How Much of a Raise Should You Ask For?

Start with two federal numbers, because together they change what "reasonable" means.

Private-sector wages and salaries rose 3.1 percent in the twelve months to June 2026, according to the Employment Cost Index released on July 31, 2026. Over almost the same window, the Consumer Price Index rose 3.4 percent for the twelve months ending August 2026. BLS says it plainly in the same ECI release: inflation-adjusted private wages and salaries fell 0.4 percent over the year.

So the typical raise last year made people slightly worse off. Which means if you walk in and ask for the average, you are asking to go backwards politely.

What the standstill number actually is

Take a salary of $78,000. A 3 percent raise is $2,340, landing you at $80,340. To hold your purchasing power against 3.4 percent inflation you need $80,652. You are $312 short — trivially, but short.

That is the floor, not the ask. The floor is the number below which you are accepting a real pay cut, and it is a useful thing to know before the conversation, because it stops you from feeling grateful for a figure that is quietly negative.

Anything above about 3.5 percent is a real increase. Anything meaningfully above it is a repricing, and repricing needs a reason that is not "another year went by."

Ranges, by what is actually true about your situation

These are my working ranges, not survey data. The row I would defend most strongly is the last one. Asking for a number during a hiring freeze burns credibility you will want in six months. Asking for a documented commitment — "if we hit Q1, we revisit this at the April cycle, and here is what good looks like" — costs your manager nothing and gives you something to hold.

The row people underplay is the second. Scope creep is the most common form of a silent pay cut: you absorb a departed colleague's work, nobody writes it down, and a year later it is simply your job.

Pick a number, not a range

Never open with "somewhere around 8 to 10 percent." You have just told your manager that 8 is acceptable, so 8 is the ceiling and probably 6 is the outcome.

Name one figure, in dollars, with a short reason attached. "I'm asking for $86,000" beats "I'd like a raise of around ten percent" because it sounds like a conclusion rather than an opening bid, and because dollars are what your manager takes to their own boss. Budget conversations happen in dollars.

Work out your number before the meeting and know what it does to your monthly pay — the pay raise calculator converts a percentage into annual, monthly and per-paycheck figures, which matters because "$8,000" and "$310 a fortnight" land very differently in your own head when someone pushes back.

The evidence that actually moves managers

Three things, in descending order of power: a competing written offer, posted market ranges for your role in your metro, and a list of what you did that was not in your job description.

That third one is the one you control entirely and the one most people arrive without. I mean an actual list — six to eight lines, each with a result and a number if a number exists. Not a narrative. Your manager has to repeat your case to someone who has never met you, and a list survives that retelling. A story does not.

Send it before the meeting, not during. A manager who has read your six lines on Tuesday can spend Thursday arguing for you instead of reading.

What does not work: how long you have been there, what a colleague earns, your rent, and how hard you have worked. Effort is an input. Pay tracks outputs and market rates, and that is not cynicism, it is just how the budget is built.

If they say no

Ask what it would take, and ask for it as a specification rather than a vibe. "What would I need to be doing for this to be a yes at the next cycle?" turns a rejection into a document, and a document is negotiable later.

Then ask for a date. A no without a date is a no forever.

And if a genuine outside offer is the thing that unlocks the conversation, write that message carefully rather than blurting it in a one-to-one — a structured negotiation email keeps the tone collaborative and stops the ask from reading as a threat, which is the failure mode that costs people their standing.

Work out your number tonight

Get the three inputs: your current salary, the standstill figure at 3.4 percent, and the list of what changed about your job this year. The gap between the second and what you are worth on the open market is your ask.

Put your salary and the percentage into our free Pay Raise Calculator to see the annual, monthly and per-paycheck version of the number before you say it out loud.

FAQ

Is asking for a 10 percent raise unreasonable?

Not if something changed. Ten percent is a lot against a market where wages rose 3.1 percent over the year to June 2026, so it needs a reason that is visible from outside your own head — a promotion, absorbed scope, or clear evidence that your pay sits below the market range for the role. Ten percent for a year of solid work in the same job is a hard sell almost anywhere.

Should I tell my manager I have another offer?

Only if it is real, in writing, and you would genuinely take it. The moment you mention an offer you have started a process that can end with your employer saying "congratulations" and meaning it. Plenty of people get a counter and stay happily; plenty of others find their name quietly moved to a list. Go in knowing which outcome you can live with.

When is the worst time to ask for a raise?

The week after your team misses a target, during a hiring freeze, and — most commonly missed — two weeks after the budget for your department was finalized. That last one is invisible from the outside and it is why timing the conversation to the planning cycle, rather than to your work anniversary, matters so much.