Want a raise? Read this first.
15 actionable ways to build your case and ask for more
As a corporate employee, March always held a special place in my financial life. Bonuses hit. Raises went into effect. Promotions were announced. The end of Q1 felt like it could be the dawn of a new day and tangible proof that my hard work had been seen.
Except when it didn’t.
Like many of you, I’ve been through the ringer at comp time. I’ve been slighted so badly that I’ve laughed and cried. I’ve had things happen at work that I shouldn’t write about publicly, so we’ll just have to leave it at trust me, guys, I know what I’m talking about.
Equal Pay Day falls on March 26 this year, marking how far into 2026 women have to work to earn what men earned in 2025. For us ladies, this is a stark reminder of the systems that work against us, feeding the relationship between inequities we face in the workplace and at home. Our labor is undervalued, period, and though the burden shouldn’t be placed upon our shoulders alone, advocating for ourselves is a critical piece of making it better.
There’s a second conversation we should be having right now, because the stakes feel high for everyone. Geopolitical turmoil and the rapid evolution of AI are just two of the pressures on today’s workers, many of whom are internalizing the message to just put their heads down and be grateful they’re still employed.
You can find truth in that, while also acknowledging that workers feel the pain long before their executives do. The raises that help your family build an emergency fund and make your first long-term investments are not just “nice-to-have.” They are the steppingstones of wealth you shouldn’t be shamed out of asking for in a respectful, professional way.
You can be grateful and still get what’s yours.
Self-advocacy is more than a career skill. It builds muscles for you to recognize, articulate, and stand behind your contributions. When you’ve mastered it, you can show up for a performance review or a comp conversation or even just the day-to-day of your life with the clarity of knowing that you’re putting your value out on the table. In doing so, you’re making it a lot harder for people to overlook it.
A few years ago, I shared some tips on performance evaluations in my personal newsletter, but I really wanted to expand on them to provide you with tangible ways to ask for more money. Hopefully, this can help you take stock of everything you do—the visible and the invisible—and start giving yourself the credit you’ve already earned.
Use last year’s review process as your foundation.
Most projects don’t just end because the fiscal year ends; they extend from year to year. Continue the story you’ve already started through past performance evals and build upon it. Having a story makes it easier for everyone to see your raise or promotion as the natural progression of things.
Wrap your achievements.
Numbers matter, and you can quantify many more wins than you realize. When I moved in-house and no longer needed to bill my time hourly as a lawyer, I still went through the effort to aggregate any stats I could for managers to easily digest my productivity. Such as, I settled 20 cases. I filed 12 motions. I attended 15 mediations. No one will do this for you, but if you do it for them, you make it easier for them to justify your raise.
Now isn’t the time to be humble!
We tend to downplay our success out of concern for seeming overconfident. But the truth is, whatever your managers think of you, they’re already thinking it. If you received high performance reviews or numbers, remind them. If you deserved higher, tell them why. If you believe you’re the top performer, explain why.
But provide support.
My most-used phrase in any written communication on comp is “for example.” Every time you use an adjective to describe yourself, support it with hard facts. Did you refer to yourself as “helpful?” How are you helpful? Are you “organized?” How are you organized?
Break down your biggest assignments.
Your most important, time-consuming, high-value projects deserve the most attention. Pull them apart to really illustrate the work and responsibility that went into them. For example (heh), I once spent a year working on a case that consumed about 40% of my bandwidth. In that time, I worked on written legal briefs, attended multiple mediations, and managed third-party vendors and experts. Again, don’t just call something your largest project—show it.
Combine your smallest assignments.
Smaller projects deserve less airtime, but clump them together. See No. 2. It would be a loss to not mention them but a distraction to harp on them. I once assumed responsibility for a task that involved one-to-three email responses per day for a whole year. My organization skills kept me consistent and prevented me from falling behind on them. Focus on your behavior and how it helped you be successful across these finer points of your job.
Share the relationships you’ve built.
Particularly if you’re in a support role, work in the ways you’ve become a resource to people outside your group. You don’t have to name names, but name departments. Managers will be impressed with how you’re adding value and becoming known across the board.
Marching with Baby Hazel (2018) What is a “win?”
Look beyond what it means on paper. Winning can also mean saving money, cleaning up a mess, reaching a finish line efficiently, or building trust with clients. I loved sharing this advice with baby lawyers: “winning” doesn’t only mean winning in court. Identifying a problematic case and pivoting to an early settlement is a win to value just as much. So, when you’re thinking about what you did well, thin about viewing your success from as many vantage points as possible. This also really showcases how well you understand the business you’re in.
Only suggest improvements you can follow through on.
If you’re writing up your self-eval or a mid-year check-in, answer the question about ways you can improve with tangible things you can actually accomplish. Don’t use loose adjectives; meaning, don’t say you hope to be more “confident.” Stick to something real, such as “I want to present to the department” or “attend more client meetings.” Otherwise, down the line, you’ll find yourself twisting and turning to demonstrate how you achieved a nebulous goal that no one asked you to set.
Understand the timing of your ask.
You don’t have to fit your ask into a box with everyone else’s, but knowing when your company has The Talks about budgets, salaries, promotions, etc. should frame your strategy. You want to be sure that you leave enough runway for your managers and decision makers to accommodate your ask. In other words, if you know that bonuses and comp conversations happen in March, don’t wait until late February to try and set a meeting with your boss. It’s could too late for them to do something, even if they wanted to.
Find out how much your peers are being paid.
Alright, this is the hard part. It will be uncomfortable. But the hardest thing for management to deny is hard evidence. Normalize salary conversations between your teammates and similarly situated colleagues at other organizations, knowing that the transparency will benefit all of you. If you don’t have a peer to whom you can make an apples-to-apples comparison, that doesn’t mean other colleagues’ salaries don’t provide informative reference points. You can also do some broader industry research—some fields publish compensation surveys. In states where salary bands are required public information, you can even rely on job listings, but I think this is the least persuasive way to make your point. And to that point…
Don’t tell them you’re interviewing for other jobs unless you’re ready to leave.
I’m not telling you not to explore your options, but do not bring this up as a negotiation point unless you’re prepared for a hostile response. Some managers will view this as a threat or an act of disloyalty, and there’s better ways to accomplish your goals than a game of chicken with your boss. Aside from very few circumstances, you’ll never find that soliciting an offer and a counteroffer result in improving your long-term relationship with the company. BTW, if your organization claims to only give raises to those who have solicited competing offers, it’s not a place that values its people. Go with god. All bets are off.
Bring your whole self to the negotiating table.
I am sure Scott Galloway and the manosphere would’ve hated me when I stopped trying to hide my children at work. Instead of presenting this unshakable fake persona, I told the truth: I was one of the only attorneys at my level with two small children during a global pandemic. My childcare was spotty—I was overcoming obstacles every day. I refused to minimize that fact for anyone else’s comfort, because it spoke to my abilities as multi-tasking, prioritizing attorney who knows how to advocate for my needs and still get the job done. If there’s a piece of your personal life that adds context to your success, don’t bury it. Don’t let them only see what they want to see.
Keep notes all year.
You don’t need to wait until you have a formal review or imminent conversation scheduled to put all this together. In fact, you shouldn’t. Begin a master Word document right now and keep bullet points on the above as you move throughout the year. It makes all of this much simpler when the moment comes.
Take it with you.
Unless you have a document return policy that forbids it (how’s that for a disclaimer?), keep your self-evaluations and any written correspondence you exchange on comp. Your wins form the basis of your future cover letters. Who knows where else they’ll lead you.
My wish for you is to be seen, valued, and paid. With enough of us pushing on the powers above, let’s make Equal Pay Day come earlier next year.
Have you gotten a promotion or a raise? Share your success stories and challenges with us.
TJA’s Couple of the Week
Is this a Paradise spoiler? IDK, but if you’re worried, skip it. This week’s Couple of the Week goes to Terri and Xavier Collins. When they first met in a hospital, Terri was adamant that marriage and kids weren’t for her. But when Xavier showed up in her moment of need, she saw him in a profoundly new light. We don’t know every detail of their love story, but who they are as a couple is clear: strong-willed and relentless caregivers who refuse to give up on each other. Dah!
-Heather
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