How to Ask Your Employer for a Pay Raise

I've been asked by a major publication to write about/advise people on how to ask for a pay rise. I've employed 100s of people, & believe there are only two ways, or at two best ways, to approach it. They are below. 

But first...

Some sure ways NOT to ask for a pay rise, are:

1. Tell your employer that you can't cover your bills & you don't have enough to live on, or pay your house & car. They don't care about that, & will only see that you can't manage your money. They can also feel emotionally blackmailed, which has high chances of backfiring on you. 

2. To tell them you have another job, or are thinking of leaving, & using this as leverage. This is advised by some 'consultants', but I've never felt good about this, even though sometimes I may have fought to keep the employee. It goes very bad very quickly if a staff member plays off the new employer versus the existing one. As soon as I am used as a pawn to get a pay rise because the new employer is offering more, I'm out.

3. Ask for a pay rise because you heard that a colleague got a pay rise. Never works, at least not for me. It is none of anyone else's business what others are paid. Why would anyone increase someone's salary just because they increased their colleagues salary? That's not sound logic or financial smarts. This also erodes the trust of discretion. An employers big fear is that when one person asks for a raise, everyone does, & it can stop them from raising salaries of people who deserve it. 

So always be discreet & never use this as leverage to get a (temporary) raise. 

So here are the two ways I believe you are most likely to get a raise & maintain & build goodwill with your employer

1. Book a meeting (monthly review, salary review, one to one) & show grace, gratitude & calm emotions to your employer. Big up the company & your relationship, then point out in clear, specific detail, what extra revenue, cost savings, systems & time savings you have brought to the company. Measure it against what it would have been, without your role or input. Have it printed out/evidenced. Show the gross & the net. Then politely request your raise. Request it as 10% or less of additional profit you have brought to the company. 

2. Book a meeting (monthly review, salary review, one to one) & propose some actions you will head up or undertake that will increase future turnover & net profit, & then request up to 10% of the net profit as a bonus or salary raise. "If I could bring in £20,000 net profit in the next 6 months, would you pay me just a £4,000 bonus"? 

You could even do both 1. & 2. in the meeting, or 1. in one meeting, and 2. in a meeting in two to three months time. 

You only ever get a raise when you show one thing: value. You must show value first. Most employees want payment first, then they might offer the value. The world doesn't not work this way. Your employer wants & needs to make profit. Your employer wants happy clients, referrals, productive & loyal staff. Show these, give value first, & you will get your raise. 

If you do all this & don't get your raise, another employer will snap you up, & you know you are working for the wrong company. 

Here's the VIDEO version:

Rob Moore