[taprun]

There are only two reasons why people get big raises:

* They are friends with the person giving the raises.

* They are perceived as likely to produce significant value in the future for the person doling out the raises, but are in danger of leaving.

[cosmie]

There's a third as well:

The loss of them is perceived to open the person doling out the raises to significant risk in the future, and they're in danger of leaving.

Generally happens when someone is unexpectedly found to be in a mission critical role with little to no redundancy or contingency plans. Shortly after your big raise the company will start working in that redundancy and contingency planning, and once it's in place you risk being seen as an overpaid resource. Making it a somewhat risky avenue to get a big raise.

[_I-]

From my experience there's only one reason why people get big raises:

* They ask.