🎯 Your situation
These are genuinely different letters, not tone settings. Pick the one that matches what is actually happening.
👤 You
✉️ Who it goes to
✍️ The detail
A named role if one exists, or a specific band or figure. A vague ask gets a vague answer.
A number, a timeframe and what you personally did. This paragraph is what your manager will quote upward.
The most persuasive single argument available to you, if it is true.
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Promotion and Raise Request Letter
An internal ask is a different exercise from an external negotiation. You have no competing offer to lean on, the person reading it has to defend the decision upward, and you will still be sitting in their team either way. So the letter is written for them, not at them: it should give your manager the material they need to make your case to someone else, in a form they can lift and reuse.
That means evidence over sentiment. What did you own, what changed because you owned it, and what does the job look like now compared with what you were hired to do. Tenure is not an argument on its own, and neither is effort. The strongest version of this letter shows that you are already doing the job you are asking to be paid for.
How and when pay decisions get made, whether bands are published, and what your employer may or must disclose about pay differ by organisation, sector and country. Some jurisdictions give employees a right to discuss pay with colleagues or to request pay-range information; others do not. This page is general guidance, not legal advice. Check your own pay and promotion policy first, and if you believe a pay difference relates to a protected characteristic, that is a different process and worth proper advice.
What the letter needs to contain
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1
The ask, in the first two lines
Named role, named band or named figure. A message that circles the subject for four paragraphs gets a non-committal reply, because you asked a non-committal question.
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2
Evidence with numbers
One result stated so precisely that your manager can paste it into their own case without editing it. This is the paragraph doing the real work.
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3
The scope comparison
What you were hired to do, against what you do now. Where this argument is available it is usually the strongest one you have.
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4
An acknowledgement of the constraint
Budget cycles, headcount plans and levels above your manager are real. Recognising them makes you easier to advocate for and does not weaken the ask.
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5
A concrete next step
A meeting, with a rough timeframe. Ending on “let me know your thoughts” is how these get deferred indefinitely.
What goes wrong
- Arguing from time served
Two years is not an achievement. Levels are usually defined by the scope you can hold, not by the calendar.
- Arguing from personal cost of living
Sympathetic, and outside your manager’s power to solve. Anchor on the job and on what you have delivered.
- Comparing yourself to a named colleague
“I do more than Ravi” puts your manager in an impossible position and invites a conversation about Ravi rather than about you. Argue on your own evidence.
- Threatening to leave when you will not
Bluffing internally is far more costly than bluffing externally, because you have to keep working there afterwards. If you genuinely have an offer, that is a different and much more delicate conversation.
- Ignoring the calendar
Many organisations set pay and levels in a fixed window. A brilliant case made a month after decisions were locked gets deferred a year. Ask your manager when the window is, well before you need it.
- Asking with no number in mind
If you have not decided what you want, you have handed the decision to someone else, and it will land at the bottom of whatever range they were considering.
Worked example — scope grew after a departure
The situation. Nadia Rahman was hired to run events and email. A colleague left eleven months ago, the role was never backfilled, and she has been running the whole acquisition budget and two contractors since. She has never raised it. Her manager is supportive but has never been given the case in a form he can pass on.
Hi Colin Meyer,
I want to raise something that has crept up rather than happened at any one moment. When I joined, the role covered events and email. Since Rachel left in April it has covered the entire acquisition budget, the paid channel, and day-to-day management of our two contractors. That was meant to be temporary and it has now been eleven months.
That was the right thing to do at the time and I was glad to pick it up. It has now been long enough that I think it should be reflected formally, and I would like to ask for the Senior Marketing Manager title.
On what has come out of it: Since I took the paid channel in January, cost per qualified lead is down 41% and volume is up, which is about £18,000 a quarter that used to go to the agency and now does not. I rebuilt the conversion tracking first, which is why the numbers are trustworthy enough to quote.
I have also been chairing the weekly pipeline review since March, which was previously Rachel’s, and I onboarded both contractors without any handover.
On that basis I would like to ask for £58,000.
I am not raising this as a complaint, and I am not going anywhere while we work it out. I would just rather say it clearly than let it sit for another year.
Could we take half an hour in the next couple of weeks to go through it?
Why it works
- The opening names the real subject — the job quietly changed — rather than opening with money.
- The evidence paragraph is written so Colin can paste it into his own submission without rewriting a word. That is deliberate.
- She names a figure. Without one, the conversation defaults to whatever number someone else has in mind.
- She explicitly removes the threat: she is not leaving over this. That makes it safe for her manager to advocate rather than escalate.
- It ends with a specific next step and a timeframe, so it cannot quietly become a “let me think about it”.
This is the “Your scope grew without the title or pay” option above, rendered through the same builder. Press Load the worked example to open it in the editor and edit it into your own.
Promotion or Raise Request Questions
Should I ask by email or in a meeting?
Both, in that order. Send the written case first so your manager can read it without having to react on the spot, then discuss it. The written version also survives being forwarded upward, which is usually where the decision is actually made.
When is the best time to ask?
Before your employer’s pay or promotion decisions are locked, which is often a quarter or more ahead of when increases appear. Ask your manager when the cycle runs — that question alone is a useful signal that you are thinking about it.
How much of a raise should I ask for?
Any specific percentage you read online is a guess about a situation the writer knows nothing about. Base it on something concrete: an internal band if one is published, the scope you have absorbed, or the gap between your role now and the role you were hired into.
What if my manager says no?
Ask two questions: what would need to be true, and when it will next be looked at. A no with a defined path is workable; a no with neither is itself information about whether the answer will ever change here.
Should I mention that I could get more elsewhere?
Only if you have a real offer and are prepared to act on it. Used as pressure without substance, it damages trust permanently, and some employers will not counter on principle even when they could.
Is it worth putting it in writing if we have a good relationship?
Especially then. A written case is not a formality — it is the document your manager forwards to whoever signs off. Making that easy is the single most useful thing you can do for your own case.
Other Letters You May Need
All free, all with the same live preview and download.
Give notice properly: five situations from full notice to immediate, with the contract questions you should settle in writing.
🤝 Reference RequestAsk a former manager, a professor or a colleague for a reference in a way that is easy to say yes to — and easy to decline.
📨 Interview Thank-You EmailFollow up while the decision is still open: same-day notes, final-round follow-ups, and the rejection reply that keeps the door open.
🖋️ Recommendation LetterWriting one for someone else: how to make it specific enough to be worth reading, and what not to put in writing.
⚖️ Salary Negotiation LetterCounter an offer in writing without souring it: what to anchor on, what to ask for when money is fixed, and what not to bluff.
✅ Job Offer AcceptanceAccept properly: restate the terms you are accepting, and settle the start date before it becomes an argument.
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