Unhappy With the Amount of a Proposed Raise?

Your annual review goes well. Your supervisor may tell you that you are getting a raise. You expected it to be higher. What do you do now?

This can be a hard discussion but you need to be prepared for that moment. Determine before your review session what you expect as a reasonable raise. What percentage increase/number would make you happy based on the work you’ve done for the past year? Assess the results of your work, the impact of your work, and the "above and beyond" tasks you took on over the past year, not just your dally duties, and be prepared with specific examples of why you feel you deserve a salary increase. Just saying, “I did great work as you’ve noted, and I should get a X% raise” is not enough.

You should have measurable, quantitative data to back up your claim. For example, did you land clients? Did you find vendors who charge less and you’re now saving the company money? Did you shorten a lengthy process in the office? Did you help with something normally outside your job description? Did you receive praise for your work from a client, customer or senior management? Come review time, it’s helpful to have a record of accomplishments on hand to save you time. I recommend keeping a document or folder on your computer with such records.

How do you approach a salary discussion?