Hi all, I been at my current corporate job for 2 years now. All my reviews are great and our final year end review is coming up soon in October. How do you bring up money to your manager? I was told to ideally mention this before the year end review but i don’t know how. Any advice is greatly appreciated!
Posted Sep 12, 2022, 3:50 AM UTC
Start by doing research using Glassdoor, Payscale, and other tools to figure out what the market range (salary) is for your role at similar companies.
A few weeks before that meeting, mention that at the year-end review, you'd like to discuss an adjustment to your salary to reflect the value you're creating for the company.
At that meeting, remind them of your accomplishments over the last year, the additional responsibilities you've taken on since your last raise/initial hire, how much more value you're going to add, and that you'd like to be compensated accordingly.
Here's a video from Barbara Corcoran with some advice for women asking for raises: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWxoI0RrPvc
A few more useful videos:
Good luck!
P.S. 3 more tips for your next review (or next company):
You can ask your manager what it would take to get a raise at your next review (6 months ahead of time) -- asking for a raise shouldn't be a surprise; it can be something you work toward together with your manager.
Having an offer from a different company can give you increased leverage to get a raise at your current company -- getting an offer and bringing it up respectfully with your manager can be a great idea if you can pull it off.
Consider moving to a different company after 2-3 years -- other companies will pay you more than your current salary because market rates tend to increase more quickly than raises.
Manager here.
Bring your kudos file to your performance evaluation. Bring every email thanking you for a job well done, especially emails from other managers and other sections. If you take professional development courses that provide completion certificates, bring those to your meeting. Explain how and why you took professional development courses for progression in your career. Keep notes of special projects and accomplishments. Be prepared to hand those over, if needed. Write up your own self-performance review. There are templates online or I can provide one. Arm yourself to justify why you rate yourself exceptionally. Your argument has to be based on your exceptional performance and your continued professional development, not solely based on needing or wanting more money.
Research to see if your job has progression. If you've met that progression criteria, outline how you've met the progression criteria and bring it to your performance evaluation. If you have not met the progression criteria, get to work on meeting the progression criteria prior to your performance evaluation.
If you cannot progress to the next level in a progression series, managers often can put in for optional pay increase or lump sum requests. Inquire about both optional pay and lump sum increases. Basically, your argument will be that your exceptional performance qualifies you for progression in your job series or bonus or optional pay.
Some supervisors don't like doing extra paperwork for progression reallocation, optional pay, or lump sum requests. You basically have to spell out the justification for optional pay for them. Tell them you can supply emails, certificates of course completion, and justification (you'll have all of this with your self-evaluation). Basically hand over your kudos file. Your certificates can be attached for justification for a lump sum or optional pay increase.
When you're in your evaluation meeting, be sure to set a goal for yourself to advance and/or learn a new skill for the upcoming year. Accomplishing this new goal should help set you up for an increase next year. You'll keep documentation throughout the year evidencing that you achieved the new goal you set for yourself.
Let me know if you have further questions. Good luck!
Sheryl Sandberg gave some advice in her book - that women asking for more money are perceived better if it’s said someone more senior recommended they ask for more.
What were your overall thoughts about the book? Would you recommend others read it?
Slack then: Hi manager - I wanted to discuss my salary, I’ll set up some time this week to touch base.
In the meeting
Hi manager - I wanted to get a sense of what type of salary increase I can expect this next performance round.
See what they say…
Be prepared to say “I was hoping for a x-y% raise”
Slack them: Hi manager - I wanted to discuss my salary, I’ll set up some time this week to touch base.
In the meeting
Hi manager - I wanted to get a sense of what type of salary increase I can expect this next performance round.
See what they say…
Be prepared to say “I was hoping for a x-y% raise”
As for when, I discuss my own salary increase every year. The more you do it the easier it gets. I agree def do it well in advance of performance review bc the budget cycle may be diff.
At my company we decide budget for raises in august. And reviews aren’t until Feb. so it’s helpful for me to know in June/July if any of my direct reports are expecting a higher than usual raise
Another way to approach this is to just have a casual conversation so that your manager explains how that company does raises. Sometimes understanding the mechanics helps you find efficient ways to use to your advantage.
I would also recommend the Ask A Manager blog. She has a lot of great advice and her blog is very searchable. Good luck to you!!
Great question and some good advice. Here is what goes into the conversation behind the scenes:
Your raise is determined well before your review, so I would let your manager know now that you have high expectations. Hand your manager your performance review, written by you.
Write your own review for the manager. Gather input from colleagues, teams, and clients. In essence, ghostwrite it for your manager.
You're female, correct? Assume that you are already getting less than your male peers, probably, 10-20%, for a whole lot of reasons.
Assume those hired after you also make more money. Unfortunately, annual raises never keep up with the market.
If the company is doing well, then you should rightly expect a raise as part of that team. If your company is not doing well, then it's going to be tough to get a lot more money.
Know your market value but do not quit in haste or anger. Get another job first, then give notice.
You say it directly to your manager/who is responsible for it. When they ask (only then) you state your reasons. Be prepared to quit, have a idgaf attitude. I quit over a raise denial and almost doubled my salary and I think it is saidly the general experience.
The way I bring it up is in terms of recognition. "The way I like to receive recognition/thanks is with money." "The best way to thank me is with money." I did this at the start of the year.
Sometimes a raise has nothing to do with your performance. From an employer's bottom-line perspective, individual raises can just depend on what's available in the overall budget and also the opportunity cost (should they pay you $10k more, or take a chance on hiring somebody else who can do the same thing but for much cheaper but perhaps not perform as well). If they appreciate you enough, they will give you something, enough to keep you satiated. IMO though, if you want the best raise and you're just chasing the paycheck $$$, the best leverage you will ever get is another job offer and/or be prepared to leave the company.
I discuss super early. With my current manager, I've discussed it the end of last year what my career/financial goals are for this year. I told her that I wanted the highest performance rating and therefore the highest annual raise possible. What do I need to do in order to accomplish this?
From there, we've spoken about potential projects I could do, ways to get recognized more for the work I do, volunteer opportunities that networks me with the right people, etc. We do weekly quick check ins and such. Then quarterly, I give her my "white paper" which is essentially my list of accomplishments so far this year, what I'm currently working on, and my usual day to day tasks. Ultimately, the choice of whether or not to give you a raise is determined by a lot of people and your immediate manager is merely your advocate. Keep having those ongoing conversations. Mention your money goals, but focus on defending why you deserve it through your list of accomplishments and whatnot.
Dang, love this! Set the expectations right out the gate!