How much of a raise should I ask for?

Ask for 10-20% above your current base when you have evidence of market pay plus recent wins. Anchor your request on market data for your role, city and seniority, not on your bills.

When is the best time to ask for a raise?

Right after a visible win and before budget planning season — for most companies that means 60-90 days before the fiscal year ends. Avoid layoff announcements, hiring freezes and your manager's busiest weeks.

What if my manager says the budget is frozen?

Ask for the first available date, a scope expansion that re-baselines your title, a one-time bonus, or more PTO. Budgets move quarterly in many firms, so a concrete follow-up date beats a vague 'later'.

Should I mention another offer to get a raise?

Only if you are genuinely prepared to leave. A real offer can accelerate a decision, but bluffing it destroys trust — and 20% of counteroffers fall through within a year anyway.

How long should I wait before asking again?

If the answer is no, agree a 3-6 month check-in date with defined deliverables. Re-asking without new evidence is the single biggest mistake people make.

How to Ask for a Raise

Here is the uncomfortable truth most career advice skips: the raise conversation is not won in the meeting. It is won in the six weeks before it — in the evidence file you build, the market number you anchor on, and the exact words you rehearse until they stop sounding like an accusation.

If you are an administrative professional, an HR coordinator, a marketer or an operations associate, you probably think you have less leverage than a revenue-generating salesperson. You are wrong. The 2025 PayScale salary data shows administrative roles have been among the fastest-climbing in percentage terms since 2023, because the job itself is changing faster than the title. Every month you spend quietly absorbing AI tools into your workflow is evidence — if you write it down.

This guide walks you through the whole process: what to collect, what number to ask for, when to book the meeting, what to say in it, and what to do when the answer is no. Each section ends with something you can do today.

1. Build the 90-day evidence file

Managers approve raises for one reason only: they can defend the decision to their manager. Your job is to hand them that defense in writing. Start a running document today and add to it weekly. For each entry, use a simple formula: what you did, what it saved or earned, who noticed.

Concrete examples beat adjectives every time:

Weak: "I improved our reporting."
Strong: "Rebuilt the weekly KPI dashboard in Notion; cut prep time from 4 hours to 45 minutes and moved the Monday report 3 hours earlier. Finance team now uses it as their source of truth."

When you automate part of your own job with AI — and this is a conversation happening in every department right now — write that down too. A colleague of ours at a logistics company documented 11 hours a week of reclaimed time from AI-assisted email triage and invoice checking, then used exactly that number in her raise meeting. She did not need to mention AI at all; she brought the hours.

Also collect the external proof: the course you finished, the process you own, the cross-team project you ran, the feedback from stakeholders in other departments. Three pages of this is enough. You are not writing a biography; you are writing a justification.

Do today: create a new document called "Raise Evidence — [Your Name]". Add the last three wins you can remember, in the formula above. Set a weekly 15-minute reminder to append to it.

2. Anchor on a market number, not your bills

The most common mistake is opening with "I need more money because rent went up." Your manager does not set your pay based on your rent. They set it based on what your role is worth and what it would cost to replace you. So your number has to come from the market, not from your cost of living.

Gather three data points for your role, city and years of experience: one from a salary aggregator (PayScale, Glassdoor, Levels.fyi for tech-adjacent roles), one from a recruiter if you know one, and one from job postings that list ranges — which, since salary transparency laws in several states and the EU, far more postings do. Then set three numbers:

Your ask: the upper end of a defensible range — typically 10-20% above current base when you have evidence.
Your acceptable floor: what you will accept without resentment — typically 5-8%.
Your walk-away number: the point where you update your resume instead. Keep this private.

Use our Salary Benchmark Lookup guide to structure the research, and write your three numbers into a negotiation notes page you take into the meeting. Paper in hand is not weakness; it is preparation.

Do today: spend 30 minutes collecting two market data points for your exact role. If the range you find is 15% above your salary, that is your opening evidence.

3. Pick the right moment

Timing is a lever most people ignore. Two windows matter:

After a visible win. You just delivered something a stakeholder praised, or you covered for someone in a way leadership noticed. Momentum makes "yes" feel like continuity instead of a departure.
Before budget planning. Most companies finalize salary budgets 60-90 days before the fiscal year ends. Asking two weeks after budgets are locked means your manager has to fight for an exception. Asking before means you can be in the budget. Ask your HR or finance contacts when the cycle runs in your company.

Avoid, at all costs: layoff weeks, hiring freezes, the week before your manager's vacation, and Friday afternoons. A raise conversation needs a calm, focused audience. If you are remote, ask for a video call with your camera on — tone matters, and studies of negotiation behavior consistently show that people are more generous when they can see your face.

Do today: find out when your company's budget cycle runs. Ask one trusted HR colleague, or look at when past compensation emails went out.

4. The meeting: exact scripts

You do not need to be charming. You need to be organized. Structure the meeting in four moves, and rehearse each one out loud once.

Move 1: The framing (first 60 seconds)

"Thanks for making time. I want to talk about my role and my compensation. I've been tracking my impact for the last few months, and I'd like to walk you through it and then discuss the market rate for this position."

Notice what this does: it names the topic, signals evidence, and defuses the "surprise" reaction before it starts. You are not asking for a favor; you are opening a business conversation.

Move 2: The evidence (2-3 minutes)

"Since April, I've taken over the vendor onboarding process end to end — that's about 30 vendors a quarter. I cut the average onboarding time from 11 days to 6, and the ops team told me procurement errors dropped by a third. I also rebuilt the KPI dashboard, which saves four hours a week of prep."

Stop after the third win. You are establishing that you are underpaid for the work you already do — not listing chores.

Move 3: The ask (one sentence)

"Based on the market data I've collected — similar roles in our area pay between X and Y — I'm asking for a base salary of [number], which is about [percentage]% above where I am today."

Say the number. Then be quiet. Silence is uncomfortable, and that is exactly why it works: whoever speaks first in a negotiation concedes. Count to ten in your head if you have to.

Move 4: Handling the pushback

Managers rarely say yes immediately. Prepare for the three most common responses:

"That's not in the budget." → "I understand budgets have constraints. Can we agree on the first date the budget could move, and what evidence I'd need to bring then? I'd also like to discuss whether a one-time bonus or a title re-baseline is possible in the meantime."
"Let's revisit this in the performance review." → "Happy to. Can we set that review date now and define what success looks like between now and then? I want to make sure I'm working toward the right milestones."
"You're already at the top of your band." → "I appreciate that. In that case, can we talk about a title change or expanded scope that would put me in the next band? I'd like my responsibilities to match where I'm already operating."

Every pushback has a redirect. The redirect always ends with the same thing: a date and a definition of what success means by that date.

Do today: write out your three wins, your number, and your script. Rehearse out loud once — in the shower counts.

5. What to do when the answer is no

A "no" with a plan is a win in disguise. The only bad outcome is a "no" with no date, no criteria, and no follow-up. If you get the no, do not argue in the moment. Instead, close the loop:

"I appreciate you being straight with me. To make sure I'm in a strong position next time, can we agree on a check-in in three months, and can I share the three things I'll deliver between now and then?"

Then actually deliver them — visibly, with the evidence file updated. Re-asking in 3-6 months with new proof is normal and respected. Re-asking next month with nothing new is the fastest way to burn credibility. If, after two structured attempts, the answer is still no and the market rate is clearly above you, that information is also a decision: it is the data you need for a departure negotiation when the time comes.

6. The follow-up that locks it in

Whatever the outcome, send a summary email within 24 hours. This is not optional. It turns an oral conversation into a written record, and it forces clarity on both sides:

"Hi [Name], thanks for the conversation today. To summarize: I'll bring updated evidence to our check-in on [date], and we agreed my priorities until then are [the three deliverables]. If anything I noted is off, let me know. Appreciate the time."

If you got the yes, send the same email with the agreed number and effective date, and ask for the formal letter. If you got a bonus or title change, write that down too. Verbal agreements evaporate; emails survive.

The one-paragraph summary

Build the evidence file for six weeks, anchor your number on market data (ask 10-20% above base), book the meeting after a visible win and before budget season, use the four-move script, and never leave without a date. The raise is not a reward for being good at your job — it is a reward for proving it in a form your manager can defend. Start the evidence file today; the meeting can wait, the file cannot.