Asking for a Raise During Your Year-End Review

Ask before the money is spoken for

By the time many year-end reviews happen, the raise pool has already been split. Email your manager 3–4 weeks before the review with one line: 'I'd like to use part of my review to talk about my compensation.' In the same message, ask when the team's merit budget gets finalized. That gives them time to argue for you with their boss and HR, instead of saying 'I'll have to check' in the room.

If the budget is already locked, don't drop the ask. Make it anyway and push for an off-cycle adjustment with a specific date, for example 'reviewed by end of Q1'. In the UK, Canada and Australia, many companies run reviews around the April or July financial year instead. The rule is the same: find out when your team's budget is set and get your request in before that date.

Build the case on value, not need

Your manager will probably forward your request to someone who has never worked with you, so give them sentences they can paste: result + number + who benefited. For example: 'Cut invoice processing from 5 days to 2, saving finance about 10 hours a week.'

Spend most of your prep time on this wins sheet and on market data. Writing the script takes minutes once those are done.

Leave out personal reasons like rent, childcare or inflation. They're real, but they give nobody a reason to approve budget. If people with your title in your city earn more than you, that's a retention argument your manager can use upstairs.

A competing job offer is the strongest version of that argument. Only bring it up if you would actually accept it, because some managers will simply wish you luck.

Pick one number and say it plainly

As rough US benchmarks, with similar ranges in the UK, Canada and Australia:

• Typical merit raises run about 3–4%.
• A market adjustment or a clearly bigger scope supports 8–15%.
• A promotion is often 10–20%.

Ask for a specific figure near the top of your researched range, like $87,500, not 'somewhere in the high 80s'. If you give a range, expect to get the bottom of it.

Decide three things in advance:

• Your target.
• Your minimum.
• Two non-salary fallbacks, such as a one-time bonus, extra PTO (annual leave), a title change, a training budget, or a formal pay review in 6 months.

After you state the number, stop talking and let them answer first. First-timers usually fill that pause by lowering their own ask.

How to tell it went right

A good outcome isn't only a yes on the spot. You did your part if:

• You stated your number in one sentence without hedging.
• You left with either an agreed figure or a specific decision date.
• You sent a written recap within 24 hours.

If you got a no, the fix for next year is usually timing or evidence, not your worth.