When to Ask for a Raise

1. When you haven’t been on the job for long. If you’ve only been on the job a few months, you already did your salary negotiation—when you were hired. In most cases, you want to have a solid year of work behind you before asking for a raise.

This rule includes a few exceptions, such as if the job dramatically changes or if your responsibilities increase far beyond what was envisioned when you were hired, or if you’re asked to take on new tasks that cause real hardship, such as constant travel or a horrible commute. In these cases, it might be reasonable to revisit the question of your compensation. But for the most part, you should wait a year before you ask for a raise.

2. When you haven’t been performing well. When you approach your boss about a raise, your request should be based on the great work you’ve done. If you’ve been struggling and not wowing anyone, this isn’t the time to ask for more money. Otherwise, your boss may think you’re completely out of touch with the job expectations and your own performance.

3. When the company is struggling financially. When employers are going through a rough financial time, they’re looking for places to cut costs, not add them. A lot of companies will freeze salaries during difficult financial times, and a smart employee will be sensitive to those constraints.

So when is the right time to ask for a raise?

1. When you have a sustained track record of accomplishment that you can point to. A raise is recognition of a job well done, acknowledgement that you’re now contributing at a significantly higher level than when your salary was last set (whether that was when you were hired or when you got your last raise). A raise says “your work is now worth more to us.” So you need to make sure that’s true before you make your pitch.

2. It doesn’t hurt to have just done a great job on something. Hopefully you’re doing a great job all the time, but ideally you’d ask at a time when your fantastic performance is particularly fresh in your boss’s mind because you just wrote an amazing report or saved the company significant money or wowed a client.

Asking for a raise is nerve-wracking, but remember, good managers want to keep good employees. If your request is reasonable and backed up by your value to your employer, a good manager will try to work with you to keep you happy. And even if your company can’t say yes right now, a good boss will explain what would need to happen for her to be able to say yes next time.

10 Tips for Negotiating a Raise

1. Pick your timing carefully: Check out these right and wrong times to ask for a raise.

2. Understand what your manager is likely going to be thinking: And what is in a manager’s head when a staff member asks for more money? Typically, it’s this: “Is this reasonable? Am I going to lose this employee if I say no? Where would this put her salary in the larger context of our overall salary structure? And most importantly, how valuable is this employee?” Managers are much more willing to go out of their way to accommodate someone fantastic who they don't want to lose—and much less likely when the request comes from someone they're lukewarm about.

3. Don’t talk about personal reasons for wanting a raise, like your expenses: Your request needs to be all about your value to the company, not about the fact that your rent is going up or that you have bills to pay. Employers don’t pay people based on each person’s own financial needs—after all, the company isn't expected to pay more money for the same work to someone supporting a family of four versus someone single and without kids. Stick to reasons that are about business and your value to the company.

4. Don’t compare your salary to your co-workers’: Sure, it's absolutely frustrating to see someone doing a worse job than you and getting more money, but for better or for worse, managers do not respond well when employees use a coworker's salary as the basis for a raise request. Base your salary requirements on the industry norm and what you'll be bringing to the company, nothing else.

5. Base your request on your value to the company: Build a case for why you’ve earned a raise, and for why your company is better off because of your work. Think back to any special achievements in the last year (and it’s good to keep running notes on these throughout the year so that you can remember them when you need to!). Think about the positive impact you have on the business. Pretend that you’re your own manager and ask what about your performance would really impress you, or what your manager should be upset to lose about you if you left.

6. Provide details to support your case: For instance, maybe you can show a file of compliments you’ve received from customers. Or maybe you can show that your idea increased revenue by X dollars, or that your productivity rate is twice the average rate. The idea here is that you want to show a case for your value to the business.

7. Don’t threaten to leave if you don’t get a raise: Even if it’s true, you don’t need to say this out loud. Managers understand that this is the implied subtext when someone asks for a raise; it’s definitely on their mind that they risk losing you if they can’t do what you’re asking. You don’t need to spell it out.

8. Don’t have an attitude of entitlement: You want to be confident and direct, but it won’t go over well if you feel entitled to a raise just because a year’s gone by, or because you’ve done the basic requirements of your job.

9. Rehearse what you’re going to say ahead of time: For instance, you might open with something like this: “This company has been wonderful about rewarding my performance with increased responsibilities and more challenging work, and I’m really appreciative of that. However, I’ve been performing at a high level for a while now, have consistently exceeded my sales targets, and have played a key role in mentoring new staff as well. I’d like to talk to you about adjusting my salary to reflect these contributions.”

10. Know what to do if your boss says no: If your boss turns you down, ask what you would need to accomplish in order to earn a raise in the future.

And if your boss says yes, congratulations! You just got a raise.

10 Salary Negotiating Mistakes to Avoid

Not much makes job-seekers more anxious than negotiating--or even discussing--salary. After all, you might ask for too much, ask for too little, or otherwise sabotage your own chances of getting the best possible salary. Negotiation will go more smoothly if you know what landmines to avoid.

When it comes time to negotiate salary for a new job, make sure that you don't make these 10 key errors:

1.   Being unprepared: At some point, employers are likely to ask what salary range you're looking for, possibly as soon as their first contact with you. If you're caught off-guard, you risk low-balling yourself or otherwise saying something that will harm you in salary negotiations later. It's crucial to do your homework ahead of time so that you're ready when the question comes up.

2.   Negotiating before you have an offer: There's no point trying to negotiate before you have a job offer; after all, the employer still hasn't even decided if they want to hire you. Your leverage will be far stronger once someone is certain that you're the one they want.

3.   Relying on online salary sites to give accurate information: While salary sites might seem like the most obvious way to figure out what to ask for, these sites are frequently unreliable, in part because the job titles they list often represent wildly different scopes of responsibility. Professional associations in your industry might do more reliable salary surveys, but even then, you're more likely to get the right range by talking to people in your field.

4.   Discussing salary in your cover letter: Some candidates announce their salary requirements in their cover letters without being asked, and some even include their salary history on their resumes. There's no reason to talk money at this stage, and doing it unprompted at the application stage can come across as naive.

5.   Citing your finances: Salary conversations should be solely about your value to the company, not about your own finances. Employers don't pay people based on financial need, so don't cite your mortgage or your kid's college tuition as a reason you're asking for more money.

6.  Asking for too long to respond to an offer: It's normal to request a few days to consider an offer, and sometimes employers will give you a week or so. But if you ask for much time beyond that, you risk signaling that you're not excited about the job, but might settle for it if you don't get any other offers. That's a good way to lessen the hiring manager's enthusiasm and bring into question your own.

7. Not factoring in the benefits package. Salary is only one part of a compensation package; you also need to factor in benefits like healthcare, retirement contributions, and paid leave. After all, if you'll be paying significantly more for healthcare or receiving fewer paid vacation days than you're used to, that might cancel out part of any salary gains you hope to make. On the other hand, being able to work from home or having an on-site day care might be benefits that make it worth it to you to take a slightly lower salary.

8.   Underestimating happiness as a factor: A higher salary generally won't make up for a job where you'll be miserable, so think carefully about factors other than money: the work you'll be doing, the people with whom you'll be working, the company culture, and even the length of your commute. It might be worth giving up a bit of extra pay to ensure that you're happy going to work every day.

9.   Listening to bad advice: Negotiation advice that worked a few decades ago isn't always effective now. In fact, some of it can hurt your chances. For instance, delaying the salary conversation as long as you can or refusing to name a figure first--common advice in previous generations--can backfire today by turning the employer off and making you look like you're playing games.

10.   Not negotiating: Whatever you do, negotiate. If you simply take the first salary you're offered, you'll never know if you could have received more by simply asking.