Something to doCompensation
Understand how pay is decided where you work
A low-stakes conversation to learn how your company sets pay, and when it gets decided
Why it’s worth your time
Pay is decided inside a system, and it's hard to work with a system you can't see. Knowing how ranges are set, when budgets are fixed and who signs off tells you when a conversation can still change something and when it's already too late. It also makes pay feel less personal: here's how the company does it, and here's where I sit in it.
How to find out how raises are decided at work
You’ll come away with a clear picture of how pay is set where you work, and the dates when it gets decided.
We’ll turn this into a checklist you can tick off.
- Write down what you already know.
When was your last raise, and how was it decided? Is there a set review cycle? Do pay ranges or levels exist, and do you know yours? What does your whole package include? Mark the answers you're only guessing at.
Tip: The guesses on your list are your questions.
- Check what's already written down.
Your offer letter, the employee handbook, the HR portal or intranet. Some companies publish their ranges and review calendar; others share them only when someone asks.
- Ask your manager how it works.
Pick a regular 1:1 and say up front that you're not asking for a raise today. That lowers the stakes for both of you and tends to get a more open answer. If your manager doesn't know, ask who does.
You“I'd like to understand how pay works here. I'm not asking for anything today, I just realized I don't know how ranges are set or how raises get decided. Could you walk me through it?” - Ask when decisions actually get made.
This is the question people skip. Ask when budgets are set, when managers make recommendations, and when people hear. These can be weeks or months apart, and the moment that matters is the first one, not the last.
You“When in the year do recommendations actually get made, and when would it be useful for you to hear from me?” - Put the dates on your calendar.
Add what you learned, especially when recommendations are made, with a reminder a few weeks before.
Good moments for this: in your first few months in a jobafter a reorg or a new managerwhen your company changes its review process
We’ll turn this into a checklist you can tick off.
Keep going with Truest
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Anything else we can help you with this week?
Making it work for you
Every workplace is different. Here’s what to think about before you start, and what might get in the way.
Things to think about
Some companies aim to pay around the middle of the market, some above it, and some trade salary for equity or stability. Knowing which explains a lot about the numbers you see.
What might make this harder
That's often true at smaller companies. Ask how raises have happened in practice and who makes the call. Informal systems still have patterns.
Questions people ask
How do companies decide raises?
It varies, but often there's a yearly or twice-yearly cycle with a budget set in advance. Managers recommend within it, someone above approves, and pay ranges, performance and company results shape the outcome.
Can I ask HR how pay is decided?
Yes. It's a normal question, and saying you want to understand the process keeps it low-stakes.
What is a pay band?
The range, from minimum to maximum, a company is willing to pay for a role or level. Where you sit in it often depends on experience, performance and when you were hired.
When is the best time to ask for a raise?
Usually before recommendations are made for the next cycle, which can be weeks or months before raises are announced. Ask your manager when that is where you work.
Why this works, and where it comes from
It's hard to make sense of your pay when you can't see how it was decided. A raise smaller than you hoped, or none at all, can land as a message about you. Usually it's the output of budgets fixed, ranges applied and recommendations made within limits someone else chose, often before your name came up. Companies make pay decisions in the company's interest, which covers what it can afford, what the market charges and what's fair across a team. That isn't exactly comforting, but it's a truer picture, and a truer picture is easier to work with.
Seeing the system changes what you can do. You learn whether your manager decides or recommends, which tells you whose case you'd really be helping them make. And a small raise stops reading as a judgment and starts reading as a question: what in the system produced this, and what would change it?
From your manager's side, this is an easy question to get. It asks for nothing, it shows you're thinking ahead, and it gives them a chance to explain something that may frustrate them too. A calm question about the process early in the year is a lot easier to handle than a surprised one after the numbers are out.
There's one situation where this isn't the first move. If you have reason to think you're paid less than people doing the same work, for reasons that have nothing to do with the work, that's a different conversation. That's a question for HR, or for someone who understands employment law where you live, and it's worth writing down what you know before you go.
Other simple things to consider
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An exercise written by Truest, based on our experience. Last updated October 2, 2026. We sell a career membership; where that’s relevant above, we say so.