Can anyone help me compose an email requesting a pay rise?

[Evabeaversprotege]

I have been with this company six years now and have never had a raise (bar the statutory pay rises) despite it being written in my original contract that my wages would be reviewed after six months.

I have taken on more work recently (covering a maternity post) and doing work that a more senior member of staff would previously have done.

I am capable, I am competent. I work for a private company who pay their employees all different rates. (Our company handbook dissuades us from discussing pay rates with each other but office chat gets about)

At the minute, for a 40 hour week, I clear just under £1,000 a month, meanwhile, a colleague with much less responsibility has a top line of £17,000.

I want to request a rise in writing, I feel incredibly belittled at the minute and on the cusp of leaving (easier said than done as I need a job!)

Has anyone got a template letter or any reasonable wording I can use in my request?

Thanks so much

While I can see why you want to have the relevant facts set out in writing, I would recommend your email simply requests a meeting to discuss your career progression and recognition within the company. Unless there is a compelling reason you don't want to do so, the discussions are normally better in person than by email. It's likely that in the meeting you will set out your points, and ask your questions, and the manager (or whoever) will then say they need time to consider. That's fine, but do try and agree a date when you will meet again to discuss a decision.

In your notes (which you may or may not choose to hand over to the manager after the meeting), I would cover:

Any additional training or development undertaken during your six years
Any additional research or learning you've done in your own time that has benefited your role/the company
Any changes to your responsibilities, that are substantially different from your job description
Any recently advertised positions in the company (or sector) where the role looks identical to yours but the salary is higher

The "review" of salary every six months of course does not mean that the outcome of the review would be an increase; however, you could describe this meeting as "an open discussion related to regular salary reviews", as it sounds like they have been conducted in silence up to now!

I would describe your points in the light of your demonstrable commitment to the company, and I would try extremely hard not to refer to anyone else's duties or salary. If you know for absolute certain that someone with an identical job title, job description, and daily role, is being paid more, then you could carefully raise it - but I might keep that in my back pocket for round two of any discussions. It's really hard to be sure about these things, and in any case, it would be deeply unprofessional of any manager to discuss another employee's salary with you.

Have a think about what your ideal outcome is: a salary increase, an investment in your training, a new promotion ... You need to be sure what you would find acceptable, so you're not wrong-footed if they offer you something different. Good luck!

Hi upsydaisy, thanks so much for replying,

The reason for emailing is because the general manager is based in an office at the other end of the country & very rarely visits our office.

I wouldn't expect him to discuss others' salaries with me, all I want is a pay rise in recognition of my work.

That makes sense (re the location difficulty). I assume from that, that he's the only one with the authority to agree a pay increase, and that there's no HR team you could talk to either? It's not making it easy for you, but it shouldn't stop you from reasonably laying out how your role has changed, and therefore asking for a salary that reflects this. I hope it goes well for you.

I would strongly strongly advise you to do this in person if at all humanly possible, even if it means waiting. It's far far to easy to say no to a request like that over an email, and in a discussion, you can go prepared with rebuttals to any objections, and address any concerns right then and there, whereas if you're not in the room, you won't get that opportunity.