How Do You Ask for a Higher Salary During a Promotion? Here’s the Script I Use

The short version: Ask for a higher salary during a promotion by naming your number first, backing it with three specific proof points, and asking before the budget is signed off, not after. Most people wait to be offered a figure and then negotiate up from it, which is the wrong order and costs them money every single time.

Why most people get the timing wrong

Here’s what nobody tells you: by the time your manager sits you down and says “we’d like to promote you,” the number attached to that promotion has often already been decided. Not always, but more often than people want to believe. HR has run a benchmarking exercise, your manager has had a budget conversation with their boss, and there’s a figure sitting in a spreadsheet somewhere with your name next to it.

So if you wait for the meeting to ask for more, you’re negotiating against a decision that’s already been made, not shaping one that’s still open. That’s the uncomfortable bit most career advice skips over. The real use point isn’t the promotion conversation itself, it’s the three or four weeks before it, when your manager is building the case internally.

I learned this the hard way years ago, long before I was self-employed. I was told I was getting promoted, said thank you, and only asked about the money a week later in a follow-up email. By then the number was final. I got the title, I got a 4% bump, and I found out three months later that the person who took the job in a different department had negotiated an 11% increase simply because she’d raised it before the offer was formalised, not after.

Ask before the promotion is confirmed, not during it

The single biggest shift you can make is moving the money conversation earlier. As soon as you sense a promotion is coming, whether from a hint in a one-to-one, a restructure, or simply because you’ve been doing the job title’s work for six months without the title, say something like this:

• “I’m really glad this is moving forward. Before it’s finalised, can we talk about the salary range attached to it?”
• “I want to make sure the offer reflects the scope, can we discuss numbers before this goes to HR?”
• “What’s the budget for this role, and is there flexibility if my experience is above the typical range?”

That last question does a lot of work. It gets your manager to say a number out loud, or a range, before you’ve committed to one yourself. Whoever names a number first in a negotiation usually loses some ground, so let them go first if you can. This is the same principle that applies whether you’re negotiating a salary increase when a promotion is on the table internally or negotiating a higher salary during a fresh job offer somewhere new. The mechanics are almost identical, only the relationship you’re protecting is different.

Do the research: three numbers you need before you say anything

You cannot negotiate from feeling underpaid. You negotiate from data. Before any conversation, get these three numbers:

• Market rate for the new title. Check Glassdoor, Payscale, and LinkedIn Salary for the exact job title in your city or region. If you’re in the UK, cross-check against the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings for a sanity check on the sector average, it’s dry but it’s real government data and it holds up if HR pushes back.
• What your closest comparable colleague earns. You won’t always find this out cleanly, but industry Slack groups, recruiters, and former colleagues who’ve moved to similar roles elsewhere will usually tell you if you ask directly.
• Your current salary as a percentage gap. Work out the exact gap between what you earn now and the market rate for the new role. If you’re on £42,000 and the market rate for the new title is £54,000, that £12,000 gap, roughly 28%, is your opening ask, not your fallback position.

Most people ask for 5 to 8% more because it feels reasonable and unlikely to cause offence. That’s exactly why it rarely gets you anywhere near market rate. Companies budget for pushback. If you ask for what feels comfortable, you’ll get roughly what you asked for, which is usually still below where you should be.

A real example: Priya’s £9,000 jump

A client of mine, I’ll call her Priya, came to me two years ago after being told she was getting promoted from Senior Marketing Executive to Marketing Manager. Her current salary was £38,500. The promotion letter, when it arrived, offered £41,000. A 6.5% rise, which on paper sounds fine.

We looked at the market rate for Marketing Manager roles in her sector and location: £46,000 to £52,000 depending on team size. She was going to be managing a team of four. That put her firmly in the £48,000 to £50,000 range, not £41,000.

Here’s exactly what she did. She went back to her manager, not HR, and said: “Thank you for this, I’m excited about the role. Before I confirm, I’ve done some benchmarking for Marketing Manager roles managing teams of this size in our sector, and the range I’m seeing is £48,000 to £52,000. Given I’ll be managing four people and taking on the budget responsibility we discussed, I’d like us to look at £49,500.”

She named a specific number, not a round one. Specific numbers read as researched. Round numbers read as guessed. Her manager came back a week later with £47,500 plus a formal six-month review with a further increase tied to targets. That’s £9,000 more than the original offer, and she took it. The whole exchange took two conversations and one email. That is the entire method.

The exact script, step by step

Here’s the sequence I give every client who’s facing this conversation:

• Step 1. Express genuine enthusiasm first. “Thank you, I’m really pleased about this.” This isn’t fluff, it stops the conversation from feeling adversarial from the first sentence.
• Step 2. State that you’ve done research. “I’ve looked at market rates for this role and level.” This signals you’re not guessing or negotiating on emotion.
• Step 3. Give the range, then anchor above the middle of it. If the range is £48,000 to £52,000, ask for £50,500, not £49,000.
• Step 4. Attach the number to scope, not need. Say “given the team size and budget responsibility,” never “because my rent went up” or “because I have kids.” Personal circumstances don’t move company budgets, scope does.
• Step 5. Go quiet. Let them respond. Don’t fill the silence with justification, it weakens your position every time.
• Step 6. If they say the number’s fixed, ask about the second lever: a signing bonus, an accelerated review date, extra holiday, or a formal title bump with a defined path to the next salary band within six months.

What if they say the budget won’t stretch

Sometimes it’s true. Budgets are approved months in advance and a manager who wants to give you £52,000 might only have authority to offer £45,000 this financial year. In that case, don’t treat “no” as final, treat it as “not yet, not from this pot.”

Ask for a written commitment to revisit the salary at a fixed point, three or six months, tied to specific, measurable outcomes you agree together. Get it in an email, not just a verbal nod, because verbal promises about money have a habit of disappearing when the person who made them changes teams or leaves.

And if the answer stays no with no timeline attached, that’s information too. It tells you something about how the company values the role compared to the market, and it’s worth knowing that before you decide whether to stay for another year chasing a number that may never arrive.

Mistakes that quietly cost people money

• Accepting verbally before discussing salary. Once you’ve said yes to the role itself, you’ve lost most of your negotiating position on pay. Separate the two decisions even if it feels awkward to delay.
• Bringing up personal expenses. Managers can’t defend a raise to finance based on your mortgage. They can defend it based on scope, responsibility, and market data.
• Negotiating over email only. Email is good for confirming numbers afterward, but the actual negotiation should happen in conversation, where tone and flexibility can move things in your favour.
• Comparing yourself to underpaid colleagues. If your comparison point is another underpaid person, you’re negotiating down, not up. Use external market data, not internal gossip.

This whole approach isn’t wildly different from negotiating salary before you accept a job offer with a brand new employer. The research, the anchoring, the silence after you state your number, all of it transfers. The only real difference with an internal promotion is that you have an existing relationship to protect, which is exactly why so many people go soft on the ask. Don’t. A manager who respects you for negotiating well is far more common than a manager who resents you for it.

If the raise doesn’t come through, build a plan B quietly

It’s worth saying plainly: sometimes the answer is no, and stays no, for reasons that have nothing to do with your performance. Companies freeze bands, restructure, or simply decide the role isn’t worth what the market says it’s worth. If that happens twice in a row, it’s a signal, not bad luck.

Some of my clients, while they wait out that decision, start building something on the side so the promotion conversation isn’t the only lever they have. That might mean picking up flexible remote customer service work for extra income, or looking at passive income ideas that fit around a full time job. It’s not about giving up on the promotion, it’s about not being financially dependent on one manager’s budget decision.

Frequently asked questions

How much more should I ask for during a promotion?

Ask for a figure at or slightly above the middle of the current market range for the new title, not a small percentage above your current salary. If the range is £48,000 to £52,000, ask for around £50,000 to £51,000, since anchoring near the top of the researched range gives room for negotiation without underselling yourself.

Should I ask for a raise before or after I accept the promotion?

Before. Once you’ve verbally accepted the new role, you’ve given up most of your negotiating position, so raise salary as a condition of accepting, not as an afterthought once you’ve already said yes to the title.

What if my manager says the salary band is fixed?

Ask about the second lever: a signing bonus, a faster formal review date, extra holiday, or a written commitment to revisit the number within three to six months tied to specific outcomes. A fixed band this year doesn’t mean a fixed number forever, and getting the commitment in writing matters more than the verbal promise.

Is it rude to bring up salary during a promotion conversation?

No. Promotions come with new responsibilities, and discussing pay alongside scope is a normal part of that conversation, not an awkward add-on. Managers expect it, and most will respect you more for asking with research behind you than for accepting silently and quietly resenting the number later.

Sources worth reading

• the ONS earnings and working hours data

Related reading: How to Negotiate Salary Over Email Professionally (With Real Scripts That Work) and I Used AI to Chase My Own Late Invoices for Three Months. Here’s the Script That Worked.