How To Ask For a Raise at Work The Right Way
So you’ve been in the job for quite some time and you need to earn more to compensate for growing costs? Asking a raise is a useful professional skill, so you can advance in your financial goals.
When Is The Right Time to Ask a Raise?
If you’ve proven yourself to be excellent in your job for a year, you can ask for a raise. Employers are open to giving a salary raise to those who deserve it.
Specifically, you can ask for a raise at work during a performance review, positive feedback, a company anniversary, or when the company reached a milestone. Only because you were part of that success!
Why Ask for a Raise At Work?
There might be several reasons why you want a raise, but let’s see if those reasons are valid. Asking a raise is not self-entitlement at all when you think you need it and it is desirable with your work performance.
Most employees ask for a raise for reasons like:
The job requires more responsibilities.
More responsibilities mean more time and time is gold. The job might even require you to travel more often, so it’s ideal to ask for a raise to compensate for travel expenses.
They’ve stayed long enough in the company
Being in a company for a few years and doing a good consistent performance is deserving of a salary raise.
How Do I Ask for a Raise?
A professional business letter is one tool you can use to ask for a raise at work. Its content should be friendly and direct to the point while also being grateful towards your manager or supervisor. It also is a plus to set a meeting and hand the letter personally to your head, so you can discuss it briefly. If you are not able to meet face-to-face, you can do it via email.
Here are some tips when writing your letter:
Be Professional
Add your company letterhead, follow the format of a good business letter. Avoid caps and exclamation points. Check for grammatical errors. Be clear and concise with your language.
Be Grateful
In the letter, start by being grateful to your head for supporting your career.
Be Sincere
It’s important to mean what you say and not just flatter with words.
Be Direct to the Point
Don’t prolong your purpose for writing the letter. Make your intro short and get right to the point about the salary raise.
Ask Politely
Add magic words like please and thank you. Don’t try to apologize for asking for a raise. Be confident about it.
Add a Specific Amount
Some companies may be open to your request and may ask how much of a raise would you prefer. Don’t be afraid to place it in.
Don’t Demand But Wait
We are merely asking permission for a salary raise, so we need to ask them politely and wait for their update.
Asking a raise at work is a negotiation skill we all need to learn as employees. The way we ask also varies across company cultures. Do a little research and practice on how you can approach them well.
