It’s possible that I made more as a new hire than my experienced peers. They had some really great knowledge and skills, but I had the engineering degrees that my corporation favored. It probably was not fair, but that’s how things were done there. The interesting thing is that they were absolutely shocked at the costs of local rents (about $400/month in 1984), much higher than mortgages for the houses they had purchased years earlier
Yes, young workers are absolutely encouraged to switch jobs to get promotions and wage increases. Our S has been encouraged in this manner, as have several other young adults we know well.
That said, if your skill set is highly appreciated, sometimes a supervisor can go above and beyond to keep you and get you a promotion and salary increase (or retention bonus.) H was able to get a nice promotion and salary boost by a supervisor who was struck by how much he did above and beyond his job description.
When H tried to and did retire, he was rehired for the max 6 months he’d agree to as they sorely needed him.
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it is making those that have given the company years of work feel undervalued
Employees are seldom “valued” by employers anymore, at least not larger ones. In the modern workforce they are seen as just a cost that is best minimized. Like buying any other office supply. It’s not personal, and you shouldn’t expect to find your sense of worth in recognition from your employer. In doing a job well and proudly, sure, but in admiration from your employer, well, that ship sailed long ago for most people. You may think of your job as personal, and I don’t doubt you’ve build many close connections among colleagues, but as you’ve discovered your employer most assuredly does not see it as anything personal.
I believe I could get more elsewhere, but don’t want to lose my built up PTO, current drive to work is 1 mile, like my physicians, and at my age really don’t want to learn another EMR
Sounds like you’ve made your choice, and now you understand why a company that cares mostly/only about the bottom line thinks it can do it. That said, there is one thing you can try but it comes with a big caveat. Don’t try to negotiate by saying you’re thinking of “looking”. Go get another job offer or two. Then give notice, and when they ask you why you explain you like working there but got another offer for $X elsewhere and your family needs the extra income. The caveat is that if they shake your hand and wish you well then you have to be prepared to leave. In an early job that I stayed at too long I found out later one guy I worked with did this every 2-3 years and he was able to keep up with the market pay rate while staying at the same job. Sadly I was not as savvy and paid dearly for it.
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Major law firms are paying out serious up-front bonus money for experienced associates in corporate (mostly M & A work). Typical signing bonus is $75,000 while the largest confirmed signing bonus this year is reported to be $250,000.
Major accounting firms are also paying more for experienced associates. Stay put & get a 5% pay raise, move to another firm and get a 25% pay raise.
Wow, never heard of a quarter of a million signing bonus! That’s pretty huge in most of our worlds!
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Reading about a lot of $100,000 signing bonuses for biglaw corporate lawyers in their 5th year/6th year. Total cash compensation for the year would composed of base salary +signing bonus + year end bonus = $470,000 approximately if the person received a 100k sign on bonus.
Biglaw firms doing M&A just need experienced bodies. Many firms are turning down very lucrative work due to a manpower shortage.
Current attorneys receive one or two retention bonuses in addition to usual year end bonus, but the retention bonuses are in the $5,000 to $25,000 range from what I have read in multiple reports.
Wonder what they tell them as far as partnership/long term prospects are concerned? Lateral partners often have their “book of business” and junior associates have time to work into the partnership track. I guess it depends on how long the track is today (7-8 in my day), so going in as a 5th year lateral has some risks that you will be treated as a contract lawyer (a very well compensated one though) since others will have had 5 years to cultivate relationships with key partners whose support are necessary come partnership time. Probably also makes a difference if you are going up, staying even or going down a tier or two in firm reputation/profitability.
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D1 has been at her firm since out of college. Every year for her year end review and compensation discussion, D1 always tactfully shared market rates with HR and her supervisor. She lets them know her expectations based on her performance. The HR is appreciative of her “market analysis” because it’s something they could take to their management.
I recently resigned from my position because they expected me to be on site 3 days a week now. I told them there was no need for me to be in the office to perform my job and it was a hardship for me. When I resigned to take on another job in closer to my home they offered to make my position remote permanently, but by then it was too late.
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It’s not just new hires who are being paid more. Some health care workers can earn more than double their pay by doing temp or travel work. They definitely earn more than the employed folks where they work. One person we know is a supervisor and senior employee. She gets paid almost half of what a traveling person does who works at her CCRC.
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D1 has been at her firm since out of college. Every year for her year end review and compensation discussion, D1 always tactfully shared market rates with HR and her supervisor.
I worked at several megaCorp and they take part in salary surveys with their peers. You could ask to see the survey or, in later years, just view it on the internal HR site. It was a good way to see where you were for your pay grade.
Are traveling nurses paid benefits? My impression was that you worked as a traveling nurse or per diem because then you weren’t paid any benefits. That’s why they pay so much more.
I know a couple, she’s a full time employee, he works as a traveling nurse. She carries the health insurance for both.
If you work for a traveling agency, some actually do have benefits.
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My mother was in the hospital in March and several of the nurses taking care of her were traveling. They stay 1 month in each city, get paid $10k, and get housing (usually in a long term hotel suite). I think most work through an agency so would be considered an employee and get benefits.
But then isn’t the premium for travel nurses because travel to locations of need is required? While that may be desirable for nurses who like business travel, the premium pay level suggests that being on a business trip all the time is not a desired feature for most nurses (and hence a premium pay level is necessary to attract people to do it).
That seems like a different situation from the main subject of this thread, which is that of new regular employees being paid more than current regular employees with similar skills in similar jobs.
@ucbalumnus I said in my post “it’s not only new hires who get paid more”.
I guess I should have started another thread…so let’s drop this subject and get back to new hires getting paid more than current workers.
Here are my two rules:
- No company will pay you more than it has to; and
- No company pays you based on your past contributions.
" Starbucks will give hourly workers a raise this October, and raise the minimum wage to at least $12 in all stores. Employees hired before July 2021 will receive a 5% raise, with tenured partners getting a 6% raise. … Workers have left the retail industry this year to escape difficult customers and low pay."
This seems at least fair to give new hires a fair wage but ‘old’ employees just a little bit more than new hires, compensating them for their experience. My daughter is excited!
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In my experience, those salary surveys are fairly general. If you have very specific and highly desired skills then those salary surveys may not do be reflective of the right pay for you.
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Reports indicate that nurses in South Dakota Covid units are being offered at $150 an hour. Not sure as to whether or not housing, travel, and benefits are provided. Same report showed work from home nurses earn $35 an hour. If I recall correctly, this was on CNN three days ago.
South Dakota has a severe shortage of nurses due to high rates of hospitalization related to Covid. (Although the story may have been on CNBC.)
The nurse interviewed stated the $150 per hour rate as well as the $35 hour rate for WFH. The news network host stated $150,000 per year. I recall calculating the yearly rate at slightly over $170,000 when listening to the report. (Was multi-tasking at the time, however.)
P.S. Median pay for nurses in South Dakota is $55,650 which is the lowest in the nation.
NBC news reports that traveling nurses-which now number 50,000 nationwide–as being offered $6,200 per week in New Jersey and $8,000 per week in Fargo, North Dakota.
For most locations, base pay is $95 per hour with some nurses earning as much as $10,000 per week according to NBC news. Lots of overtime available in the Covid units.
Yup, I check Glassdoor every once in a while and its estimate has been about 50-60% low for me for years. In my case I think it’s due to where I live, but I work remotely so it doesn’t appear to take that into account.
Any employees’ best way to assess their true market value is to test the market every once in a while and get an offer. Most companies will bridge your seniority if you leave then come back later, and having broader experience also serves to make you more valuable even to your original employer.