Asking for salary increment to boss

There have to be good reasons for a salary increase, especially in today's economy with so many unemployed people.

If nothing has changed in your general environment - your company is doing no better (or is doing worse), the cost of living has not changed in your town, your job descripton has not changed, etc., then there is usually no justification for giving a raise. Companies are much more frugal and competetive than in the past and to give a raise due to a personal cause such as a new baby in the family is just not done these days.

A quick check of your value is, if you were to leave your present job and get hired at another company, would you get a higher wage? (If you know you would not get hired at any other company, then you may be stuck.) If so, then I would research that possibility and use that as one of the reasons given to your manager. I've even gone as far as get an offer from another company and used that to get a raise at my present company. ("I'd prefer to stay here, but I have this offer...")

If after all this, you still want a raise, then you need to get together all your reasons and data. Yes data, as in many companies the salaries given are based on data they have received from consultants as to what salary is normal in your area, so you will need to fight that data.

If you feel your job description has changed, first see if your Human Resources department has a written job description for your position. Often they had to write one when you were hired, just to figure out who to hire. If not, you will have to write the job description you feel you were hired for. If the job description has obviously changed (not just details you have added on the job), this is a good tool to ask for a raise.

If you feel you have considerably improved how you do your job, you need to somehow quantify that. Pick a metric, like "number of phone calls answered per week", something important to your job, and get data to show you have improved over last year. Graph it. You may think I am talking only about high-powered jobs here. I'm not. Think of your boss' point of view. You come into his office and ask for a raise - what are the reasons given? Are they facts or just whining?

Your company should have an annual review of each employee. This is a good time to bring up salary. If you don't have such reviews, you will have to set up an appointment with your boss. Remember, your boss may not have the authority to set your wages, but you will still have to go through him. In that case, if you can set up an appointment with him and his boss, so much the better. Even if you often just walk into your bosses office to talk informally, I would consider asking to set up an appointment for the next day "Will you be here tomorrow at 9 in the morning so I can talk to you?" so that he realizes the importance of your request, not informality.

I would dress up better than normal on the appointment day, so that your boss realizes you are a marketable person who, if he doesn't consider your request, you may just be looking elsewhere. For women, this doesn't mean dressing sexy. Think or look how women dress a couple of rungs up the ladder from your position, and dress that way.