Negotiating pay for an internal promotion or transfer

Why internal moves get smaller uplifts

An internal promotion often comes with a smaller rise than the same step would bring if you changed employer. The reasons are usually structural rather than personal. Rises are often calculated as a percentage on top of your current pay, rather than from what the new role pays. Budgets for internal moves may be set before anyone looks at the market. And your employer knows you are not currently looking elsewhere.

Timing plays a part too. A promotion decided just after the annual pay round may have its rise held back until the next one, so ask when pay for the new role is set, and whether the change can be backdated to the day you start the new responsibilities.

You do not have to accept the first figure. Move the conversation from "how much more than now" to "what does this role pay".

Benchmarking the new role, not your old pay

Start by finding out what the new role is worth:

• The internal band. Many larger employers and public sector agencies have a pay band for each role. Ask HR or your manager where the new role sits and where in the band you would start.
• The market. Look at ads for similar roles that show pay, and at recruiters' salary guides for your field. Compare on the same basis, including KiwiSaver and any bonus.
• The last person in the role. You may not be told what they earned, but it is fair to ask whether you would be paid in line with others doing the same job.

Since 27 August 2025, employees in New Zealand are protected when they discuss their own pay or ask colleagues about theirs, so it is safer to ask, although no one has to tell you. Our guide to asking for a pay rise covers where to find reliable pay data.

The case built from your wins journal

An internal candidate has one big advantage: evidence. You can show what you have already delivered, often including parts of the new role that you have been doing informally.

Pick three or four results that match what the new role needs, with numbers where you have them: work you led, problems you solved, people you trained, money or time you saved. Connect each one to a responsibility of the new role.

The demo opens with no account and shows Your Career with a record already in it: wins with the numbers they moved, a pay record, and a pay review date with reminders six and two weeks before. From the wins, and a goal you have set, Your Career can draft a promotion case and a pay case, which you then edit in your own words.

Bands, regrades and review dates

Where pay is set by bands or a collective agreement, the room to negotiate is usually about where you start in the band, not whether you are in it. Ask for a starting point that reflects the experience you bring, and ask how and when you move up.

If the new role is really a bigger version of your current one, a regrade may be more appropriate than a promotion, and it is worth asking whether your role has been assessed against the band at all. Our guide to performance reviews in New Zealand explains how review cycles usually work and when pay decisions are made.

When to take the title and revisit the money

Sometimes the budget genuinely cannot stretch this year. Taking the role anyway can still be the right choice, because the title and the experience make the next step easier, inside or outside the organisation. If you do, protect yourself:

• Ask for a pay review at a fixed date, such as six months after you start, and have it written into the letter confirming the move.
• Agree what you need to deliver by then, so the review is about results rather than goodwill.
• Put the date in your calendar, and start building the case a month before.

If the review then comes and goes without a change, you have a clear record to take to the next conversation, or to your next employer.

Build the case before the conversation