Six Tips to Help You Ask for a Raise

If you are always among the best performers on the HR department’s staff appraisal list, why not fight for your own rights and ask for a pay raise? Commanding a higher salary is definitely very important, but if you don’t do it skilfully and tactically, the result may turn out to be an unfortunate failure, which is quite opposite to your expectations. Here are six practical tips to help you get a pay raise.

Negotiate Individually
Don’t do a collective bargaining when you try to negotiate a salary raise with your boss. A boss is as skilful as can be in using employees’ selfish motivations for his/her own good. If employees unite together to negotiate a raise, more often than not, it is the leader of this union who will be blamed and punished whereas the other “followers” might gain some small benefits from the negotiation. So talk to your boss individually and never bring a group of “followers” to come along with you.

Don’t Compare
In many companies, payroll information is confidential and you are not supposed to compare your income to your colleagues’ before requesting a raise. The reasons are, firstly, that asking for your co-workers’ salaries is against your company’s regulations, and if you break this rule, you have already lost the chance of a raise even before negotiating; and secondly, your boss might think that your motivation for asking for a pay raise comes from your jealousy of others, and this impression might lead him to ignore of your real capabilities, which are the actual reasons why you deserve a raise. What you need to do, therefore, is to show strong self-confidence, illustrate the contributions that you have made for the company, and try to use facts to convince your boss.

Have a Clear Goal
What you want is a salary raise, not a new job. So try to stress how loyal you are to the company. Otherwise, you are bound to embarrass yourself if you use your current job as leverage and threaten to quit if a raise is not forthcoming.

Time it Well
It is extremely important to choose the right time to start a pay raise conversation. You can ask for a raise when your company has just made a huge profit or when your boss is in a great mood. These are the moments when your boss is very likely to accept your request as long as you have clearly demonstrated your outstanding job performance, hard-working attitude, great achievements and recent training experiences.

Know Your Field and Know Your Boss
You need to be clear about the salary levels of your field. If you already earn the highest level of income, you will have few chances to get a pay rise unless you decide to find a job in another sector. On top of that, you should have a clear idea about your employer’s personality. If your boss has never offered any raise for employees, it may indicate that he is quite a head-strong person and you might be better off using an indirect way to ask for a pay rise. You will have a better idea of what an indirect method is after reading the next tip.

Use an Indirect Method
You might indicate skilfully to your boss that a headhunting company is trying to persuade you to quit your job, and is willing to offer a salary which is twice as high as your current one. If, even in this situation, your boss still shows no sign of giving you a raise, it means that in his eyes, you are not worth that much money. But using an indirect method can be risky since your boss may begin to keep an eye on you once he knows that you are not loyal to the company.