When to Ask for a Raise — And When Not To

Asking for a raise is one of the most consequential conversations a professional can have at work.

Get it right — the timing, the reasoning, the delivery — and the outcome can reshape your career trajectory. Get it wrong — and you risk damaging a relationship, signalling poor judgment, or simply receiving a no that closes the conversation for longer than it needed to be.

In Greek shipping and logistics, where professional relationships are long, markets are small, and reputations travel fast, the way you handle this conversation matters as much as what you are asking for.

Here is an honest guide to when you should ask — and when you should not.

Good Reasons to Ask for a Raise

You have taken on significantly more responsibility without a corresponding increase in compensation.

This is the strongest case you can make. If your role has grown — you are managing people you were not managing before, overseeing a budget that did not previously exist, covering functions that used to belong to someone else — your compensation should reflect that growth. The company has received more value from you than your contract originally specified. That is a legitimate basis for a conversation.

The market has moved and your salary has not kept pace.

If you can demonstrate — calmly, specifically, and without making it feel like a threat — that comparable roles at comparable companies are paying meaningfully more than you currently earn, this is a reasonable basis for a raise request. The key word is demonstrate. Vague references to "what people are earning out there" carry little weight. Specific, credible market data carries a great deal.

You have delivered results that were not expected when your salary was set.

A successful project that exceeded its targets, a client relationship that grew significantly under your management, a cost saving or revenue increase that you can point to specifically — these are the building blocks of a raise conversation grounded in evidence. The strongest requests connect what was asked of you at the start of the year to what you actually delivered at the end of it.

A significant amount of time has passed without any adjustment.

If you have been in a role for two or more years without any salary review, and your performance has been consistently strong, it is entirely reasonable to initiate that conversation. Many companies will not do it unless prompted — not out of bad faith, but because the immediate pressures of running a business crowd out the longer-term conversation about compensation. You are allowed to raise it.

Poor Reasons to Ask for a Raise

You need the money.

Personal financial circumstances — a new apartment, a growing family, unexpected expenses — are entirely understandable as motivators for wanting more income. They are not, however, a basis for a raise from your employer. Your employer's compensation decisions are based on the value you deliver to the business, not on your personal financial situation. Raising your personal needs as the primary argument weakens your position and can make the conversation awkward for both sides.

A colleague is earning more than you.

Discovering that a colleague at the same level earns more than you is frustrating — and if the difference is significant and unexplained, it may well be unfair. But leading with "I found out that X earns more than me" rarely produces the outcome you want. It raises questions about how you obtained that information, puts your employer on the defensive, and shifts the conversation away from your own value. If you believe you are underpaid relative to peers, the stronger argument is made through market data and your own track record — not through comparison to a specific colleague.

You have been in the role for a year and feel you deserve it.

Time served is not, in itself, a basis for a raise. Twelve months in a role means twelve months of learning — which is valuable, but it is the learning you were hired to do. What matters is what you have delivered during that time, not simply that the time has passed. A raise request grounded purely in tenure is easy to decline and hard to argue effectively.

You are unhappy in other ways and think money will fix it.

If the real issue is that you feel undervalued, bored, unrecognised, or stuck — and you are hoping that a raise will resolve those feelings — it almost certainly will not. Money addresses a compensation problem. It does not address a culture problem, a management problem, or a career development problem. Before asking for more money, it is worth being honest with yourself about whether money is actually what you need — or whether the conversation you need to have is a different one entirely.

You just watched someone else get promoted.

A colleague's promotion is not evidence that you are underpaid. It is evidence that someone else was promoted. These are separate events. If you believe you were overlooked for an opportunity you deserved, that is a legitimate conversation — but it is a different conversation from a salary review, and conflating the two weakens both.

How to Have the Conversation Well

Assuming you have a good reason to ask, the way you raise it matters as much as the reason itself.

Ask for a dedicated conversation rather than raising it at the end of another meeting or in a passing comment. "I would like to find some time to discuss my compensation — when would work for you?" is a sentence that signals seriousness and gives your manager the chance to prepare.

Come with specifics. What you have delivered. What the market looks like. What you are asking for. Vague requests produce vague responses. A specific, reasoned case is harder to dismiss and easier to say yes to.

Be calm. This is a professional conversation, not a confrontation. The moment it feels like a threat or an ultimatum — even if that was not your intention — the dynamic shifts in a way that rarely benefits either side.

Be prepared for no. A well-reasoned request can still receive a no — because of budget constraints, timing, or factors you are not aware of. How you respond to that no says a great deal about your professionalism. Ask when the conversation can be revisited. Ask what would need to change for the answer to be different. And then decide, honestly, whether the answer you received tells you something important about whether this is the right place for you.