Forbes (x1): How to Ask for a Raise Amid Soaring Inflation
Despite historically favorable conditions—high inflation, a labor shortage, more transparency about pay—you might still find it hard to negotiate salary. Here, key steps to ask for more pay, and what to do if the response is no.
Consumer price increases are hitting near-record, 40-year highs. A labor shortage is escalating. State pay transparency laws are making it easier to learn what jobs are paid. And a reawakened labor movement is forcing employers to be more responsive to workers’ demands.
If ever there was a good time to ask for a raise, it’s almost certainly now.
“People don’t perceive themselves as having as much leverage and power right now as they do,” says Ben Cook, the CEO of Riva, a salary negotiation startup founded with Harvard Business School experts. “Right now is a phenomenal time to go and ask for a raise.”
Yet despite this unprecedented wave of favorable conditions, you might still find it hard to ask your boss for more salary. For many, touting your own accomplishments—not to mention having a frank talk about money—feels awkward. If you’re a woman, you know you have to navigate tricky gender norms about how assertive people expect you to be.
And even as more workers talk openly about pay, negotiations tend to be information asymmetry at its worst, with managers typically having more data about what jobs are paid than you.
Still, there are ways to go into the conversation with confidence—and come out of it with a raise–or at least something else desirable you want. Below, find key steps to remember when you negotiate salary, and what to do if the response is no.