Salary negotiation: how to convince your boss to give you a raise

Salary negotiation is a delicate business. It’s not just the timing and tone that need to be right. The actual work already begins beforehand. If you want to get what you deserve, you have to start gathering arguments long before the actual salary negotiation. The following tips will optimally prepare you for negotiations with your superior.

Get your boss on board for your raise: argue with self-confidence

It’s not just in the interview that the issue of salary negotiation causes people to break out in a sweat. You should also address this issue at regular intervals by talking to your manager to renegotiate your salary. As in every conversation, the following applies: if you are convinced of your own case, it will be easier to convince others of it. Negotiating pay therefore begins long before the actual meeting – with you gathering convincing arguments.

Work towards a pay rise: achievement is rewarded

The best argument for a pay rise is professional successes. But this presupposes two things: your achievements are visible, in the best case measureable, and your superior is also aware of them. Both too much modesty and too much boasting are unacceptable at work: if you don’t make sure that your boss notices your achievements, you’ll deny yourself the raise you deserve.


Use feedback discussions as a platform

Regular feedback discussions are a valuable strategy over a longer period of time for forming a promising basis for salary negations. They are a good opportunity talk about goals and achievements. Arrange to have meetings like this at least every six months. In this way, you show your motivation to give your best and can take the chance to point out to your superior that you have achieved your goals.
The issue of pay should however be left out of such discussions, otherwise you suggest to your superior that you’re only interested in money. You’re better off leaving this point to the actual salary negotiation.

Good arguments for a pay rise: measureable results

You have the best cards in your game of salary poker if you can show evidence of performance, success and motivation in black and white. You can bring the following arguments to the table:

  • The area of your tasks and responsibilities has been extended. Refer to your employment contract here and compare the work and responsibilities described there with your actual workday.
  • The success of your department: have there been any measureable improvements there since you have taken up your position or since your last pay negotiation?
  • Your motivation for the future: describe the goals you want to achieve in the next year to your superior.

Bad arguments: private costs and dissatisfaction

The only arguments permitted in the pay negotiation are professional achievements. Avoid private reasons; they just weaken your position. Increased costs of living or a loan taken out will not convince your employer that you deserve a higher salary.
Equally, you should not try to get a pay rise because you are dissatisfied with your job. The reason is pay only in the rarest of cases. In this case, you’re better off having a meeting about the things that are bothering you.
By the way, there is no recommendation for pay negotiation in the form of “every Xth year”. The right time has come when you have collected sufficient arguments.