I had a reader request asking me to do a Monday Meeting post on negotiating a higher salary. Since I have no experience with this myself I decided to reach out to the interwebs to get some advice. Of course, they responded!
Here are a few tips that I’ve collected from around the interwebs - reader emails, tweets and online articles.
1. Be able to prove your performance
Have examples of WHY you deserve a raise. What have you done for the company lately? How are you an integral part of the companies success?
2. Write it down
Make a list of all of your accomplishments and goals. Accomplishments detail why you deserve a raise and the goals show your boss that you are goal-oriented and want to continue growing and improving in your position. Also, write down areas that you need to improve at.
It may also be helpful to have a spreadsheet to illustrate your point. Break down the number of hours you work with your salary and the hourly average to show that you should be getting more.
3. Be willing to take on more responsibility in exchange for a raise
You can’t march into your bosses office and expect a raise without giving anything back. Be willing to take on added responsibility (if you haven’t already) in exchange for this raise. Detail what that added responsibility may be!
4. Mind your manners
Be assertive and polite. Don’t make demands and respect whatever decision they make. Always thank them for their time.
5. Do your research
Know what you’re worth and don’t ask for more than they should be paying you. Research online, ask other people in the industry, find out what you should be getting paid and ask for it using the above tips. If it’s not more then you should be getting paid and you truly deserve the raise you will probably get it!
6. Be Flexible
Maybe your boss can’t offer you the raise you want but they can offer you an extra week of vacation a year or the last Friday of every month off. In some situations you need to take what you can get. If your boss wants to compromise with you then they obviously value your work and they are doing what they can even if a raise isn’t feasible at that time.
Here is another article to refer to: 10 Tips to Negotiate a decent raise.
So, readers, since I don’t have any expertise in this area I’m going to leave it up to you to fill in the blanks.
Have you ever had to negotiate a raise? If so, how did it go? Do you have any tips/suggestions? Discuss in the comments.
{ 24 comments… read them below or add one }
The only time I’ve negotiated on salary was when I got my current job. I had been told by someone that worked for the company that it was pretty much expected that you would negotiate, so I didn’t feel guilty asking for more. I would have otherwise because I was really happy with the offer as it stood.
We had to take a seminar on negotiating your offer through my MBA program and it was so helpful. The woman who taught the seminar said women really need to get better at asking for more, but it’s just not in our nature to do that and many of us will feel guilty or greedy for asking for more… She suggested that we read “Women Don’t Ask” - I think that is the name of the book? I have been meaning to check it out but haven’t had a chance to yet!
Good tips Lisa! I know that it can be intimidating asking for more money or benefits. That is really neat that your MBA program offered a negotiation seminar. I could use that!
Great post!
I’ve never had to ask for raise…they’ve always just sort of been given to me. Weird. I’m sure I’ll have to do so someday though!
I’ve never had to do this, but I know that at a lot of the companies I’ve been with before, if I stayed there would have never been an automatic increase. I definitely would have had to go to bat. I kind of hope I don’t ever have to do this, but if I did I’d add an extra step of slamming down a coffee cup on the desk for dramatic effect.
Maybe I should go back and work in theatre again?
HAHAHAHA. Good idea with the coffee cup, maybe make sure there’s not too much coffee in it, though. Then it would just create a big mess
I have never negotiated a raise, and I don’t know if I could … it would be really hard to do. Luckily, in my line of work, there is a set salary based on years of education and years of experience - no individual negotiating can be done (teacher). Negotiations are done by people on a committee for the whole profession in the province - if one person gets a raise, we all do.
I’ve never had to do this, but we have year-end performance reviews usually followed by salaries going up (not a lot, because we’re non-profit - I think it was less than 1% last year, lol), and each month we also have to submit a report on our activities for the month. I keep a Word document open constantly and every time I do something above and beyond my job description I write it down, so I have a list of things to talk about in the review, just so I feel like I can show that I really try hard to make a difference here.
That’s interesting that you keep a word document open constantly and write in it when you go above and beyond your job description.
Really great tip for anyone who is thinking of asking for a raise in upcoming months!
we only do salary based increases every year. it varies based on my performance review. However, I’ve tried to do the whole this is what I do, this is what i can offer, but in a huge corporation, it’s VERY difficult to do so! Unless your job description changes, they’re very unlikely to budge on what they’re paying you, unless it’s the new year & that’s when they may give you a salary increase, which is very measly!
my brother in law was laid off beginning of last year - and it took him about 3 to 4 months before he found another job. When he did, the pay wasn’t nearly enough, so he was able to negotiate more vacation hours and his company was pleased with that suggestion. so he did it that way.
You are right on the money with this one Amber. It is hard to do, but when you know what you are worth and you can show hard numbers it really helps!
I have zero expertise in this area… even more so since right now, what I really need to do is negotiate a job (lol). Good luck to the reader though!!
I read (in Glamour I think!) to keep it all based on your work performance. Playing the “I have mouths to feed” card won’t get you anywhere.
I’ve never had to negotiate a raise before, but I can imagine how scary/hard/awkward it must be! I definitely think the most important thing is evidence of your outstanding performance and hard work, showing the numbers. Those are great tips!
These are all great ideas Amber. In my line of work (teaching) we don’t really do negotiating for a raise (thank goodness because given the lack of money around right now we’d all be living on the street!). I think it would be really hard to do it, but I think if I had to I could. It’s funny when I was in college there was so much about the real working world I thought I wouldn’t be able to do and somehow you just always manage to do what you have to and it’s never as bad as I expected. I think the worst part about asking for a raise would just be the initial, “um hi I’m in your office today to talk about how you should pay me more” haha, after that I think you are right I would just stick to the facts about what I do and why I deserve more…
Do you think the fact that women have trouble asking for a raise is part of the reason why all these studies keep saying that women are still being paid less? Makes sense right…
What an interesting point; I think that could definitely be a reason that women tend to get paid less. I’ve read studies that say men are much more assertive about what they want in the workplace. I could also see it being intimidating if you’re a woman and your boss is a man…
Anyone else have any insight on that point?
You know, the list is great but my only issue is with #6 - Be flexible.
Unless it’s paid vacation or a paid day off, I really couldn’t afford to do that and would rather get that extra 50 cents an hour. It’s also hard to bring yourself to ask for a raise if your hours just got cut. Oy.
But great post!
Oh, I definitely meant paid vacation!! I completely agree, extra vacation is nice but money is nicer!
But, if you are on salary and currently getting 2 weeks vacation, maybe it will be easier/more feasible for your boss to give you an extra week of PAID vacation then an extra couple hundred bucks a year.
It’s hard if you’re paid hourly, though.
No, never asked for a raise before. May be coming up in my near future, though…
I think a good piece of advice is to go above and beyond your job description - DO more, achieve more, then you have something to back up your request (rather than asking for more money with the idea that you’ll be doing more AFTER you get the raise).
I’ve had two small raises in my life, both when I worked in hospitality though. I must say it was a good ego boost, no matter how small the increases!
Oh yeah, I also try to keep a list of any extra things I’ve done or special projects I’ve worked on. I also try to update my resume quite frequently!
I was just talking about raises the other day with my family! I really truly need a raise but the problem is my company has a “raise freeze” and has had one since I was hired (almost two years ago)! which makes it very difficult to ask for a raise even though I deserve it– the “freeze” makes me feel like I would be countered with a “how dare you” if I were to ask for a raise, you know? my immediate boss would like to give me a raise and told me he has said has much to the higher ups, but the paper doesn’t have much money to be giving out raises it seems. but I’m already hourly, was brought in at a lower rate than I wanted, and I can barely pay my bills so something’s gotta give eventually! hopefully it will, fingers crossed, but I don’t see myself putting this tips to use– as good as they are!– anytime soon because I know I will just be rejected! ugh.
The worst they can say is “No.” I’m pretty sure they can’t legally fire you for asking for a raise!
I really think you should prepare a proposal and just GO FOR IT, girl! You obviously deserve it and if they say no, then they say no, but at least you can say you tried!
I’ve had to do this once or twice now. And I will say this, all the above advice is really great and super important, but…
If you don’t believe it, they won’t believe it. Be realistic in your evaluation of yourself and don’t be afraid to ask for a little more, with the expectation that they will try to negotiate down. However, you must believe that you’re worth your bottom line amount. If you don’t, how can your boss?
(I’ve nearly doubled my annual salary in two years…)
great topic! ill have to keep this in mind if i ever need to do that!
I have never had to negotiate a raise or a salary. These are all great tips and I will definitely keep them all in mind should the opportunity ever arise.