Negotiating a pay rise: numbers first, nerves second

Most pay conversations fail before they start — not because the case is weak, but because it was never assembled. Managers rarely say yes to "I feel underpaid"; they say yes to a number with evidence behind it, asked for at a moment when saying yes is possible.

Know the market number before the meeting

Your anchor is what your role pays elsewhere, not what you earn now plus a bit. Check advertised ranges for your title and city, industry salary guides, and what recruiters quote when they call. Aim to walk in with a range, not a single figure — a range shows research; a lone number invites haggling over it.

Build the case on outcomes, not effort

Write down what changed since your salary was last set: responsibilities added, results delivered, people trained, revenue touched, systems owned. Effort and loyalty are appreciated; scope and outcomes are what reprices a role. If your job today is bigger than the job that was priced, that's the argument — one paragraph, three bullet points, numbers where you have them.

Timing beats technique

Budgets are set in cycles. Asking a month before salary reviews or the new financial year lands your case while there's still money to allocate; asking after is asking your manager to unwind a spreadsheet. Post-win moments — a delivered project, a strong review — are the other natural windows.

Know what the number is actually worth

A $10,000 raise sounds transformative; after tax it's about $6,800 — roughly $261 a fortnight — and $5,300 with a HECS debt. Two reasons to run this maths first: your ask should be sized to make a real difference to you, and knowing the after-tax figure stops you trading a meaningful raise away for a one-off bonus that's taxed the same but happens once. Don't forget a raise also lifts employer super by 12% of the increase — worth mentioning when comparing against a counter-offer elsewhere.

If the answer is no

Get specific: what would need to be true for the number to move, and when will it be revisited? A "no" with criteria and a date is a plan; a vague no is information too. Some value can also arrive in other currencies — extra super, more remote days (a $60/week commute is worth about $4,000 of pre-tax salary), title, training budget — all of which are easier yeses for a manager with a frozen salary line.

And if the numbers say your market rate is far above your pay and the door won't move — that's what the salary comparison calculator is for. Interviewing occasionally is how you find out what you're worth; it's also the strongest negotiating position there is.