<prompt> Human: I should be up for a promotion in the coming few months. I easily have the skills to be promoted right now, but my company seems to do anything in its power to stop lower level employees from advancing. For example, I easily have the skills of the next position above me, and about half of the skills 2 positions above me. But I need to have 2 years experience for the next position, so I cant be promoted.Over the past 12 months, we have had almost every person at my level and one above quit, leaving a void. We have hired a bunch 10 or so of employees one level below me. Furthermore, I have skills and interests that only 2 or 3 other people have in an office of 50. We are also about 10 employees short of making all of our obligations for completing work. One of my coworkers just received a promotion, and a shitty pay increase, Im guessing about 5. I assume that Ill get something similar, and I view that as unacceptable. I am looking for a 10 increase. Would it be rude of me to to negotiate a pay increase with the person congratulating me on getting promoted? I would make the argument that my skillset, interests and experience fill a void which has grown larger over the past year or so, and that I easily have half the skills of the position above me. Its not that I dont like my job or anything. My team is great, my manager is great, but there is this barrier between lowermid level employees like myself with regards to salary, advancement criteria, and bonuses that seems to be impenetrable and I do not like this one bit. TLDR; hopefully getting promoted soon. Should I use the fact that many experienced employees quit, only to be replaced by inexperienced employees to my advantage when negotiating a salary increase?  <response>: The ones quitting are smart. You should go get yourself a pay raise at another company. Dont beg for a raise, go get one. 