I asked for a raise during my annual review. I was doing a good job. I was told by my reviewers I was doing a good job. I knew I was being paid less than my peers. They said no, but I don't think it count against me for asking. It can't hurt to ask. I wouldn't go in with I deserve it as your talking point (even if you do). I would try to point out how your role is important to the office, etc. It is not the greatest time, in terms of the economy, but I really the worst you can get is a no.

All of the questions you posed are good arguments for a raise. Working at an office for a while, getting positive reviews, getting licensed, getting a named promotion or a unnamed promotion (aka your duties changed).

sahar (and the op): quite true - it never hurts to ask. the only thing i'll contribute, being the person who has to make the decisions, is that raises, like everything, are tied to the revenues of the firm overall, probably to a greater degree than what you (in particular) are doing. if revenues are up, and you're contributing to that success, you absolutely should get a raise. 

right now, it's tough to draw generalizations about how certain firms are doing. in general, fees have been 'flat' the last few years, meaning, the overall budgets for projects haven't really reflected a lot of increase (even though some construction has); overall fee percentages are pretty flat as well. in that climate, it's tough to pay more unless the firm itself is getting more efficient and is able to do more work or spend less on overhead. even if all that is going well, firms may be paying down debt accumulated during the tough times, finally investing in upgrades to software, hardware, etc. or just putting money away in case the recovery remains anemic and/or their own work dries up. finally, there's the most important factor which is how much backlog (or future work) firms have and at what prices.

all of those pressures will contribute as to how confident firms feel in making raises. now, how you can improve your chances are to point out how you have helped the firm in addressing some of those things and/or what you (proactively) will be doing to help - making things more efficient and/or getting more done in less time are the obvious things.

Thanks guys ...I just had my review and we discussed responsibilities mainly ..he also discussed how bad the economy is and such so I didn't even bring up a raise ...I think I'm goin to ask when I get my license ..that should be a good tipping point

For me the real question is, "Do you honestly believe that you bring your firm more value than what you are compensated for?" If your answer is yes, enumerate the reasons why you believe this to be true and present it to them, regardless of the state of the economy, being registered or what have you. If you really do deserve a raise, you need to be more aggressive in pursuing it; no one is just going to hand you more money.

i think greg makes a great case why you shouldn't be offended if you don't get a raise, but I'd still ask every year.  I'm not an employer, but maybe someone else can speak about getting "pestered" once a year to evaluate a raise during these tough economic times.  Whether or not that makes people think less of you or something.  My thinking is that it's healthy for everyone involved. After working for another year, you should be more valuable to your firm. (If not, than there are other issues.)  And despite talking about increasing your level of responsibility (which is a good thing) but your wage gives your employer an incentive to find more value in you, which leads to yours and your firms growth.

I recently was pleasantly surprised that I received a raise after only being employed by this firm for 9 months.  Never,mind the fact that it was a TINY one - but hey - it was something....

IMO, it is every firm's responsibility to establish a firmwide plan and policy regarding when, and how, raises are issued. It is irresponsible for firms to let this be a piecemeal process -- expecting employees to "ask" for an adjustment. Compensation adjustments should be tied to annual performance reviews. In years when the firm is unable to provide raises, or is able to provide only very minor adjustments, it should be upfront about that with its staff.

Too much about compensation is treated as a state secret. Firms can be much more transparent without losing managerial discretion.

Firms that don't make some effort to provide a reasonable degree of compensation transparency will be the firms with the greatest number of defections by experienced staff once the economy starts to rebound.