The crucial factor in requesting a pay raise is to first determine whether you deserve one. The question of how to ask for it and to be able to negotiate, though essential to the core issue, is of secondary importance.

The best way to go about it would be to employ a structured approach that incorporates several considerations and steps.

What You Should Do Before Asking For A Raise:

List your achievements. Document all your recent and current accomplishments that make you feel that you are entitled to a pay raise. You should do research to make a comparative study about the salaries of people doing similar jobs with matching experience levels and skills.

This information will come in handy when you meet with your boss to request a raise. How to go about asking should come after you have accumulated the details to support your request.

Determine the level of the raise you feel you deserve. Based on the tangible reasons why you deserve a raise, you need to determine how much to ask for.

The amount you ask for needs to be reasonable and commensurate to your experience, skill levels, and achievements.

Choose the best time to ask for a raise. Decide on when to ask for the raise after considering a number of factors. Some of them can be as follows:

-Your company should be in good financial condition.

-Your boss should not be pressed with other issues of greater concern to the company.

-There must not be any recent underachievement on your part to counter your claims of outstanding performance.

-The time when pay raises are usually determined by the company should not be approaching. You will get a raise along with others anyway. Delay your request until some time after the usual raises have been announced.

Adopt a professional approach. When you approach your boss for a raise, your focus should be on why you deserve a raise based on your research and not on why you need a raise.

You reasons should be focused on the extra value you provide. It should not be based on monetary reasons. When you sit down to discuss your raise, you should be armed with factual information to support your case.

This must be conveyed to your employer in a realistic and cordial way to let him know why he should make a decision not as a favor but for clear, justifiable reasons.

However, if you are denied a raise even after presenting a strong case based on good reasons, and you truly believe that your services are being undervalued by your present employer, the best course might be to seek out other options where your services will receive the higher compensation you think they deserve.

Your present employer may not be worth staying with over the long run. Look elsewhere and see whether the grass might be greener on the other side.