g. cut processing time from X to Y].

Looking at posted ranges for [job title] in [city or region] and at published wage data for the role, my pay sits below where the work now sits. I'd like my base pay moved to [$X]."

Then stop. Let them respond.

If they say the budget is fixed (spoken)

"I understand the budget is set for this cycle. Two things would help me. First, can we agree in writing what the increase would be and when it takes effect at the next cycle on [date]? Second, if base pay can't move now, what can — [a one-off bonus, a title change, [number] extra days of leave, a training budget for [certification], or a shift to [schedule]]?"

If they ask what number you had in mind (spoken)

"[$X]. That's based on [source one] and [source two] for [job title] at my level in [location], and on the fact that I'm now doing [responsibility] that sits in the [next level] job description."

Follow-up email after the meeting

Subject: Compensation discussion — [your name], follow-up

Hi [manager's first name],

Thanks for the conversation on [date]. To summarise what I put forward:

- Since [month/year] I have taken on [responsibility] and [responsibility]. - On [project], the result was [specific outcome with a number]. - On [project two], the result was [specific outcome with a number]. - Comparable roles for [job title] in [location] are advertised at [range or source], and published wage data for the occupation supports that.

On that basis I'm asking for base pay of [$X], effective [date].

You mentioned [what they said — e.g. that this needs sign-off from [name] and that budgets close on [date]]. I've noted [date] as the point we'll have an answer. Happy to supply anything else that helps the case.

Thanks, [your name]

Two-line nudge if the date passes

Hi [manager's first name] — following up on the compensation request from [date]. Has [name or finance] come back with a decision, or is there a new date I should work to? Thanks, [your name]

Most refused requests are not refused on merit. They fail on framing, timing, or the manager having nothing to take upstairs.

The honest downside: a well-argued ask can still be turned down for reasons that have nothing to do with you — a frozen headcount plan, a pay band ceiling for your grade, or a manager who has already spent their allocation. Some workers who ask do get one, and a report noted that a share of those who asked in the previous year received an increase (CNBC, November 2024), but there is no version of this conversation that guarantees a yes. What you can control is that the request is on record, quantified, and dated.

Treat a no as the start of a defined process rather than a verdict. Work to these timeframes.

• Within 48 hours. Send the written summary anyway, including the reason you were given — band ceiling, budget timing, performance rating, or headcount freeze. This is the document you will refer back to.
• Within 1–2 weeks. Book a 30-minute follow-up to agree the specifics: what evidence would change the answer, which rating or level you need to reach, and the exact date of the next pay decision. Ask for it in writing, even as a short email your manager confirms.
• Within 30 days. Take on one thing that closes the gap they named — ownership of [project], a certification your employer will fund, or cover for a duty that sits at the next level. Confirm by email that this is the agreed path, so the goalposts are fixed.
• At 60–90 days. Send a short progress note with the evidence attached. Keep it factual and dated. This makes the next conversation a continuation rather than a fresh request.
• At 3–6 months. Hold the review you agreed. If the reason given was budget timing, this is when it should be resolved. If it has moved again, note that in writing and ask what has changed.
• At 6–12 months. Decide. If the answer has slipped twice with no change in your pay band, start testing the external market: refresh your CV against the benchmarks you already gathered, apply for two or three roles at the level you claimed, and see what ranges come back. Interviewing is also the fastest way to find out whether your self-assessment holds outside your employer.

Throughout, keep the evidence document current — one line per month takes five minutes and removes the hardest part of the next ask.