How to write a memo for a salary increase?

How to contact management?

Reference. An internal memo is a piece of internal business correspondence with which employees officially notify senior management about something or approach them with requests and suggestions.

On the basis of official letters, important issues related to the work of the company and its employees, including their wages, are resolved. In order to change the employee’s actual salary, justification is required for the order, according to which the accounting department will make new payments. Documentation of the salary increase begins with the “service letter” about the salary increase.

You can find out more about what a memo is and how this document is drawn up according to GOST here.

Increasing your salary and your employee’s, what’s the difference?

The issue of increasing an employee’s salary can be initiated by the immediate supervisor, who is authorized to evaluate the effectiveness of his work. In this case, the job description regarding the salary increase is drawn up by the head of the department (manager). In an official letter, he appeals to a superior manager with a petition.

A personal request for a salary increase is also an adequate element of work culture, since every employee has the right to expect an increase in pay for effective professional performance. You can ask for a salary increase for yourself:

• by contacting your superior in person and supporting your visit with a corresponding official letter;
• leaving a memo request with the secretary of the head or office;
• by sending a letter about a salary increase via mail to the company’s address.

It should be noted that the employer can increase the monthly payments to the employee if the company has such opportunities, but he is not obliged to do this, especially if the request or demand was groundless or unconvincing.

Important! You can get the desired increase if you provide “iron” arguments in your memo regarding the applicant’s personal contribution to the company’s work, with which the employer agrees.

Features of salary increases for all employees

A salary increase can concern one employee or a group of subordinates, or the entire team at once. The second is due to indexing.

In Art. 134 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation establishes the employer’s obligation to carry out indexation once a year, which is associated with regular price changes and rising inflation.

In addition, the possibility of increasing salaries should be reflected in the clauses, as prescribed by the Labor Code of the Russian Federation. Instead of a collective agreement, you can also use local regulations (Regulations on bonuses or wages).

Some employers, who have the right to independently determine the frequency of such increases in remuneration, set a quarterly or semi-annual frequency. The head of the company also has the right to choose a specific date for the procedure. Most often, managers prefer to set the date for this process at the beginning of the current year.

The increase occurs simultaneously for all employees by a certain percentage or for some - by a specially calculated coefficient. The calculation of the second depends on many objective factors. The influence is exerted by the inflation rate, the minimum wage, the level of consumer prices, etc.

The organization must take into account the requirements of Art. 48 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, if it falls under the authority of an industry agreement and has not provided a written refusal to join the association of employers.

Drawing up a service letter

There are no uniform requirements for writing such a document, but it is advisable to adhere to a certain structure for writing it. The document must contain:

1. The name of the organization or division is indicated.
2. It is written who the note is intended for (full name of the responsible person).
3. It is clear who is the author of this official paper.
4. The name of the document and its intended purpose are indicated (in our case, an increase in salary).
5. The text of the official letter is given, reflecting the essence of the issue.
6. A request, demand, proposal is formulated.
7. The signature of the originator is available (if necessary, the resolution of officials).

An official memo about a salary increase, written in any form, is legally valid if all the necessary components are present.

Due to rising prices

One of the important situations in the presence of which there is a need to raise wages is a sharp increase in prices for various services or goods and the depreciation of the currency.

When writing a note based on these facts, you should rely on sources confirmed by the state. Since the inflation rate is set by the state. So when writing a memo, you must refer to confirmed facts and verified sources. It may turn out that prices have not increased throughout the country, but only in a certain region. Based on this, when drawing up a service record, it is necessary to confirm that at the current salary the employee’s quality of life is not enough for normal performance, and because of this it is worth raising the salary.

Primary requirements

Service letters are official documents, so when drafting them you should adhere to certain rules:

• Business information style of presentation - without metaphors, comparisons, lyrical digressions, or artistic design.
• Conciseness - information should be presented clearly, clearly, briefly, but succinctly (without “water”).
• Accuracy of factual data - the employee’s last name, first name, patronymic are indicated completely in accordance with the passport data; all dates and numbers must be accurate.
• Specificity - the desired salary amount is indicated in numbers, the start time of payments is a specific date (month, quarter).

On a note. It is advisable to prepare the document on a standard A4 sheet. It must be registered in a special journal and assigned a serial number.

Read more about the rules for preparing official memos in accordance with GOST, as well as what requirements apply to their writing here.

How to write a justification for a request?

An official letter about a salary increase, like other official memos, be it about the payment of money or a delay, consists of three main parts, coming sequentially one after another: the “head”, the “body” and the conclusion. In the header it says:

1. The position of the responsible person in the company to whom the document is addressed (in the dative case), last name, first name, patronymic of the addressee. For example: “To the director of the “Fantiki” confectionery factory, V.I. Sakharov.”
2. The position of the responsible person or employee who draws up the document, the surname, first name, patronymic of the compiler (in the genitive case). For example: “Head of the sales department Tsukerman Y.M.”

The “body” of the document is its main part (the title and text of the official paper).

The title includes the heading “Memorandum” and the subheading “on a salary increase” or “on an increase in official salary.” Further in the text, enter the last name, first name, patronymic, and position of the applicant for a salary supplement.

The text of the document must indicate:

1. Necessary information for a positive decision on this issue, which should relate to the business qualities and achievements of the employee.
   This may include brief information about what position the employee was hired for, how long he worked, how well he copes with his duties, what the effectiveness of his work is, how it affected the production efficiency of the enterprise. You can pay attention to personal characteristics related to work.
2. Justifications for a salary increase (increase in job responsibilities, overtime, advanced training, service to the company, end of the probationary period, possible inflation and price increases).
3. A proposal (request) for a salary increase (increase in official salary) indicating a specific amount in comparison with the actual salary (comparison with salaries for similar positions in other enterprises is possible).
4. Desired timing of payment increases.
5. Indication of the need to make changes to the staffing table.

Note! At the conclusion of the document, the position and full name of the compiler are written down with a transcript, and his personal signature is affixed.

The document must have the date and serial number under which it is registered. This data can be entered after the title, for example, “Official Memo” dated March 12, 2018 No. 57, or placed to the left of the “header” in the free field. If the letter was drawn up “for yourself,” before submitting it to higher management for consideration, it is advisable to enlist the support of your immediate supervisor by asking him to endorse the document.

The impact of increasing the minimum wage on workers' wages

The minimum wage is established by law. Based on Federal Law No. 421 dated December 28, 2017, the average minimum wage for 2020 in the Russian Federation is 9,489 rubles. or 85% of a citizen’s living wage. Compared to 2020, the minimum wage increased by 21.7%.

In accordance with Art. 133 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, each region of the Russian Federation sets its own minimum wage.

Based on Art. 133 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, the monthly income of an employed subject who has completed the work required of him during the reporting period should not be lower than the minimum wage. However, if a company is not subject to a regional minimum wage agreement, changes in the regional minimum wage do not affect the compensation of employees of a particular company.

Writing example

To the General Director of Panda LLC, Dmitry Petrovich Veselov, Head of the department for the production of soft stuffed toys, Alexey Fedorovich Sherstyuk 03/01/2018 No. 54.

An official memo about an increase in the official salary of Lyudmila Nikolaevna Tsvetkova, an employee of the machine embroidery workshop.

Tsvetkova L.N. hired on December 1, 2017 for the position of embroiderer in a machine embroidery workshop with a probationary period of 3 months.

The employee successfully passed the test and shows excellent productivity. Tsvetkova L.N. conscientiously fulfills orders in accordance with the requirements of designers. In addition, this employee is distinguished by her creativity, independently developing and proposing new creative ideas for product design. Thanks to her initiatives and work, in February 2020, our company received two additional orders for large quantities of toys “Iago Parrot” and “Pumbaa Pig”.

During her work, the embroiderer had no official penalties.

In connection with the above, I ask you to increase the salary of L.N. Tsvetkova. from 12,000 to 20,000 rubles from March 2020 and make appropriate changes to the staffing table.

Head of the department for the production of soft stuffed toys (personal signature) Sherstyuk A.F.

You can find out about the rules by which a memo is drawn up, as well as see a sample document, here.

In order for your appeal to be considered, you must correctly draft the memo. Read our articles on how to correctly write this document for dismissal, write-off of material assets, fixed assets, promotion of an employee, issuance of funds, combining positions, time off, purchase of goods, and hiring.

Due to the decrease

The employer has the right to change the salary downward if the enterprise faces adjustments regarding organizational and technical conditions. But even in this case, you cannot pay wages below the minimum wage. Otherwise, the worker’s situation worsens, and the Labor Code of the Russian Federation does not allow such an outcome.

Reducing employee salaries has clear legal restrictions

As for the manager’s actions, they will be as follows:

1. Issuing an order stating changes to the staffing table. Each employee must be familiarized with the order and signed.
2. Notifications indicating the reasons for the salary reduction are sent to employees no later than two months before the actual changes. Separately, opportunities to resign are provided for those who do not agree with the new provisions. The director is obliged to offer another suitable position to those who are not at all satisfied with the new salary. If the other party refuses the proposed options, the manager has the right to terminate the agreement.
3. An act of refusal is drawn up if the citizen does not agree to sign documents or get acquainted with them. The document is also required for situations where there is a refusal to perform work under new conditions.
4. An additional downgrade agreement is drawn up for those who agree. And also you cannot do without an order regarding changes in salary.