I work in a mid sized national company in IT and do well for myself, over 6 figures but I’ve requested an additional raise.
I have access to the salary data of everyone at each of our local branches, and I’m essentially asking for what each local branch owner makes (~200k), while also knowing that the hourly workers are still barely getting $1-2k raises.
I’m all for eating the rich, but how’s this figure into the mental model?
On one hand, the “rich owners” turned out to not actually be that rich, at least salary wise. I’m comfy, but inflation has been a bitch.
On the other hand, I’m asking for a raise while others who work manual intensive jobs are still struggling, and this amount of money could be going those at the working hourly.
Hoping this drives some interesting conversation and not some attack thread.
Never feel bad about asking for a raise that you work for/deserve. Stay complacent, and they’ll just hope you never bring it up. Workers should have the power and leverage.
If the boss make $5 while I make $0.05, I never feel bad about demanding, not asking, for a raise, and if I don’t get it, I quit and go to a place that will give it. Have walked out on jobs the day I was denied multiple times and never have regretted it.
Damn, ballsy. I definitely abide by that unwritten rule that the best time to find a new job is while you still have one. Happy it never negatively impacted you, but I have a kid that depends on me, can’t really risk that unless I think I can find something in a matter of weeks, even days… I do have some emergency savings, but I’d rather it be for actual emergencies (firing/layoffs, sickness, whatever) than me quitting.
I’d rather start doing the bare minimum and continue sucking off the maximum amount of money I can from an employer I hate out of pure spite lol. If they’re not happy with it, they can fire me, and I’d at least get access to the unemployment I’ve been paying those taxes for anyway.
A) Never feel bad about asking for a bigger cut of the money they make off of your labor
B) lmfao how are you making so much more than me. I’m a senior engineer at an IT company haha
Depends on the company size and location. I’m on a small dev team but we service the entire company (national). As a result, any product we put out has a huge potential. Last year, I put out a product and spent this year marketing it and improving it for the users. In just about a year, it’s become the most adopted product in our company and really changed the workflow for our end users.
You can feel bad if you not getting the raise helps the other employees you’re feeling bad for. That of course never happens. The only party gaining by you not asking for a raise is your employer.
This is the answer. If declining the raise could somehow increase the pay of other workers, I’d be all for it. But it won’t.
You can hate the game and still play it well, OP
You absolutely should not feel bad about doing this. Ever.
If anything, you should talk about it and share your experience, because your experience could help some of those who work manual intensive jobs and are still struggling to get raises of their own.
Remember: If the company isn’t able to fairly compensate its workers, it doesn’t get to have workers. That’s how supply and demand works.
I have a small tech business. Ive had employees make more than me. It was because I saw that they were important for the business now and I’m in it for the long haul. At the same time, I’ve had mediocre people ask for raises. It helped me realize that I probably needed a different person in their position. So you should feel guilty but you do need to realize it’s a risk.
This isn’t all or nothing. If you are in a position to do so, you can both advocate for yourself AND go to management with data suggesting that your coworkers are worth more. If you’re in a leadership role, you have the opportunity and the duty to advocate for your coworkers.
Do you feel you are being paid fair value for your work?
If not ask for a raise or look for a new job. Note that for the last 20 years in the US it has been shown to be easier to get a raise by changing jobs than asking for one.
Anecdotally, that’s what I did. 30% raise and my boss did not even try to match. Just started shit talking the competitor I was going to lol
You’re the only person who will ever advocate for your own well-being. A business has an entire workforce that advocate for their well-being.
Collectively advocate even! Some sort of group, a “union” of like minded employees we could call it
Boss’s kids got some horrible incurable disease? All of them? Maybe feel a little bad but you earned it so don’t.
When you make more than the people working harder and doing more than you.
Writing code in a comfy office versus someone doing brain numbing manual work on their feet means most devs would hit that day 1.
I think the assumption that management makes more money than labourers is archaic. You likely produce significantly more value than your manager.
I don’t want you to feel guilty for asking for what you’re worth, but it’s good that you are thinking about those that also work hard and aren’t getting paid as much.
Does your company have a union? If it doesn’t, if you want to help those poorer than you, you can spend time looking into how to start one.
I am not responsible for management’s decisions regarding how much to pay their workers.
I feel bad that many people working hard do not earn enough money, for various meanings of “enough”.
Both are independently true statements.
