Steps in Asking for a Pay Raise
By Susan M. Heathfield, About.com
Want more money than you're currently making? If your goal is to stay in your current job working for your present employer, you'll need to ask for a raise. Planning and preparation are key when you ask for a raise. So are timing, your employer's pay practices, and the market-based pay rates for your job
Steps in Asking for a Pay Raise - Research an Appropriate Pay Raise
Your goal at this step in asking for a raise is to know your employer's pay practices and the market pay rate for your job1.
* Familiarize yourself with your employer's pay practices. If the standard practice is to offer salary increases once a year after an annual review, you are unlikely to receive a raise at any other time.
If your company offers more frequent increases, you'll have more luck asking for a raise. Listen to your employer. If the employer announces that the pay increase will be four percent across the board, you are unlikely to negotiate more money.
* Research the market pay rates for your job. Getting information has never been easier, although you'll want to take care with online projections and salary calculators2. They rarely reflect your local market conditions including the number of open positions in your area. If you are already paid above your market pay rate, negotiating a pay raise can be difficult.
* Read your employee handbook. The handbook may present the process whereby salary increases are granted. If a policy or a process exists, your best bet when asking for a pay raise, is to follow the process exactly.
* Network with other employees in similar jobs in similar industries to determine your salary competitiveness. Professional associations also do salary surveys and provide networking opportunities with people in similar jobs.
Steps in Asking for a Pay Raise - Prepare Your Presentation for the "Ask for a Raise" Meeting
Once you've done your pay research in the above steps, you should have a good idea about how competitive your pay is in your industry. Next, you need to look at your work contributions to determine how you will present the request for a pay raise to your boss.
Or perhaps you've determined that your pay is competitive. Ask yourself why you deserve more pay because you will need good data to support your request for a pay raise. Determine whether the topic of the meeting you schedule is to ask for a pay raise. Maybe it's smarter to ask your boss what you need to do to qualify for the highest possible raises and bonuses in the future, if you cannot justify a higher salary now.
* Make a list of the goals you have accomplished for the company. Determine how their accomplishment has helped the company. Document costs savings, productivity improvement, superior staff development, important projects achieved, above-the-call customer service, and ways in which you have contributed more than your job required. Documented, these accomplishments may justify a pay increase.
* Make a list of any additional responsibilities you have added to your job. An increase in responsibility, more employees supervised, or special projects are often grounds for an increase, if you ask.
* Set a pay increase goal, in your mind, that appears to reward the contributions and additional responsibilities you have documented.
* Learn about negotiation from books, resources, networking, and friends who have successfully negotiated a pay raise.
* Set up a meeting with your immediate supervisor to discuss your compensation. You will not want to ambush your supervisor. If the supervisor is unprepared to discuss an increase with you, nothing will happen at the meeting. Your boss will also want to do his research with the Human Resources staff and his own industry sources.
http://humanresources.about.com/od/salaryandbenefits/a/ask_raise.htm
