By Cerri Pearson, Business Consultant
48% of UK workers are open to new roles. 20% describe themselves as actively unhappy. The question is not whether to act, it is what action to take.
The decision between asking for a pay rise and starting a job search is one of the most consequential calls you will make in your career, and most people make it on instinct rather than data. The Elevation 2026 Salary Survey gives you the market intelligence to make it deliberately.
The answer depends on three things: how far below market rate you currently are, whether your employer has the will and means to address it, and what the opportunity cost of staying is while you find out. Here is how to work through it.
Before you do anything else, benchmark your current salary against live market data for your role, level, sector and organisation size. The 2026 Salary Survey is built from real placements, not self-reported figures, and distinguishes between SME and corporate environments, which matter significantly.
In finance, Financial Controllers averaged £65,000 at SME level and £73,000 at corporate level. Finance Business Partners averaged £52,000 at SME and £69,000 corporately. In technology, Senior Business Analysts averaged £65,000. In HR, Employee Relations Managers averaged £75,000. In procurement, Category Managers averaged £55,000 at SME and £70,000 at corporate level.
If your salary sits within 5% of the market average for your role and environment, you are not underpaid, you may just feel it. If you are 10 to 20% below, you have a legitimate case. If you are further behind than that, the question shifts from whether to act to how quickly.
One nuance worth noting: across every discipline, premiums attach to specific characteristics rather than job titles. Professionals with transformation experience, regulatory accountability, commercial influence or scarce technical skills are priced above the average for their grade. If you carry those characteristics, benchmark toward the top of the range, not the midpoint.
A pay rise conversation makes most sense when the gap between your current salary and market rate is real but not extreme, when your employer has shown willingness to invest in the people they value, and when you genuinely want to stay. Job satisfaction, culture, career trajectory and flexibility all factor into this, not just compensation.
The most effective conversations reference market data rather than personal need. Saying you have benchmarked your salary against the market and comparable roles are typically paying a specific figure is a stronger frame than saying you feel you deserve more or that you need more to cover your costs. Employers respond to market information because it tells them something they need to know: whether they are at risk of losing you. Personal financial requirements are your problem to solve; market positioning is theirs.
Timing matters too. Post-appraisal windows, after a demonstrable commercial win, or during a period when the organisation is actively trying to retain people are all stronger positions than arbitrary moments. And be specific about what you are asking for, a number, not a direction.
One important point on pension: if your employer's base salary offer is fixed but their standard pension contribution is at the statutory minimum of 3%, asking for enhanced contributions is a legitimate and financially significant negotiation. Professional roles typically secured 5 to 6% employer contributions in 2025 and senior hires often achieved 7 to 10%. On a £60,000 salary, the difference between 3% and 7% is £2,400 per year before compounding. If the salary ceiling is genuinely immovable, this may be the more productive conversation.
A job search makes more sense than a pay rise conversation in several specific situations. If your salary is materially below market, meaning 15% or more, a single pay rise is unlikely to close the gap meaningfully. Employers rarely move by 15% in one adjustment and a 3 to 5% increase on a below-market base still leaves you behind.
If you have already had a pay rise conversation and been told it is not possible, or been given a below-inflation increase while the market has moved significantly, the message is clear. Staying and accepting it does not solve the problem, it defers it while the gap widens further.
If the gap is not just financial, a job search is also the right answer. The 2026 Salary Survey shows that candidates in 2025 applied sharper scrutiny to scope, reporting lines and decision-making authority, not just compensation. If your current role does not give you the commercial influence, career progression or working environment you are looking for, the pay rise conversation addresses the symptom, not the cause.
One data point worth holding: the professionals commanding the strongest offers in 2025 were not just benchmarking their salary. They were actively building cases based on specific outcomes: transformation experience, regulatory accountability and commercial impact. If your current role is not giving you those experiences, you may be accumulating a market positioning problem alongside a salary problem.
If you start a job search and receive an offer, your current employer may respond with a counteroffer. This happened frequently in 2025, particularly in engineering, manufacturing and technology where replacement cost is high and scarce skills are genuinely difficult to replace.
Before accepting, consider what has actually changed. Has the salary gap been addressed because your value is now genuinely recognised, or because your employer is trying to avoid the disruption of replacing you? Will anything else change, including the scope, the career trajectory and the reasons you looked in the first place? And will accepting the counteroffer affect how you are perceived within the organisation going forward?
Most people who accept counteroffers leave within twelve months. The reasons that drove them to look do not disappear because the salary improved. That does not mean never accept. Sometimes the market has genuinely corrected an oversight and staying is the right call. But go in with clarity about what has actually changed, not just the number.
The clearest path to the right answer is honest self-assessment on three questions. Am I materially below market rate? Does my employer have the will and means to address it? And do I genuinely want to stay if the compensation is fixed?
If the answers are yes, yes and yes, have the conversation. If any of those answers is no, the job search is the more productive one. You can always choose not to take an offer. You cannot undo the cost of not looking.
For a confidential conversation about your market position and what your skills are worth in the current market, our specialist consultants work across every discipline in the survey.
