NFT: Asking for a Raise: Prior to Annual Review or During?

If you lay out your case as to why you think you deserve more than the standard raise BEFORE your review, it could give them a reason to be a bit more critical in your written review.

Mike, you know that Ranger fans are paid 30% more than Islander fans (source: None - just busting your Trotz).

So Mike, I am in a similar situation and I am not sure of the size of your company. For my company, the yearly review does not appear to have any bearing on the coming year. We have a grading system of which the higher you grade, the more of the bonus pool you receive. We also have titles. One would assume that a yearly review would impact your eligibility of a promotion and possible a higher increase. I have found that those are submitted in November. So if I were to be promoted in April 2020, my manager would need to submit my name in November 2019. Yet I am not eligible to start my Yearly Performance review until mid December.

On top of that we only have one wave of promotions annually.

I don't know the size of your company or how the org charts work. In a large company, these efforts seem futile. If there is a person you report to and you have a good relationship with, that would be a good starting point. The bigger the company, the process seems to become more detached from a human interaction.

One year, I was passed up and brought it to my manager's attention. It seemed to have worked but I was a bit frustrated that I had to say something to get their attention.

I hope this was helpful and I wish you the best of luck.

i find the best way to broach these subjects is in informal conversations by first indirectly bringing up a subject related to promotions/comp and then very casually shifting to what you want to talk about, you, and then raising your issues with comp softly but with conviction. i like to frame it as asking for help, since people naturally will want to help their employees. you want to keep the conversation light, give them outs, make them comfortable, and don't make them commit in the room.

Typically merit increases are divvied up from a pool budget and allocated either evenly or that the manager's discretion.

You're putting your manager in a bad spot bringing it up in the review. S/he is then going to have to go to their superiors and ask for more money after the long and annoying process of allocating increases.

If you do it now, s/he can consider it in the allocation process and decide if you deserve the increase. There's not guarantee even if s/he feels you deserve it, s/he can/will do it when everything has already been decided.

In comment 14813111 Jim in Tampa said:

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If you lay out your case as to why you think you deserve more than the standard raise BEFORE your review, it could give them a reason to be a bit more critical in your written review.

Agreed 100%. I only discuss salary at an annual review, but could see doing it at the time where you are given extra responsibility for example. If that is not the case, just wait for your review. Typically performance will be discussed first. Then salary. Once the reviewer gets to salary, add in why you feel you deserve a higher raise. You can also highlight some of the reasons in the performance part.

In comment 14813137 christian said:

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Typically merit increases are divvied up from a pool budget and allocated either evenly or that the manager's discretion.

I happen to agree with this. In my experience, salary increases are determined prior to the review. Managers have far greater ability to ask for "above the norm" increases prior to recieving their allocations.

salary increases are pretty formulaic.

You have a salary range for your job, a quartile banding process, a position in a quartile, and maybe a performance rating to help justify which quartile you are in and potentially going to, and then a salary (or merit) increase budget. Not sure who sees 5% salary increases any more - other than lower paid roles.

In many cases a direct manager has their hands tied in terms of size of an increase and exceeding recommended norms or guidelines.

Sounds more like you want a promotion.

So you can set expectation....granted if nothing materialize...could become an issue

to my prior comment.

Salary increase opportunities are limited in many cases to your job's salary range.

It's one of the things now as an industry veteran (tech) I have learned I need to be comfortable when I take a job that my salary will remain roughly what it is for the foreseeable future (plus maybe the standard 1 - 3% if you're lucky annual increase) until and if I get promoted.

not saying every job is like that, but most in my experiences - and not just as an employee, but this is the field I work in (HR, Payroll, Benefits, etc.).

So, that means to earn what you think you are worth you either need to leave and go somewhere else where you can negotiate a salary commensurate with your value or get promoted.

That was my point. Even before the review your boss almost definitely does not have the capability to give you more than a 5% salary increase in your current role.

In comment 14813111 Jim in Tampa said:

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If you lay out your case as to why you think you deserve more than the standard raise BEFORE your review, it could give them a reason to be a bit more critical in your written review.

BINGO

expanded responsibilities, the review is not the worst time to bring it up. Nothing in a review should be a surprise to either party, so presumably your boss is aware that you have exceeded the typical responsibilities of your job description.

If you are expecting to retain these additional responsibilities going forward it's reasonable to ask for more salary or a job title change, that would make it easier to get a larger salary. Having the context of "look at all I've done this year" can help that case. It's often easier for a boss to get an outsized raise with a new title. Not sure if that makes sense in your case.

The drawback of the timing is that many organizations have budgeted salaries for 2020 already and your salary slot has been set and approved at $X + 3% (or whatever percentage). So your boss will likely have to jump through some approval hoops to justify going back to get you more money. Maybe your boss understood that you had more responsibility and proactively got you bigger raise? I'd guess not because you'd probably already been told.

More they ask of you the more you can get, its all about resposibility. Make your responsibilities clear and get paid for doing them, and always demonstrate you can do more, always do a little more than what is required, that helps in the bonus department.

Changes lead to title changes. Title changes lead to big raises, performance smaller raises within a given structure, always know your salary range within your title, and the next salary range, how you reach the next level, good companies have mentorship programs, use as many resources as you can, so others reap the benefit of your succees.

In comment 14813224 pjcas18 said:

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to my prior comment. Salary increase opportunities are limited in many cases to your job's salary range. It's one of the things now as an industry veteran (tech) I have learned I need to be comfortable when I take a job that my salary will remain roughly what it is for the foreseeable future (plus maybe the standard 1 - 3% if you're lucky annual increase) until and if I get promoted. not saying every job is like that, but most in my experiences - and not just as an employee, but this is the field I work in (HR, Payroll, Benefits, etc.). So, that means to earn what you think you are worth you either need to leave and go somewhere else where you can negotiate a salary commensurate with your value or get promoted. That was my point. Even before the review your boss almost definitely does not have the capability to give you more than a 5% salary increase in your current role.

You are spot on here. This is exactly how my company works. Basically you are looking at a base pay increase of 2-4 percent per year for each band level. There is a wide range of people in each band, some that are at the lower salaried level of the band that are typically young, and the people who have been with the company for 30 years and are in that same band level. They typically give out the numbers closer to 4% to the younger workers and it’s a sliding scale downward as you age and your base goes up. It’s all cost control.

Bonuses are often used to incentivize those getting lower base pay increases because they provide a short term win for the employee and they protect the employer in future years that may not be as profitable by keeping base salaries lower across the board.

Typically everything is decided by the time you get your review, if you wait till then it’ll be too late to do anything about it

When seeking a promotion 1 of 2 things must change, others pick you for position at a higher level or your position has evolved into a higher level, talks should start at the performance evaluation, but do it shooting for the promotion the following year. I worked as a polymer researcher for 40 years, started as a chemical lab tech.

In comment 14813798 PaulN said:

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When seeking a promotion 1 of 2 things must change, others pick you for position at a higher level or your position has evolved into a higher level, talks should start at the performance evaluation, but do it shooting for the promotion the following year. I worked as a polymer researcher for 40 years, started as a chemical lab tech.

This is the best advice. Set-up the promotion for next year. The budget allocation for raises/bonuses/merit increases was already decided a few months ago. Some companies do it in Sept/Oct. Ours does it before the end of the calendar year.

You can make the best case for yourself to get a more substantial raise this year and it likely won't matter.

If you want to get a higher raise than standard, you need to give some indication to your manager ahead of time. They likely have a budget pool they are working from and will have to make tradeoffs with other folks.

The old adage of "The Squeaky Wheel Get the Grease" is absolutely true. Now how you ask and what you say does matter. Best of luck!

A wide variety of opinions here, but all are valid. Going to put some thought into this.

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