How to ask for a raise

Most advice on this is about confidence. The part that actually moves the number is preparation, one specific decision about who says a figure first, and knowing what you will say when they do not say yes.

Updated 22 August 2026

The short answer

Book a dedicated conversation rather than raising it in a one-to-one about something else. Bring a short written case built on what you have delivered and what the role is worth outside the company. Name a specific number, at the ambitious end of what you can justify. Then stop talking and let them respond.

On naming the number first, which is where the evidence is

This is the one part of the conversation research has a clear answer for. A large meta-analysis of negotiation studies found a reliable advantage to making the first offer, and a strong relationship between how ambitious that first number is and where the final agreement lands. Anchoring is real and it is worth using.

The same work found the cost, which most articles leave out. Ambitious opening numbers also produce more failed negotiations, and leave the other side feeling worse about the outcome. In a salary negotiation with a stranger that is a manageable trade. With a manager you will see every week for years, the relationship is part of what you are negotiating over. Ambitious and justified is the target; ambitious and arbitrary is what causes the damage.

The one case where waiting is smarter

If you are negotiating a new job offer rather than a raise, the employer usually knows the range better than you do, and going first risks anchoring below what they were prepared to pay. Asking for their range first is the safer play there. Asking for a raise is the opposite situation: you are initiating, so a number is coming from you whether you plan it or not.

Building the case

Lead with what changed, not with how long you have been there. Tenure is not an argument; it is a timestamp. What did you take on that nobody assigned you, what got measurably better, what would break if you left?
Get the outside number. Levels.fyi, Glassdoor and recruiter conversations for your role, your level and your city. An internal argument is about fairness; an external one is about replacement cost, and replacement cost is the argument that moves budgets.
Write it on one page. Not to hand over, though you can. Writing it is what forces you to notice which of your reasons are actually just feelings about being underpaid.

Timing that helps

Ask before the budget cycle, not during it. By the time your manager is filling in the compensation spreadsheet, the money is already allocated. A conversation six to eight weeks earlier is one where they can still do something.
Right after a visible win is good. Right after a bad quarter for the company is not, and pretending you have not noticed does not help you.

The four hardest moments, and what to say

They say “this is not a good time”

“I understand. Can we put a date on it now, so it does not drift? I would rather have this conversation properly in six weeks than keep raising it badly.”

They ask what number you have in mind

Say it plainly and stop. “Based on what the role pays elsewhere and what I have taken on this year, I am asking for X.” The silence after a number feels much longer to the person who said it than to the person hearing it. Do not fill it.

They counter well below

“That is further from where I need to be than I expected. Help me understand what is driving it, and I will tell you honestly whether it works.” This buys the reason without rejecting the offer, and the reason is what you need to negotiate against.

They say the budget is fixed

“Understood. Then can we talk about the things that are not salary?” Title, a one-off bonus, an equity refresh, a training budget, a day a week from home. Some of those come from different pools, and a manager who cannot move one can sometimes move another.

If the answer is no

Get it made concrete. “What would need to be true for this to be a yes in six months?” A no with specific conditions is a plan. A no without them is a signal, and it is better to receive that signal clearly than to spend another year misreading it.
Then write down what they said and send it back to them in an email the same day. Not as a gotcha; as a record you both agreed to. Most raise conversations fail on the second attempt because nobody can remember what was promised the first time.

Now say it out loud

Reading a good answer is not the same as giving one.

Studies of interview coaching find a dose-response: candidates who get information do better than those who get none, and candidates who actually rehearse the skill out loud do better again. You can have the structure right and still lose the room when Linda asks the follow-up. First session free, no card.

See where you stand

Common questions

Should I mention another offer?

Only if it is real and you would take it. It works, and it is the strongest lever there is, but it converts the conversation into one about whether you are leaving. Some managers will match it and quietly start planning for your departure anyway.

How much should I ask for?

Enough that it is above where you expect to land, and low enough that you can justify every part of it with the case you have written. An ambitious number you can explain is exactly the thing the research supports. An ambitious number you cannot is the thing that causes the failed conversation.

What if I get emotional?

Common, and it is why rehearsing this one out loud matters more than for most conversations. The feeling usually arrives at a specific sentence, and finding out which one before you are in the room is most of the fix.

On the research: The findings on first offers, anchoring and the cost of ambitious openings come from Petrowsky and colleagues (2025), a meta-analysis of 374 effects across 90 negotiation studies published in Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.