Value a very quiet increase in salary (8)
I believe the answer is:
appraise
'value' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'a very quiet increase in salary' is the wordplay.
'very quiet' becomes 'pp' (musical abbreviation for pianissimo).
'increase in salary' becomes 'raise' (getting a raise is getting an increased salary).
'a'+'pp'+'raise'='APPRAISE'
(Other definitions for appraise that I've seen before include "Assess or evaluate" , "To gauge the worth" , "Judge" , "Consider comprehensively" , "Decide the value or quality of" .)