How to ask for a pay rise (with a scored example)

Most people reverse the order. They talk for ten minutes about projects, market rates, and how long they have been in the role, then mumble a range at the end. The manager hears a story, not a request. Open with the ask: the role, the number or band, and the date you want it to take effect. Then evidence the value. Two or three outcomes beat a tour of your calendar. “I closed the renewal that added £180k” is a case. “I have been working really hard” is a mood. If you cannot name the number out loud in a practice room, you will not name it when your manager is glancing at the clock.

Budget-conscious managers have a short list of deflections that sound reasonable: now is not a good time, everyone wants more, we will look at this in the next cycle, I need to think about fairness across the team. None of those is a decision. If you fold, the conversation ends and the raise dies in the corridor. Acknowledge the constraint, then return to the ask. “I hear the cycle is tight. I still want us to put a number and a date on this.” You are not arguing that money is infinite. You are refusing to let a process excuse replace an answer. The skill is staying on the request without becoming a speech.

A raise conversation that ends in “let me look into it” is not finished. You need a named owner, a dated follow-up, and a clear definition of what “look into it” means — compensation review, written proposal, or a conversation with their manager. Write it down in the room: “I will send the one-pager by Thursday. We will reopen this on the 22nd.” If they will not give you a date, ask what would have to be true for them to give you one. That question separates a real process from a polite stall.

In the UK this is usually called a pay rise, not a raise — same conversation, different word. Book it after a result they already know about, not in the middle of a fire. Performance reviews and the start of a financial year are natural. Mid-project, the week of a hiring freeze announcement, and the corridor after a bad board meeting are not. Ask for thirty minutes on performance and compensation, not “a quick word.” A manager who is already late to something else will give you a timing objection before they have heard the number. If you cannot get a meeting, send a short note that you want to discuss pay and propose two slots. Do not put the figure in that note. The note books the room. The room is where the ask lives.

Memory is generous to the person who does not want to spend money. The same day, send a short recap: the number you asked for, the evidence you left, the owner of the next step, and the date you will reopen it. If they only offered a smaller figure, record that too — without sulking, without accepting a maybe as a yes. Keep the email. If the 22nd arrives and nothing has moved, you are following up on a written agreement, not nagging a vibe. People who skip this step often discover, three months later, that “I’ll look into it” meant “I hoped you would drop it.”

Apologising for asking. Anchoring with a range so wide it invites the bottom. Leading with personal bills instead of business value. Accepting “everyone wants more” as if that answers your case. Threatening to leave before you have a decision — it turns a compensation talk into a resignation rehearsal, and you may get neither the raise nor the dignity. Practise the version where the manager is busy, not hostile. Hostility is rare. Being hurried and slightly irritated is the real test. If you can hold the number there, you can hold it in the room that matters.