I’m not a financial advisor — this post reflects my personal experience and opinions, not professional financial advice. It may also contain affiliate links, which means I could earn a small commission at no extra cost to you if you make a purchase. Know that all of my opinions are my own and come from personal experience and thorough research. Please consult a qualified professional before making financial decisions.
I have had to beg for my annual review more than once. Not ask. Beg. Email after email, “just checking in,” watching the date quietly slide by while everyone around me seemed to assume it would just happen on its own.
It doesn’t just happen on its own. I learned that the hard way, more than once.
One year, frustrated and tired of being underpaid, I told our CFO directly that I thought my compensation didn’t match my work. His response: “I think you’re being paid exactly what you should be.”
So I told him my salary.
He had no idea what I was actually making. He’d made a confident statement about what I deserved without knowing the one number that mattered most. That conversation taught me something I haven’t forgotten since…nobody at your company is tracking your worth as closely as you think they are. Often, nobody is tracking it at all.
The Year I Did the Math
The next time review season came around, I didn’t wing it.
I sat down and calculated exactly how my workload had changed over the previous 12 months. How many projects I was completing. What each one billed out at. How my output compared to a year prior.
The number I landed on: my workload and productivity had increased by 80%.
I walked into that review with actual data. Not a feeling, not a sense that I was working harder, a number. And I was told I’d be getting a 3% cost of living increase.
I put my numbers on the table. I walked them through exactly what had changed and exactly what I was now producing for the company. I ended up negotiating a 6% raise, which, for the record, was the absolute ceiling my direct supervisor was authorized to give. At a for-profit consulting company. I still think that ceiling is a load of crap, but that’s a different post.
The point is: the data moved the number. Nothing else had.
What I’d Tell Any Woman Walking Into a Review
Do the math before you walk in the room.
Know exactly what your responsibilities were a year ago and exactly what they are now. Know how many projects, clients, or tasks you’re handling compared to then. If your work generates revenue or bills out to clients, know those numbers cold. Vague impressions of “I’ve been working really hard” don’t move anyone. Specific, quantifiable change does.
Bring data, not feelings.
This is the part that’s hardest to hear, but it matters: how expensive your rent has gotten is not your employer’s problem. How much groceries cost now is not their problem. I know it’s real. I know it’s the actual reason you need the raise. But it is not the argument that gets you the raise. The argument that works is the one that shows them what you’re worth to them, not what you need to survive.
Make them calculate the cost of losing you.
This is the quiet leverage most women don’t use enough. It would cost your employer significantly more to replace you than to pay you fairly. You don’t have to say “or I’ll quit” out loud. You just have to make the math of keeping you obviously better than the math of losing you.
Don’t assume they’re tracking your value. They’re often not.
The CFO who told me I was paid exactly right didn’t even know what I made. That’s not unusual, unfortunately, it’s the norm. Most managers are juggling a dozen people and a budget spreadsheet, not quietly building a case for why you deserve more. If you want that case made, you have to build it yourself and hand it to them.
Push for the review to actually happen.
If you have to ask multiple times to get your annual review scheduled, ask. Then ask again. A delayed review is rarely malicious. It’s usually just low on someone else’s priority list. It needs to be high on yours.
The Bottom Line
Nobody is going to advocate for your salary as hard as you can advocate for it yourself. Not because they’re against you, but because it’s genuinely not their job to notice. It’s yours.
Track your work. Know your numbers. Walk in with data instead of an explanation of your bills. And remember, replacing you is expensive. Paying you fairly is usually cheaper. Make sure they understand that math before you ever need to say it out loud.
