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How to ask for a pay rise

Thinking about asking your boss for a pay rise? Here are some ideas and tips to help you get ready to ask those hard questions about pay and performance.

4 minute read

Everyone wants to be paid more – that’s just a fact of modern life. But not everyone knows how to ask for a pay rise – or how to put together a convincing enough case to get one. Here are a three quick tips to tackle the conversation.

1. When it’s appropriate

Like everything in life, getting a pay rise is often a matter of timing. The first thing to consider is understanding the normal process of performance reviews and pay rises in your workplace. Most businesses have a set time of year this happens, so if you are asking for a pay review outside of the normal business process, you’ll need to firstly be really clear about why you think this is necessary.

How long have you been in your role? There’s no point asking for a raise in your first week of employment. The truth is you’re far more likely to get a pay rise if you’ve been in your role for at least six months or preferably longer than a year.

Also make sure to consider the business environment. Is the company doing well right now? You’re unlikely to get a pay rise when the business has been through, or is still facing, difficult times.

Once you feel comfortable the timing is right, the next thing to think about is why you deserve a raise at this time. Typically, pay rises are assessed based on an employee delivering and exceeding their key performance targets. Do you fit that description?

2. How to ask

Simply walking up to your boss and demanding more money from them is unlikely to end well. Chances are, there will be a formal process that you must go through.

When is your next performance review? And have you met all your performance goals for the current financial year or quarter? If you have, this would be the ideal time to ask your manager for a raise. Or, you could bring it up at one of your regular catch-ups with your manager to track your progress towards your performance goals. If you don’t already have performance goals set and agreed, it is going to make the conversation a lot trickier to manage, so make sure you set these up and agree them with your manager.

One of the most important things when asking for a raise is being able to back yourself. Employers don’t necessarily want to know why you ‘need’ more money. Instead, they’re more interested in why you deserve it. So, make sure to keep a record of all your achievements and have them ready for when it’s time to talk about your performance.

Build your case on how well you’ve achieved your goals. Numbers are often convincing, so identify and communicate ways you have gone above and beyond to add value to the business. Then sell them not just on what you have achieved but what you plan to achieve in your role in the future.

3. How much to ask for

Making your worth known early and often will be a huge help for them when discussing pay rises. We all want to be earning the top dollar, but we have to take realistic steps to get there. Always do your research to determine your market value. If you have a solid request, backed by precise numbers, your request will be better received and considered.

A quick way to find out where you sit is to search online for job roles that match your qualifications and responsibilities, then see how much they’re offering. If you’re under this average, you’ll have a good starting point. 

At the end of the day, even if you put in all the hard work beforehand, you can never be sure what the outcome will be, so always be prepared to hear ‘no’. This doesn’t signal the end of negotiations. It may just mean you need to improve in specific areas before having the conversation again and being open to your manager’s feedback will show you’re willing to grow in your role.

Whatever the outcome, you’ll have learnt to advocate for yourself and understand and appreciate your worth. Keep your head up. After all, you’ll never know if you don’t ask.

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This article is solely for information purposes and is not intended to be financial advice. If you need help, please contact BNZ or your financial adviser. Neither BNZ nor any person involved in the material accepts any liability for any direct or indirect loss or damage arising out of the use of, or reliance on, all or any part of the content. Any opinions in this article are not necessarily shared by BNZ or anyone else.