Promotion is a significant objective indicator of career success. However, there is an increased tendency for people to turn down promotion opportunities, and the reasons for these rejections vary. This study explores why people decline promotions and develops a multi-dimensional scale to measure these reasons. Drawing upon the careers literature, we validated the new scale of the reasons for promotion refusal and delineated its dimensions and conceptual boundaries. By establishing the reasons for the promotion refusal scale, we could offer insight into individuals' concerns about promotion across cultures and guidance on how organizations better motivate and develop their employees.