Your biggest raise

[susanb]

What is the biggest raise percentage wise you have ever asked for?

What is the biggest raise percentage wise you have ever received?

[constanz22]

I work in county government, so, there is no "asking" for a raise. Rates are negotiated by our union. The early days, like the first few years I worked there were pretty awesome. I started in January, so I got both my annual raise and step increase at pretty much the same time. The step increase was 5% a year for the first 5 years, and when I first started, in 2000, we were in the middle of a pretty good contract. Annual raises were like 5,6,7%, so I had a few years of 10, 11, 12% raises. My income grew pretty quickly, which was nice cuz by the time they negotiated the next contract, much of government was hurting, the economy had shit the bed, and I think our annual raises were like 1, 1, 2, 3%. I don't think we've seen an annual increase over 3% since this early years.

[Ava]

I never asked for a raise.
The best raise I got was at my former job in the cafeteria. When I went from cashier to head cashier they gave me a 40% raise.
Last year I left the cafeteria to start working at the bank, and I got a 15% raise by switching jobs.

[chen35]

I've never asked for a raise.

The biggest raise I ever received was 33%, it came with an unexpected promotion and a lot more responsibility.

The biggest raise without a promotion was probably around 10%.

[kittensaver]

The biggest raise I ever got I gave to myself by switching jobs. My first year out of teacher training (early early 1980's), I got at job at a little Catholic school (teaching 1st graders) for $6,100 a year (yes, you read that right). After starving for a year, I got a job in a public school with a starting salary of slightly over $24,000. That's about a 400% raise . Even when I left teaching and went into business/industry I never made as large a leap as this one.

I've never had to ask for a raise. I've always been in work environments with formal Salary Plans (where raises are structured).

[happyscooter]

I got a bonus 2 years after starting at a company.  Early 80s.  It was $600.  They ranged from $200-600.  I have no idea why my boss decided to give me a high one.  Other than I was there every day, did my work, didn't complain, asked for additional work, dressed professionally, etc...

[plugginaway22]

went from 52K to 60K after no raises for 5 years, so maybe that doesn't count!

[thyme4change]

I got a 28% raise once.  The company had hired a few new people that were my peers, and they demanded more money.  I had access to payroll for analysis and budgeting reasons, so I would have found out after they worked there a month.  My boss bumped me up to their level, without me even asking.  Honestly, I didn't know what was going on.  I thought they were going to do layoffs because his door was closed a lot.  I had cleaned out my whole office, and was just sitting around waiting for him to come in, close the door and sit down.  So, the day he came in, closed the door, sat down and handed me a letter, I was already logging off and packing up.  The letter said I got a big raise.  It was April 1st, so I asked him if this was a joke.  As it turned out, the company was purchased and they immediately beefed up our staff.  I was so wrong on that one.

I loved that job.  It was kind of weird at that point, but after that it just got better and better.  I had a string of bosses, each one I liked more than the previous one.  And because I was the only one who lasted through the various shit storms, I was pretty valuable.  

[midjd]

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who has never asked for a raise! I work for state government, so short of hopping agencies and negotiating a new starting salary, we don't have much control over it. The largest raise I've received at my current job is 4.2% (my boss went up the chain to have my position reclassified at a higher level - one of the many reasons he is awesome).

When I went from independent contractor to FT employee here, my hourly rate stayed the same... if you factor in the cost of benefits, that was about a 25% raise. But my checks seem so much smaller now!

[cubefarmer]

I have never worked at a place where you "asked" for a raise. Every year everyone gets one and that's it. Same time every year. Non-negotiable. I think the biggest one was about 7%. The smallest 2% maybe.

[Deleted]

The biggest raise I got was 44% and it was due to a promotion. Within the same position the biggest raise I got was 20%.

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

50% due to a promotion.

[swamp]

$52k to $65k when I was public defender. 
I went from $33k to $52k when I went from Asst DA to Public Defender, but I don't consider that a raise since I switched jobs. 

[Deleted]

Proportionally, going from $3.50 per hour for babysitting to $5 per hour was my biggest raise.

[justme]

We get raises every year with our annual evaluation. Biggest was 15% and that was with a promotion (in name only, went from junior associate to just associate, no increase in duties/responsibilities). Without a promotion my biggest was effectively 7% - I had only worked there half the year so they prorated it to 3.5%, had I been there the whole year it would have been 7%.

[Deleted]

I earned $9 an hour and got a $3 an hour raise for the Christmas season for being willing to work in Fine Jewelry instead of Bridge.  It didn't go away after the season was over, and my manager said it was because our two depts. were related.  He arranged for me to keep it because he felt I deserved it.  Understand that raises in retail top out at maybe 45 cents per hour.

But my favorite raise was when the school system where I teach decided to factor in private school experience.  I have never known any school system to do this, but it was probably to hire a coach or something.  I got an immediate $6000 raise.  It wasn't as big a percentage as the retail raise, but it was honestly a lot of money since my then-BF had just moved out.  I was like, "Wow, God DOES take care of you."

[SVT]

I asked for a raise (didn't ask for a specific percentage) at my previous employer 1.5 years ago when making around $63k and received a 36.5% raise.  I believe I created a thread when it happened.  That was pretty nice.

I currently make about 45% more than that after changing employers almost 1 year ago.  That's including my 10% shift differential for every hour I work, though.  Not base pay only.

[Deleted]

biggest % jump came from a job change

i was hired through a headhunter company, and my salary was 85k at old job, and 135k at new one so 58% raise

that was 12 years ago.....

when i came here, it also jumped, but a smaller % that that one

each of my last three jobs i have been recruited through headhunters/placement agencies

so each had a nice raise associated with the move

[The Captain]

45% + 2 extra weeks vacation so about 49%

The firm I worked for at the time used to pay staff OT.  We worked a lot of it so it was a significant part of our paycheck.  In particular the engagement I was on was about 125% billable so sometimes we were taking home paychecks that were 2-3X's normal due to OT.

Then they eliminated the OT and gave everyone two extra weeks as partial compensation and a 15% pay adjustment.  I was also promoted during the same period and got a nice pay bump for that.

I'm simply not capable of working those kind of hours anymore but boy do I miss OT pay!

[HoneyBBQ]

My latest move to Seattle got me approximately a 30% (by salary) raise (plus ~7% on state income taxes) so around 37% effective pay raise. However, that's totally getting blown on childcare increases ( not quite doubling) and housing (doubling).

I've received in the neighborhood of 5-10% before when I received certain certifications.

[Abby Normal]

In my early years with my company, I had a boss who was a giant PITA and who did nothing. She played into office politics (it's a family business and there was much family involved at the time) and quite literally read magazines at work. It was awful.  I blew up one day and told her I was leaving. She said "give me two weeks notice". I said to consider it given and walked out the door.  The next morning I had a 30% raise.  I did all her work so she couldn't have me leave.

A year later, people were starting to abandon ship because of her.  Her boss ( a family member), pulled me aside and asked if I was considering leaving. I told him yes and he asked me to be patient and wait.  They fired her a month later (they had been documenting a bunch of things and had been getting their ducks in a row to let her go).  They gave me her job and another huge increase.   

Good times, man. Good times. 

[jeffreymo]

I've never asked for a raise.  I've received 13% one time for a promotion and 10% for another promotion.  My last 6 merit increases have been 3%.  If I were to leave my company for a similar position, I could probably get a 15% raise, but I'd lose 2 of the 4 weeks of vacation I currently have.

[souldoubt]

I've never asked for a raise.  My previous job they actually made cuts across the board because it was a non profit that was struggling.  I enjoyed the company and most of the people but it was struggling for the type of reasons that tell you to get out while you can unless you're near retirement.  A lot of the people there were lifers as long as the job would allow it but unfortunately that ended about a year ago when the company was absorbed by another company and most people were let go.  Started at my current job almost 6.5 years ago and since then my salary has more than doubled.  The biggest raise was probably ~30% when I got promoted after getting my license.  Since then I've had one more promotion that got me a decent size raise but there have also been pretty good COLA raises until recent years as it's tied to the market and inflation.  The next 6-18 months could really be interesting as I need to see where I see myself and if it's here then I will ask for a raise unless the company does it first.   

[Deleted]

3 years ago, my last promotion. It was a 50% raise.

[reader79]

About five or six years ago, I was feeling really depressed and ready to quit and go back to school. Our director was a real piece of work, she was into demoralizing people for fun in public. And frankly, I was sick of being the lowest paid person in the room. It's hard to focus on your work when you are giving instruction to people who make more than you.

Anyway, my manager went to the boss' boss (VP) to see about getting me a salary increase. Manager also went to HR and had them do salary research for my position in our market. Bottom line - even without my degree, I was way underpaid. The VP knew he was on his way out I guess, so he approved the change from about $34K to $55 (61%,) I may be off by a few $$. They did it in two steps, one in August to $42K, and a second in October. He (VP) had left by the time the second one was supposed to go through, so that took another month. I ended up getting a check in late November for retro pay covering the difference. Crazy lady director was fired not too long after that too. 

So, I never really outright asked for a raise, but by moaning about how I couldn't wait to leave and go back to school my manager worked to keep me around. He really, really didn't want to replace me, and frankly, it would have cost them at least $20K more to fill the position anyway. We have only had 1-3% raises in the years following, so I am just at $60.8K today.