Knowing how to ask for a pay rise isn’t the sole secret to successfully increasing your professional worth. There's more to it than that — understanding when the time is right, knowing how to benchmark your salary and catalogue your achievements, and how to negotiate a higher salary. This preparatory action will give you the confidence to make your case and even turn a ‘no’ into an opportunity.
Here are five practical steps for building a strong case for a pay increase based on new insights from our 2027 Salary Guide.
1. Know when the time is right to ask for a pay rise
Timing is everything, especially when starting a salary negotiation. Before you raise the topic in a meeting, it’s a good idea to gauge current hiring and remuneration trends in your sector and industry through research.
Data collected for the 2027 Salary Guide shows that cost pressures are reshaping the hiring landscape — employers are deploying hiring budgets strategically, awarding the highest salaries to talent with specialist skills. Intel like this can help you understand what a fair negotiation looks like in the current hiring market and if this is a good time to make your move.
Explore our 2027 Salary Guide today
2. Benchmark your salary
Salary benchmarking is the first and most essential step in building a successful case for a pay rise. Start your salary comparison by noting your skills, experience, seniority, and location—factors that affect your professional value.
Once you have the details locked in, you can begin to compare your current salary with what’s being offered on the wider market for the same role and skill set.
To strengthen your argument, use a trusted industry report like our Salary Guide and back it up with regional figures from our Salary Calculator, both of which use real data from UK job placements made by our recruiters.
Explore the Salary Calculator
3. Collect evidence of exemplary performance
Salary benchmarks and proof of in-demand skills are an excellent start to your negotiation, but evidence of exemplary performance is where you close the deal. Provide figures for goals and targets you've hit, glowing feedback you've received, and instances in which you’ve excelled.
To increase your chances of success, tie your efforts back to business outcomes, such as revenue growth, client acquisition, and project success. It's good practice to collect these wins and record them as and when they happen.
4. Understand the fundamentals of salary negotiation
One of the best times to bring pay-rise requests to the table is during your appraisal meeting. Our data shows that many hiring managers are willing to negotiate base pay, so have a research-based number in mind and a firm understanding of what you’re willing (and not willing) to accept.
There’s more to a remuneration package than a good salary — benefits and perks can bolster a lacklustre base salary or serve as a stopgap when hiring budgets are tight. Our data shows that over half (55%) of hiring managers say their company negotiates benefits and perks with candidates. If you’re looking for low-hanging fruit with a high likelihood of sign-off, the data suggests that flexibility-related benefits and bonuses are your best bet.
5. Be prepared to turn a ‘no’ into an opportunity
Part of going into a negotiation is knowing how to turn a rejection into something useful. For example, if your skill set doesn’t quite qualify for a premium salary, ask what training is available to help you close the distance. If a higher salary is off the table, are there any benefits or perks you can negotiate for instead?
It’s also worth considering better-paid opportunities elsewhere. For example, you may be able to increase your salary by moving to the same position in a location with higher demand. You might also find that moving into a new industry increases your pay; for example, some finance and accounting positions pay higher salaries in financial services compared to other industries.
You might also consider putting your salary benchmarking and hiring market research to work by pursuing the same role in the same industry, but with a new employer. In this instance, your research can be used to make strategic job applications to help lock in the salary you’ve been hoping for.
To learn more about negotiating a pay rise in the 2027 hiring landscape and the salaries and benefits being offered to UK professionals this year, explore your free copy of the Salary Guide. You can also access quick, reliable regional salary benchmarking information using the Robert Half salary calculator here.
Best of luck with your negotiation!
