How to get a Salary Raise

Do you feel you are underpaid? Do you think your company is benefiting from you much more than what it is paying in return? Do you think that your efforts at the job are unrewarded? Do you think you truly deserve a salary raise? If the answer to all these questions is ‘Yes', all you need to do is ask. However, this might be the most difficult asking that you might have to do in your life (other than proposing to someone to get married to you). You need to do a lot of preparation before you can ask your employer or your boss for a salary hike. There would be a natural resistance from your boss to give you the raise because that means shelling out more for getting the same services from you that he is already enjoying at a lower salary. Therefore, you need to present your case in a manner that your boss is also convinced that you deserve the raise that you have asked for.

Here are a few tips that would help you successfully negotiate a pay hike with your employer.

• Fix a meeting with your reporting manager

Just ask your boss or reporting manager for some time to review your work and performance. Do not say that the purpose of the meeting is salary hike. Your meeting request might just get rejected if you ask this. And even if the boss agrees, he/she would be well-prepared to turn down your request of a salary raise. Thus, just seek an appointment to discuss your work and go prepared. This would be the most critical meeting as your salary hike would depend on how well you are prepared to sell your argument.

• Go for the meeting fully prepared
  
  

Since it is a critical meeting, you wouldn't want to go for it unprepared. Don't just go for it on an ad-hoc basis and take it as it comes. Before going for the meeting, prepare a list of all possible questions, all tentative answers and all the arguments that you are going to put across. Also, have knowledge of the average salaries in your role for your experience. If you have friends in the industry working in similar positions, talk to them to gather real information. Otherwise, there are many salary tools available online that help you get a fair idea of what your salary should be. Prepare notes of all these things and take print-outs, if required. This way, you will have a strong case to ask for the raise that you want.

• Deserve what you desire
  
  

No boss is going to give you a raise just because you want it. So, it's time for some introspection. Ask yourself a few questions from the perspective of your boss. Analyze your achievements, what they mean for the company that you are working with, your competencies, the amount of workload on you, your level of commitment towards the job and more such questions. Are you better than other members of the team? Do you have that willingness to put in extra? If you are asking for a salary hike, you must truly deserve it in your own eyes and from the perspective of the boss too. The best time to ask for a salary raise would be when you have shown consistently good performance over a remarkable period of time. This will give you enough number of reasons to justify the hike that you are asking for.

• Sell yourself well

The meeting would be nothing like selling your competencies and convincing the boss to buy in your strengths. Be ready with all the evidences to demonstrate that you are worth the hike you are asking for. Translate your work into numbers, if possible. This means try to gauge the impact of your work on the revenue that the company generated and present it in that way. Talk about the increased revenue and how your contribution was critical to it. Go with a well prepared document or presentation that you refer to at all points so that you don't forget anything.

• What if your boss doesn't budge?

Go prepared with the possibility that your request might get rejected. What then? Your boss may refuse to give you a salary hike for some genuine reasons too. There might be a company policy for that year or there might be an economic slowdown. How do you go about it then? Be ready with a back-up plan and ask for non-monetary benefits to reward your performance. Ask for a promotion on the same salary or an assurance of a hike within a given time. You could also ask for upgrading your skills by some training.

So, these are some tips that might help you get a salary hike even in a difficult economy. Ultimately, what you get would depend solely on your capability and your ability to convince your boss.