A salary increase is the most efficient way to improve your financial situation, because it compounds. Higher base pay means more in each paycheck, more in any bonus calculated as a percentage of salary, more in retirement contributions if your employer matches, and a higher baseline for any future raises. Yet most people never ask, and many who do ask without any preparation get turned down easily.
Build your case before the conversation
A raise request is much harder to decline when it is grounded in specific contributions rather than general effort. Before asking, spend time documenting what you have actually delivered: projects completed, problems solved, responsibilities added, metrics improved, revenue or savings you can point to. This is not bragging; it is giving your manager the information they need to justify the increase internally. Most managers need to go through an approval process, and your case becomes their case.
Know the market rate for your role
Salary data is more accessible than it used to be. LinkedIn Salary, Glassdoor, Levels.fyi for tech roles, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook all provide compensation benchmarks. Look for your specific role, your years of experience, and your geographic market. If your current salary is meaningfully below market, that is a legitimate and powerful data point. If it is at or above market, a different argument, focused on your specific contributions and trajectory, is more appropriate.
Ask for a specific number
Vague requests get vague responses. Saying you feel you deserve more is easy to acknowledge without acting on. Saying you are requesting a salary of $X, which represents a Y percent increase from your current compensation, is a concrete ask that requires a concrete answer. Pick a number that is slightly higher than your actual target so there is room to negotiate without landing below what you need.
Timing matters more than most people think
The best times to ask for a raise are after a significant accomplishment, during a performance review cycle, or when you have recently taken on additional responsibilities. Poor times include when the company has just announced layoffs or a difficult quarter, right after a setback on your own work, or in the middle of a stressful deadline crunch for your manager. You want the conversation to happen when your contributions are top of mind and the business environment is not actively hostile.
If the answer is no, ask what a yes would require
A no is not necessarily permanent. If your raise is declined, ask what specific things would need to be true for the answer to change. What goals would you need to hit? What timeline are you looking at? This converts a dead end into a roadmap, gives you something concrete to work toward, and shows the kind of professional maturity that tends to get rewarded.