So you’re wondering how to ask for a raise when you are underpaid. A million things have probably passed through your head: What’s the best way to handle it? Should I even do it? But here’s the deal: Asking for a raise has a snowball effect. Even a small pay increase will mean larger yearly raises and possibly larger bonuses in the future. It will also carry over to a new employer, who almost always asks: What was your last salary? Here’s what Linda Babcock, author of Ask For It, has to say about it: “I tell my graduate students that by not negotiating their job at the beginning of their career, they’re leaving anywhere between $1 million and $1.5 million on the table in lost earnings over their lifetime.” And that number doesn’t include retirement contributions, which are also based on a percentage of salary. “People wait to be offered a salary increase,” she says. “People wait to be offered a promotion. They wait to be assigned the task or team or job that they want. And those things typically don’t happen very often.”