How do I ask for more money over email?

[HolidayHun2020]

Hello,

I am currently on maternity leave and want to ask for a salary increase on my return. Annoyingly I have to do this over email as they are planning the budgets for next year. My reasoning is my job is underpaid for my level and what I do and my current salary is low in comparison with market rates/roles I’m getting approached for on LinkedIn.

Can anyone advise on what I should say? It’s a smallish company so it can’t be ridiculously formal but also can’t be ‘hi can I have more money, thanks!’

TYIA

Could you say that you'd like a conversation about your salary on return from mat leave, and you thought you should raise this now as you're aware it's budget time?

That way you're not actually asking for £ but asking for a discussion.