Salary raise request email

How to use it well

• →The email's only job is to get the meeting — put the number in it so your manager isn't ambushed, but save the persuasion for the conversation.
• →The evidence line should be an outcome, not effort: what changed because of your work, not how many hours it took.
• →Naming a target number anchors the conversation productively; leave it out and someone else picks the anchor for you.

Part by part

Requesting time to discuss my compensation

The subject asks for a meeting, not a decision. A subject line naming a number invites a no by email before you have made the case.

Over the past {{period}}, I {{evidence}}

Anchors the request to a time frame and to specifics. Without both, it reads as a request based on time served.

I think a move to {{target_salary}} is fair

States the number. Leaving it out means the first number in the conversation comes from the other side, which sets the range.

rather than lay it out over email

Moves the substance to a conversation deliberately. Email lets a request be declined without discussion, and removes your ability to respond.

Common mistakes

• Can we discuss a raise?

  Gives nothing to prepare with, so your manager arrives without having considered it or checked what is possible. The meeting then becomes a first conversation rather than a decision.

• I've been here two years and haven't had a raise.

  Time served is not evidence of increased value, and it is the argument most easily declined. What changed about your contribution is the case that works.

• Laying out the full argument in the email.

  Lets the request be turned down in a reply, with no chance to answer the objection. The email should make the meeting happen; the meeting is where the case is made.

Questions