Pay rises
Your responsibilities increased and your salary did not
More responsibility without more money is not automatically unfair. It becomes unfair when the change is sustained, unbacked and unrecognised. The first job is to work out which of the five situations you are actually in, because each one needs a different conversation.
Written by the Look at you go team ยท Published 18 August 2026
Five situations that look identical from the inside
| Situation | What it looks like | What it needs |
|---|---|---|
| Genuine temporary stretch | Defined cover, an end date, someone still accountable above you | A record, and a check-in when the date passes |
| Role creep | Tasks arriving one at a time, nobody deciding anything | A written before and after of your remit |
| Acting responsibility | You hold the role, the title and pay did not follow | An acting allowance or a decision date |
| Development opportunity | Explicitly framed as growth, with support and a review point | Evidence capture, so the growth is provable later |
| Sustained under-levelling | Months of next-level work treated as normal | A levelling conversation, not a pay conversation |
Duration and decision authority are what separate them. A stretch has an end. Under-levelling has an anniversary.
Document the change properly
One row per responsibility. This is the whole argument.
- Start date: when it actually moved to you
- Old responsibility: what the job description says
- New responsibility: what you now do
- Scope: budget, people, systems, regions, stakeholder seniority
- Frequency: daily, weekly, monthly, ad hoc
- Decision authority: what you decide without asking
- Impact: what it delivered or prevented
- Duration: how long this has been true
How to open the conversation
Neutral, specific, hard to deflect
- "My remit changed in February when the supplier work moved to me."
- "It has been steady since: weekly meetings, the forecast, and the risk reporting."
- "That is scope from the band above, so I would like to agree whether this is now the job."
- "If it is, I would like the level and the salary to reflect it. If it is temporary, I would like an end date."
Related questions
- Should I just stop doing the extra work?
- Rarely a good first move, and it usually costs you the evidence as well as the goodwill. Get the change named and dated first, and set an end point if it is genuinely temporary.
- How long is too long for temporary cover?
- There is no legal rule of thumb here, and it depends on your contract and employer. Practically, cover that passes two quarters with no end date and no review has usually become the job.
Turn the change into wording you can use
Build my pay-rise evidenceRelated guides
- Working above your pay grade
- Evidence for a pay rise
- Do you need a pay rise or a promotion?
- How to ask for a pay rise
Back to pay rises or all career guides.