Updated 2026-08-29
The four parts of a strong letter
Every effective raise request has the same skeleton. Fill in each part with concrete detail from your own work.
- Purpose: one sentence stating that you would like to discuss a compensation adjustment.
- Evidence: three to five results that map to business outcomes — revenue, cost savings, delivery, retention, or scope you now own.
- The ask: a specific target: a percentage, a new base, or a range tied to market data.
- Next step: a proposed time to talk. This turns the letter from a document into a decision.
Skip anything that reads as pressure, comparisons to specific coworkers, or personal financial need. Managers approve raises on business logic, so give them that logic in writing.
Copy-and-paste template
Adapt the placeholders in brackets to your situation. Keep the total length under 250 words.
Subject: Compensation review request
Hi [Manager first name],
I would like to schedule time to discuss my compensation. Over the past [12 months / since my last review], my scope and results have grown, and I would like to align my base salary with that contribution.
A few highlights:
- [Result 1 with a number: revenue driven, cost reduced, project shipped, headcount managed]
- [Result 2 with a number]
- [Result 3: new responsibilities or coverage that were not part of my original role]
- [Optional: certification, promotion of a report, or cross-team leadership]
Based on my performance and market data for [role title] in [metro area / remote market], I would like to discuss moving my base salary to [target dollar figure] or a [X to Y percent] adjustment.
Could we find 20 to 30 minutes next week to talk this through? I am happy to send additional detail in advance.
Thanks, [Your name]
Building the evidence section
The evidence bullets are what separate an approved letter from a filed one. Aim for three to five items where each contains a verb, a result, and a number.
- Revenue and cost: deals closed, upsell dollars, cost per unit reduced, waste eliminated.
- Delivery: projects shipped on or ahead of schedule, milestones hit, defect or incident rates.
- Scope creep: reports added, systems now owned, on-call rotations covered, hiring loops run.
- Skill acquisition: certifications completed, tools adopted, cross-team work that closed a capability gap.
If you cannot put a number on a result, ask what would have happened without your work — that counterfactual is often the strongest number in the room.
If your role does not have obvious revenue numbers, translate the work into risk removed, decisions made, or time saved. Owning an incident-response rotation is worth quantifying by outages avoided or mean time to recovery reduced. Running a hiring loop is worth quantifying by roles closed and offer acceptance rate. Every strong evidence bullet passes a simple test: could the reader estimate business impact from that one sentence, without follow-up questions.
Setting the number
Anchor the ask to something outside your own opinion. Common anchors:
- Market data for the same title in the same metro (or remote market).
- Internal band midpoint if your company publishes salary bands.
- Percentage step tied to a promotion or expanded scope.
If you have taken on responsibilities that would normally belong to the next role level, a 10 to 20 percent adjustment is defensible and easy for a manager to justify to HR. For within-level cost-of-living or performance raises, 3 to 6 percent is the more common conversation. Present a range rather than a single number so there is room to close.
Bring the market data source with you. Reliable anchors include compensation surveys, published salary bands from comparable employers, offer numbers from a real recent job search, or a written offer in hand. Levels.fyi, Glassdoor ranges, and payscale medians are the numbers most managers already look at, so referencing them is neutral rather than aggressive. If the range you cite is 15,000 dollars wide, expect the offer to land near the middle, not the top.
Delivery: email or in person?
Send the letter as an email a few days before a scheduled one-on-one. This gives your manager time to check with HR, look at the budget, and come prepared. Cold-dropping the ask in a live meeting almost always produces a delay rather than a decision.
- Send Monday or Tuesday morning; avoid Fridays and end-of-quarter crunch weeks.
- Do not cc HR unless your company culture treats HR as a co-approver.
- Bring a printed copy of the evidence bullets to the meeting for reference.
- If your company runs formal calibration cycles, send the letter before the calibration window closes, not after — decisions made in calibration are difficult to reopen.
For remote teams, a scheduled video one-on-one works the same as an in-person meeting. Do not deliver the ask over chat; a paragraph in Slack rarely gets the consideration a written letter plus a scheduled discussion does.
After the letter: what to expect
Realistic outcomes fall into three buckets. Any of them is a useful data point.
- Yes, in full. Get the effective date and the new base in writing before the next paycheck cycle.
- Partial. A smaller adjustment now, with a review commitment in three to six months. Ask for the specific results that would earn the rest.
- No. Ask for the reason and the timeline for the next review. If the reason is budget, revisit at the next cycle. If the reason is performance, ask for a concrete plan.
If the outcome does not match the market and your work, the letter has still served its purpose: it converts a vague feeling into a documented conversation you can act on.
If the answer is delay rather than a clear yes or no, get the next step in writing. Ambiguous replies are the most common failure mode of raise conversations — the ask lands, the manager nods, and nothing changes for another cycle. A one-line follow-up email along the lines of I appreciate the time; can we plan to revisit in June with the results we discussed is enough to keep the request on the calendar without adding pressure.
<p>This is general guidance for US employees; company policy and any union or contract terms take priority, and this page is not legal or HR advice.</p>
Frequently asked questions
How long should a salary raise request letter be?
<p>Under one page — ideally 150 to 250 words. Managers scan on mobile; a short, structured letter with bullet-point evidence gets read fully, while a two-page essay usually does not.</p>
How much of a raise should I ask for?
<p>For a standard cost-of-living or performance step, 3 to 6 percent is common. For expanded scope or a role that has effectively grown to the next level, 10 to 20 percent is defensible. Anchor your number to market data or an internal band, not to a coworker.</p>
Should I mention that I have another job offer?
<p>Only if the offer is real and you would accept it. Using a bluff usually damages trust, and companies increasingly refuse to counter competing offers on principle. If you do mention one, present it as information, not as an ultimatum.</p>
When is the best time of year to ask for a raise?
<p>Six to eight weeks before your company sets annual compensation budgets is the highest-leverage window. If you do not know the cycle, aim for a strong recent result, a completed project, or the start of a new performance review period.</p>
What should I not include in the letter?
<p>Avoid personal financial need, comparisons to specific coworkers, complaints about the workload, or ultimatums. Keep every bullet business-first: results, scope, and market alignment.</p>