Salary Raises?

[txengineer]

I was given a salary raise yesterday - a "hefty" 3.5% increase... I understand that the economy has yet to fully recover, and management has been telling us all year that raises will be pretty much non-existent, so this pitiful increase isn't truly reflecting my performance. But still feel kind of bad...

What kind of salary raises have you seen in the last year or two?

[TD2K]

Last year we didn't get anything. This year I got 2.5% plus a 5% one-time bonus (the bonus doesn't change my base pay obviously).

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

This will be the third year where I've gotten a big fat 0%. I'd take 3.5% in a heartbeat.

[plugginaway22]

I am in year 3 of no increase. One $3000 bonus in the past 3 years. This summer I will be speaking to higher ups......

[HappyLady]

About 2% last year.

[Deleted]

I'll let you know this june but not expecting much... sales/profit are bad I hear.

[midjd]

I work for a state that has been under an unofficial salary freeze since early 2008. Earlier this year, the governor announced that some government employees would get a 1.5 to 3 percent raise... well, I don't know about the other agencies, but we got a "one-time bonus" of $500. The screeching from our office could be heard for miles

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

My wonderful DH is active duty military. Their raise for FY11 was 1.4% of base pay.

[txengineer]

Apr 1, 2011 21:37:56 GMT -5 TheHaitian said:

I'll let you know this june but not expecting much... sales/profit are bad I hear.

That's what I struggle with. My company still made very nice profit, so I have trouble agreeing with the low or non-existent raises.

[Deleted]

My company had a very successful 2010; profit numbers looked juicy. I got a 3.3% raise in March. I wasn't terribly excited, nor was I disappointed.

It's going to take a promotion or job change to get any real movement in my salary.

[stats45]

I'm filing this under things I've implicitly gathered on the board but never heard explicitly (that I remember), but I get the impression that more people see larger salary increases over time if they gather outside offers and are willing to change jobs multiple times over their career.

Would people say this is true? Does it depend on industry?

[Phoenix84]

There's been a two year cost of living adjustment freez in the federal government. They aren't giving us any COLA raises until an election year.

I still got a merit promotion however, so got an aproximately 12k/year increase. I did have to seek out employment with another agency and move to a new state.

[Deleted]

Apr 1, 2011 22:18:04 GMT -5 stats45 said:

I'm filing this under things I've implicitly gathered on the board but never heard explicitly (that I remember), but I get the impression that more people see larger salary increases over time if they gather outside offers and are willing to change jobs multiple times over their career.

Would people say this is true? Does it depend on industry?

I believe that most of the times, people get a big pump in salary by
a) getting a promotion
b) changing jobs/companies

I don't think those 20-50 % increases comes with a yearly raise/review.

[Phoenix84]

"Would people say this is true? Does it depend on industry?"

Yes. Moving between companies (or in my case agencies) leads to big salary increases. When you're in your job, people have a hard time seeing you doing anything else. When you seek out opportunities, those hiring see you as more than you are.

[schildi]

I got a ~ 20% raise this year (total comp). No promotion, no new job, it was just a surprise.
Around 3% the last few years.

[TD2K]

that more people see larger salary increases over time if they gather outside offers and are willing to change jobs multiple times over their career.

We had one engineer leave who got a very nice pay increase. Another left because she felt it offered better opportunities, pay was about the same.

[Deleted]

My company is in the third year of a base pay freeze. We have given bonuses based on profitability of the company. The overall bonus pool decreased by about 50% this passed fiscal year.

[morrisr2d2]

In my industry, significant salary raises come from promotions. Otherwise salary raises are made only for COL and competitiveness.

Me, I got a 4.35% salary increase this year after a 3 year freeze. But I don't focus on this, as my company has a very nice annual incentive compensation structure (bonuses).

[constanz22]

I work in county government (11 + years) and remember the days of contracts with 5, 6 and 7% increases...ha ha ha, will never see those again, I'm sure. Last year we worked almost the whole year without a contract which meant no raise. The new contract gave us 1%, retroactive...woohoo...This year and next year is 2% and years 4 and 5 are 3%. We do get an additional "longevity" bonus, paid in November, based on years of service. I think it's $800 for my level, which ends up being a little over $400 after they tax it as "additional income". Pretty pitiful, although I am thankful to still have a decent job, with fair pay and good benefits. With all the budget cuts, I'm not sure how much longer I'll have that...

[Jake 48]

no raise for the past 2 years, plus the budget got cut about 8%

[Deleted]

Annual increases have always sucked for me - the highest I think I ever saw was 3% and it hasn't been that high in the past 5-6 years. The last 2 years were no base increases and a small ($800) lump sum to everyone. But, such is the world of budget cuts.

The only way I have ever changed my salary in a meaningful way was to get promoted/change departments and, more recently, change employers.

[Deleted]

My company is also one of those that hands out big bucks only for promotions. They do vary the bonus from year to year. This year I got a little over 2% salary increase and a bonus increase that was another 1.5% of pay. Last year the boinus stayed level and so did my salary. The year before I got a 2% salary bump only because of an internal move.

I count my blessings. In their zeal to cut costs, some departments made everyone travel in Coach regardless of trip length. People 2 levels above me were flying to India in Coach. My boss' boss, a good guy who has also personally traveled to India, said we could still fly Business. I did. I kept it quiet and thanked him profoundly. I just had to remember not to post any "woo-ho! I'm flying upstairs on the 747 to Bangalore!" posts on FaceBook since my Coach-traveling co-workers were FB friends.

[olderburgher]

No raise the past 2 years for me but all of us in our family are working and have jobs so we all are getting a regular pay check. No whining as a result since I see too many others without jobs.

[nomngal]

No raises in the last 4 years, but low 4 figure bonuses for that time. Also took a $100/month pay cut 2 years ago. Just a few years to retirement, so as long as I have enough for expenses & retirement savings, I'm good.

[The J]

I've gotten my regular step increase, but there have been no raises for the last couple of years. We've been out of contract for several years now, so we'll see what happens -- there should be some retro raises in there whenever we actually get a new contract.

[cubefarmer]

Huge corporation - raise was 2.5%, plus one time Bonus of 2.5%, plus profit sharing of 1.25%.
Only way to get big salary jumps is to transfer within or job hop out of the company. Some people hop to a competitor for 6-12 months for a big increase and then come back here for another big increase. Very normal.

[Tiny]

No raise in 2009 - but did recieve the traditional merit bonus and holiday bonus. I received a 3.5% raise in 2010 as well as the traditional merit bonus and holiday bonus. I know (well, I hope!) some of my co-workers got bigger raises (or a bonus to make up the difference!) - they put in way more hours on their projects than I did on mine (I had a 'light project year' ie maintenance, while they had upgrades and new system installs and conversions. ) 2011 is a bigger year for me - conversions and a new install nothing too horrible so I don't think I'll merit a bigger raise... that's OK... I'm just hoping I get a raise as I'm doing actual work this year!

[parker1b2]

2009- Pay Freeze 0%
2010- Company Purchased laid off in March.
July 2010 excepted a new job making 10K less in base salary(20-30K less in overall comp)

2011- 0% do not qualify for a pay raise.

Very happy to be working and saving/investing.

[buster]

2010 - Promotion from supervisor to manager, 1% raise (seriously WTF)
2010 - New job, 30% raise - moved from MCOL to HCOL area
2011 - 1st year new job, 4.5% raise, 18.5% bonus (5-10% is the norm)

[Deleted]

Apr 2, 2011 12:05:54 GMT -5 cubefarmer said:

Some people hop to a competitor for 6-12 months for a big increase and then come back here for another big increase. Very normal.

Yep, quite popular with my job also lol ;D
They just go work for a competitor in the area for a year or so and come back to a new title and a nice increase.
To be honest, I had a 5 year plan when I accepted my current position (4 year left now) and if by then I am not were I projected to be salary/promotion wise I will definitely do the same.