Salary Negotiation Guide

We all feel the need to make more money than we are currently making and there are two ways you can achieve this - by shifting to a better paying company or by asking for a raise in your current job. For most people, the second option works best but how do ask for a pay raise?
Given below are a few tips that can help you in your salary negotiation attempts:
Determine your worth - Finding out your worth in the marketplace is the first and the most important thing to do before you step out to ask for a raise. Get in touch with career counseling agencies, read employment magazines, find out the salary range for your designation and experience in other companies. There is often a large discrepancy between what you are getting paid and what the market rates for people with your skill set and experience are.
Make a Performance-based Request - If your performance has been consistently great and you have recently got good reviews from your employers, it is perhaps a good time to ask for a raise. Show how you have always achieved targets, or how you have added to the company's productivity, talk about your high ratings. Make your performance the basis of your request for a higher salary.
Do your Homework - Make a list of all your achievements in the past year such as your cost-saving methods, timely completion of projects, client & customer satisfaction, excellent reviews on your job, how your accomplishments have helped the company and so on. If you have been putting in extra-hours or working on holidays, mention that also in your list. Presenting your performance output in a documented form not only justifies you request for a pay raise but is a great way to impress your superiors.
Negotiate for better perks and other benefits - While you manager or employer may find it difficult to raise your salary at any given time, it is quite possible for them to give you more perks such as higher travel benefits, health and house rent allowance. You can talk to your boss regarding this kind of arrangement if they feel a direct increase in pay might irk other employees. Remember, such benefits not only save your money on a lot of things, many of these are exempted from tax too.
Get the timing right - If your company is hit by the economic crisis and has been on a cost-cutting spree, asking for an increase in salary can actually be the worst thing to do. The best option in recessionary times is to work extra-hard to generate more profits and devise cost-saving strategies that will help your company. When the time is right, go ask for a salary raise and show how your efforts helped in saving money and increasing profits for the company.