So many employees feel that their boss knows exactly what they want. Have you had conversations with your boss? Ask how you are doing? Share your goals with your boss?
As someone who has direct reports its my job to help give employees the tools to succeed, not to just give them raises because they have been there for a certain time period. If I have employees that don't share their goals with me or don't reach out to me to make sure they are on track then its safe to assume they don't see this as a career and are just there to take home a paycheck.
I would set up 1:1 meetings with your boss and track your progress in His/Her eyes and ask for feedback on how you can succeed at a quicker pace rather than asking for more money. If it were me I would ask you back why do you deserve more money? Do you have solid quantifiable goals that you reached?
Not trying to be hard on you, just maybe see it from the opposite side of the fence.
This is good advice.
I would not be afraid to ask for a raise. OP - you need to be ready to present to your boss why you deserve the raise however.
I am a salaried employee for a large corporation so yearly increases are built into the HR process. When I worked as a contractor it wasn't. After my first year I realized a raise was not a part of the process and that contractors' salaries stay the same year over year. I talked to my manager and got an increase pretty easily. The rest of the people I worked with did not ask as far as I knew and they stayed at the same pay rate.