Influencers from Around the World – How to Ask for a Pay Raise

This week you’ll learn how to persuasively ask for a pay raise. The advice comes to us to from Italy’s Marco Germani. Marco has written guest posts regularly for Influence PEOPLE since I started this series nearly four years ago. I know you’ll enjoy his perspective on influence. To learn more about Marco, connect with him on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter. 

Brian Ahearn, CMCT® 

Chief Influence Officer

influencePEOPLE 

Helping You Learn to Hear “Yes”.

How to Ask for a Pay Raise

I recently read an article on the labor market in the U.S stating; according to a study, about 95% of employees never ask their company for a rise, during their entire professional career. One of the obvious considerations of this finding is that the remaining 5% of employees earn on average much higher figures than others! “Ask and you shall receive,” says a well-known passage from the Bible, but in the field of labor, people often don’t ask because often they don’t know HOW and WHEN to ask. Lacking adequate preparation, they fear a refusal could at least complicate, if not compromise seriously, their future stay with the company.

What follows summarizes the advice of many experts in personal development, including Brian Tracy, Zig Ziglar, and Jay Abraham. In my opinion it’s the most relevant information related to the request for a salary increase.

Who can apply

In the current economic situation, those who have a more or less stable job in a company consider themselves already lucky and often see no reason why they should take the risk of asking their supervisors for a pay rise. This mentality is unfortunately very common today among employees, who prefer to complain about the boss, colleagues or their job at the coffee machine rather than focusing on how they can create more value for the company through a greater commitment in what they are doing. These people obviously have an attitude and probably a performance that doesn’t justify a request for an increase.

On the other hand, those who are constantly focused on performing effectively and efficiently the tasks they’ve been assigned -- those who constantly look for more responsibilities and are willing to learn new things -- should periodically assess whether the wage they’re currently paid is in line with their true market value. If not, they should decide to ask for a pay raise. Many people live in hope that their supervisors, seeing their hard work and great results, will decide to increase their compensation in the right time. This seldom happens and asking for a pay raise can be a very appropriate action.

When to ask

The timing, in the request for a salary increase is crucial and can determine in large part the success of the operation. The best strategy is undoubtedly to make an appointment with your superior (it’s important that you speak directly with the person who can make this decision, when possible) and simply tell him you want to make a point of the overall situation on your work, without going into too much detail. A half hour should be sufficient. When hearing this uncommon request, your supervisor, especially if you are a “top performer” in your company (if you're not it may not be appropriate to take this appointment in the first place), would probably worry about the fact that you might want to resign, which will give you some negotiating power in the first place.

The preparation of the meeting

Preparation is everything and especially if, as in this case, most likely your manager will not invest the time to prepare, can give you a big advantage in the negotiation. In your case, preparation consists in collecting as much objective data as possible, relating to the results that you have produced for your company during the past 12 months or since your last salary increase. Ideally, you should sum up the most important points in a short document in Word or PowerPoint where, highlighting the concrete results that you generated with your work.

The second field on which you must prepare are the average salaries offered by the market for positions similar to the one your cover. The important thing is to provide objective information, citing sources (just search on the internet and there are many sites that offer this type of information).

The meeting

It’s important to enter the meeting with a relaxed and confident attitude: you are well prepared and you are carrying a high value for your company, then you’re in a position of power. Many find it difficult to ask and this makes them nervous but this should not be your case! Start saying you want to make a point of the situation regarding your work and that you’ve prepared a document that summarizes your results.

Then discuss it with your boss and ask him what, in his or her opinion you could or should do better. Now, since your boss  probably will not be prepared, unless there is something serious and obvious, it is likely he will be unable to say anything particularly significant, which does nothing but increase your negotiating power in view of the request.

You may proceed citing an authoritative source (website, a head hunter, etc.) about the average level of salary for your position that is higher than what you’re receiving and finally make your request, precise, clear, expressed in percentage of your gross annual wage. “I think it would be appropriate to revise my salary increasing it by 15% because...” At this point it is essential to remain silent and wait for the reaction of the boss, which will be positive or negative.

The follow-up

In case of positive response it’s important you define the terms and exact timing with which the increase will be allocated. Starting from which paycheck? Will there be an official announcement? Over what time period? If your boss tells you she feels your compensation should be increased but, for X reasons, she cannot change your salary at the moment, then work together to find a formula that leads to the same result: a prize, bonus, etc. The important thing is there is something of substance.

If your boss tells you that he does not consider it appropriate that you receive a salary increase, ask for detailed reasons, trying to get him to focus on your performance. Very often motivation is given along these lines, “Your colleague Tom earns the same salary and increasing your salary could cause a problem.” Of course an explanation like this makes no sense at all and has nothing to do with your performance. However, if your boss is really insistent about not giving you the salary increase right there, sk the following question, “What needs to happen to allow me an increase of 15%?” At this point your boss is forced to define an objective condition, the achievement of which, automatically gets the increase.

You just have to try. Remember, if you don’t ask you won’t get anything. However, even a “No” might just be a “Not yet.” If you think you are not in the position to ask, get more engaged in your work and focused on producing greater results, until you are in the position to ask for a pay rise.

** To vote for Robert Cialdini, President of Influence At Work, for the Top Management Thinker of 2013 click here. 

Marco