How do you run a pay review?

Share each role’s range with managers, collect their proposals with a reason for each, check the total against the budget and similar roles against each other, then have managers tell each person before the letters go out.

What is a typical pay increase budget?

WorldatWork found US employers’ average salary increase budget was 3.7% in 2025, with 3.6% expected for 2026.

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Onboarding and playbooks

Pay review plan

A plan for a pay review run with managers: they propose changes for their team, HR checks budget and fairness, then each person hears first.

New playbook. Opens a new playbook with these steps and timings. Each person’s steps wait for your approval before they send.

Use in Shuffl

A pay review is decided by managers, checked by HR and felt by everyone. The order matters: proposals, checks, conversations, then letters.

This plan runs with your managers as the people on it. They propose changes, HR checks budget and fairness, and each person hears from their manager before the letter.

Shuffl · HR by the numbers

Pay decisions, explained

Source: WorldatWork, July 2025¹Download PNG

Pay review: propose changes for your team

To the manager, on the date you pick.

**Pay review: propose changes for your team**

Proposals are due in two weeks. Check each person against the range for their role, and give a reason for every change.

- [ ] Check each person’s pay against their range
- [ ] Propose changes with a reason for each

Pay proposals are due in four days

To the manager, 10 days after the date you pick.

**Pay proposals are due in four days**

If you have already sent them, there is nothing more to do.

Check manager’s team proposals

To HR, 14 days after the date you pick.

**Check {{hire}}’s team proposals**

- [ ] Check the total against the budget
- [ ] Check similar roles are paid alike
- [ ] Approve, or send back with a reason

Tell your team about their pay

To the manager, 28 days after the date you pick.

**Tell your team about their pay**

Each person should hear from you before the letter arrives, with the reason for the decision.

- [ ] Talk to each person on your team

Send pay letters for manager’s team

To HR, 30 days after the date you pick.

**Send pay letters for {{hire}}’s team**

- [ ] Send each change in writing
- [ ] Update payroll before the next pay date

How to adapt it

Shuffl fills in {{hire}} and {{manager}} for each person. Replace them by hand if you send the message yourself.
Share each role’s pay range with managers before proposals open.
Compare similar roles across teams before you approve anything.

What the research says

Budgets are tight. US employers’ average salary increase budget fell from 3.9% in 2024 to 3.7% in 2025, and they expected 3.6% for 2026, according to WorldatWork’s survey of 1,774 organizations.¹ With little to share, how decisions are explained matters as much as the amounts.

What the law requires

In the EU, the pay transparency directive lets workers ask in writing for their own pay level and the average pay, by sex, of people doing the same work or work of equal value.² California requires employers with 15 or more employees to give a current employee the pay scale for their own position on request.³

In the US, the NLRB says policies banning employees from discussing pay are unlawful for employees the National Labor Relations Act covers.⁴

Common mistakes

Letting people learn about their raise from a letter before their manager.
Approving proposals without comparing similar roles across teams.
Giving changes without reasons managers can repeat.
Banning people from talking about pay.

Common questions

How do you run a pay review?: Share each role’s range with managers, collect their proposals with a reason for each, check the total against the budget and similar roles against each other, then have managers tell each person before the letters go out.
What is a typical pay increase budget?: WorldatWork found US employers’ average salary increase budget was 3.7% in 2025, with 3.6% expected for 2026.
Can employees discuss their pay?: In the US, the NLRB says rules banning employees from discussing pay are unlawful for employees the National Labor Relations Act covers.

Sources

Read on October 13, 2026. Laws change, so check the source before you act. This page is general information, not legal advice.

WorldatWork, 2025 salary increase budgets moderate; 2026 projections indicate further contraction (2025-2026 Salary Budget Survey), July 2025. Survey data collected March 3 to April 15, 2025, from 1,774 organizations, giving 4,250 unique country responses.
EUR-Lex, Official Journal of the European Union, Directive (EU) 2023/970 on pay transparency, May 2023. Primary legislation. Articles 5, 7, 9, 10 and 34 (transposition by 7 June 2026).
California Legislative Information, California Labor Code § 432.3, Amended by Stats. 2025, Ch. 468 (SB 642), effective January 1, 2026. Primary statute. Subsection (c)(3) requires employers with 15 or more employees to include the pay scale in job postings; (c)(2) covers current employees’ requests.
National Labor Relations Board, Your right to discuss wages, Accessed September 2026. Federal regulator guidance under the National Labor Relations Act.