Free salary negotiation email generator
Ask for the meeting, and give your manager the reasons to bring to it.
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The email asking for a raise is not where you win the raise. Its job is to get a meeting in the calendar and to give your manager something concrete to take to whoever actually signs off — usually their own manager or HR.
So list what you have actually done: projects finished, responsibilities that grew, things that would be hard to replace. Specifics survive being repeated second-hand; "I have been working hard" does not.
An example
Three years in role, absorbed a departed colleague’s reporting work, now trains new starters, last raise two years ago.
Hi [Manager], Could we find half an hour in the next couple of weeks to talk about my salary? A quick summary of why I am raising it now: since March I have taken on the reporting work that [colleague] used to handle, and I am currently training both of our new starters alongside my own workload. My last review was two years ago, and the role has grown noticeably since then. I would like to talk through what a revised salary could look like. Happy to work around your calendar. Thanks,
The email’s job is the meeting
You are not going to win a raise in an email, and trying to makes the email long enough to postpone. Its actual job is to get half an hour in the calendar and to give your manager something concrete to take upward, because in most companies they are not the one who signs it off.
That second part is the one people skip. Whoever approves the budget will never meet you; they will read a sentence your manager repeats from memory. Make that sentence easy to repeat.
Specifics survive retelling
“I have worked hard” does not survive being repeated by someone else. “Since March I have run the reporting that used to take a full-time colleague, and I am training both new starters” does, because it is made of facts that can be checked and are inconvenient to lose.
Two or three of those are plenty. A long list reads as a case being argued, which invites a rebuttal; a short list of undeniable things reads as a situation that needs resolving.
When the answer is “no budget”
Take it as information rather than a verdict, and ask two questions: what would need to be true for this to be possible, and when is the next point at which salaries are actually decided. Both turn a closed door into a date.
Write down what you agree to. Six months later, “we said we would look at this after the reorganisation” is a reminder if it is in an email and a disagreement if it is not.
Common questions
+Should I name a number in the email?
Only if you have one you can justify. Otherwise ask for the meeting and name your figure there, once you know what constraints your manager is working with.
+Should I mention another job offer?
Only if you would genuinely accept it. Using an offer as leverage you would not take often works once and damages the relationship afterwards.
+What if they say there is no budget?
Ask what would need to be true for it to be possible, and when the next budget decision is made. That turns a closed door into a date in the calendar.