When was your last cost of living raise?

[OldTengu]

No.
7/hr of that was same duties. The other 4 came when I changed jobs.

I feel like I need to qualify this answer a little bit.
I got a 4/hr raise when I left Home Depot. After 90 days or so of my new gig, I got another 7/hr. By the company's admission, some of that was due to ability and performance. More of it was because they didn't want me to leave.
I oversee roughly a dozen old (OLD) commercial buildings downtown. They all have lots of problems. Keeping them from catastrophic breakdown is like herding cats in a tornado of chicken and salmon while on a unicycle with a sail. They were a bit scared that I was going to leave for another gig that paid more and was less work (I was). They gave me a raise to more than the gig I was looking at.

Tl;dr I got a raise because I'm good enough at my job that my employer, with good reason, thought I was going to leave because I left my resume up on indeed and got a better offer than they were giving me. So they countered with more money.

 

[sobo]

I get a pay raise just about every year. Doesn't keep up with inflation but it helps. I'm not complaining.

Same here - every year, 2.5% to 3%, like clockwork, but not keeping up with inflation.
In 2021, I got a mid-year 1% bump as well. Not complaining...

 

[partsed]

Everyone took a pay cut in 2008 with the promise that when things got better we'd all go back to what we were earning… Never did get it back and neither did anyone else…

 

[Ducati_Meister]

For 2021 it was a 1.5% wage increase, and per our tentative agreement with the union (IBEW local 77) and the County, pay raise will be in '22, '23 and '24, a 3% annual raise. Better than a kick in the butt as my dad would say, and when I look at the big picture with having a decent gig, benefits and all, I can't complain much.

 

[Gunbuggy]

Ibew local 48 gets 3.50 an hour this year and next on our checks totaling 53.85 per hour 2022 / 57.35 in 2023.
Not bad for "Trade School "
On the flip side with bidens inflation I'll be giving most of that back

Fellow 48 member here. I enjoyed that. I do wish it went all on the pension but I do like seeing a little extra change, but hate that Biden will be sniffing even harder at my checks

 

[made in china]

Actually, I received a bit of a pay cut.

Had to change jobs because I wouldn't comply with a mandate. However, lower Union dues and different tax bracket means my take home is basically close to before.

Last job had somewhat low COLAs (2%), although we were pretty high up on the pay scale.

New job has automatic 3.5 COLA each year.



However, we have been becoming steadily poorer for at least the last 10 years, and this last year is a downward spiral.



There's a COLA index used for setting our Union negotiated COLA, it's either CPI-U or CPI-W. Unfortunately, neither CPI truly reflects the issues my family faces in Snohomish county:

Rising property taxes

Rising snoco sales taxes (nearly 11%)

In 2016 our car tabs went from $80/yr to +$500/yr for RTA

Forced into buying "long term care" insurance by WA state government

Rising costs of everything.

New and used cars ridiculously expensive now (what do you do if your current vehicle dies completely or is totalled?)



The CPI basis is only locked to a few items that really don't indicate inflation very well.

I think the most generous CPI states inflation is "7%"

If we looked at the older 1980 inflation tracker, SGS alternate CPI, it shows current inflation at 15% for 2021.

 

[sobo]

In 2016 our car tabs went from $80/yr to +$500/yr for RTA

Regional Transportation Authority?

Who can afford $500+ per year to register/renew tabs on vehicle these days?

 

[made in china]

Regional Transportation Authority?

Who can afford $500+ per year to register/renew tabs on vehicle these days?

Yup. My co-worker literally lives 300' outside of it and only pays $90/yr each for his newer Cadillacs.

I remember when it first occurred, I had just bought a new car in Dec 2015, MSRP 32k, paid 28k, tags were only $80 for the first year. Next year, I find out that my tags would be $550, and again the NEXT year after that the tags would again be over $500. Turns out, DOL and RTA were STILL calculating the tag tax based on MSRP of $32K, they are supposed to depreciate the costs, but they weren't. Later, when I went to sell the car, it was only worth $16K but I was still being taxed on MSRP from years earlier. This issue pissed off a bunch of people.
Oh, and BTW it's for regional light rail, which won't be in my area until after I am retired. Actually, now with all of the delays and cost increases, my area has been delayed even further past my retirement, so I get the honor of paying for something I can't use.

Not reflected in my COLAs!

 

[TTSX]

Usually get one every year. Did not last year, might not this year. I think companies are bracing for economic impact

 

[Ducati_Meister]

Regional Transportation Authority?

Who can afford $500+ per year to register/renew tabs on vehicle these days?

The crooks known as Sound Transit and the idiots who voted for this crap is why the car tabs are so expensive now. However when the voters said they wanted lower tab costs after realizing how expensive it was, as I understand it, king county filed a suit and basically had the votes overturned, so the high tab costs we're stuck with. A $54 billion project that I'm sure is way more than that now.

The other thing was, as another member said, their BS depreciation formula they use based on the MSRP, not the market value of sorts, so it's their slimeball way of getting their million bucks out of you. I leased my car, but I'm still paying nearly $900 a year on a piece of aluminum with adhesive to appease the overlords at DOL and Sound Transit. What a screw.

 

[The B]

ive never had a job where raises are automatic on any level... everything is negotiated for, and then renegotiated for again when one feels one ought be making more. so my experience is gonna be different than some posting here.. but i just have two things to contribute to the conversation:

1. ive gotten every raise ive ever asked for, and i never was shy about asking. i know for a fact ive made more than other more productive and/or qualified people ive worked with simply because they were uncomfortable asserting themselves and i just.... never have been. despite not always even being the best at what im doing.

2. employer/employee responsibility with regard to compensation us simple: as an employer, their job is to get as many calories out of you for dollars paid as possible. as an employee, your job is to get as many dollars paid for as few calories spent as possible. these are your respective responsibilities when it comes to salary, and you have no one but yourself to blame if the scales are out of balance. if youre not getting paid enough, you are obligated to yourself to ask for a raise- do it! its not hard, employers expect it, they can deal with it, they will NOT think youre stupid or greedy (even if they do in fact act like it to keep their employees from asking), and your boss will surely respect you more- not less- for knowing your value and asserting yourself.

ive been an employee and an employer... and spent quite a bit of time in both spots. i speak the truth, brothers. ask for that raise you KNOW you deserve. you'll probably get it!

 

[rupey7]

2020 3.5% cost of living
2021 4.5% cost of living / 5% merit

 

[oremike]

July 1st of this year, min wage is going up .75 cents an hour in the metro area. I will hold off on making any big decisions until then. I am not looking for a raise just for myself, I am wanting a raise for all employees. There are only 9 employees total.

I started working here in 1988 at 17 years of age. Tried leaving a few times but always came back. I'll be 51 soon and starting fresh again has near zero appeal to me. I am going to have a lot of boxes that will need to be checked to change employer. Let's hope the economy holds up and unemployment rate stays low.

08 happened and I lost my job, I was 52 years old. 2 years later I had an AAS in Water Conservation and was working for the Coos Bay District of the BLM. 6 years later combined with my military service I had 10 years in and was over 59 1/2 years old. Those are the magic numbers for a government retirement so I did and started my ammo business.

 

[Gunbuggy]

08 happened and I lost my job, I was 52 years old. 2 years later I had an AAS in Water Conservation and was working for the Coos Bay District of the BLM. 6 years later combined with my military service I had 10 years in and was over 59 1/2 years old. Those are the magic numbers for a government retirement so I did and started my ammo business.

When you worked for blm, how many businesses and communities did you end up burning down?


Oh wait sorry wrong blm

 

[CLT65]

Same here - every year, 2.5% to 3%, like clockwork, but not keeping up with inflation.

That's us too. They don't do anything outside of that. Asking for a raise outside of a role change will get you exactly nowhere, ever.

There are advantages and disadvantages to living in a more rural area. The big disadvantage is that I can't just go across town and get a better job. I could easily find something better in Portland/Beaverton/Hillsboro if I wanted to move or drive a much longer commute.

I turned down a really good job on-site at Intel a couple years ago. I'll always wonder if that was a mistake, but primarily I didn't want to give up my 10 minute commute for a 60 minute commute. I really value my time at home with my family. I also don't care to be any closer to the Portland area than we already are.

 

[sobo]

That's us too. They don't do anything outside of that. Asking for a raise outside of a role change will get you exactly nowhere, ever.

Yeah, I don't expect much more than 2.5% - 3% COLAs at this stage in my career without taking on some sort of executive leadership role, which I just don't feel like doing. I make enough money at this point that if they were to give me 5% raises every year, I would be too expensive to bill out to clients anymore and then wouldn't have any work to bill to. I'm already billing out at near the top end of the PM scale. To make a significant jump in my salary at this point would then mean I would have to take on an executive leadership role, and become one of those overhead schmucks that us PMs despise so much. The folks that don't generate any revenue towards the bottom line. I'm pretty close to retirement now, and I'm happy with the mark I've made within the industry, within the companies I've worked for, and the projects I've designed and built over the past 30+ years. I just don't want/need the stress/hassle that taking on an executive leadership role would place upon me at this point in the game. And I still enjoy the project manager role, so why would I mess with that in exchange for the added stress? So as an alternative, I've taken on the role of mentoring a few of the younger staff so that when I retire, I don't leave my company without another "me" in the career development pipeline.

There are advantages and disadvantages to living in a more rural area. The big disadvantage is that I can't just go across town and get a better job. I could easily find something better in Portland/Beaverton/Hillsboro if I wanted to move or drive a much longer commute.

I don't have a commute anymore. It's about 15 seconds from my bedroom to my office chair. Since working from home for the past 2 years, my location doesn't really matter anymore - I can work from anywhere with a high-speed internet connection. The company set us all up really well at home, gave us all ergonometric evals at our home workstations/offices, extra monitors, got to bring my fancy Herman-Miller Aeron office chair home with me, printer/scanner/copier, etc. I upgraded to 200Mbps fiber optic last fall. My home office looks like a NORAD missile launch command center. While I really liked my old office, and was quite resistant to the WFH gig at first, I now have no desire to go back to an office setting, even if we ever decide to go back to the old office paradigm. I'll finish out my career from the comfort of my home office, and enjoy every minute of it. I may even move to rural Idaho, as long as I can get some decent internet.

I turned down a really good job on-site at Intel a couple years ago. I'll always wonder if that was a mistake, but primarily I didn't want to give up my 10 minute commute for a 60 minute commute. I really value my time at home with my family. I also don't care to be any closer to the Portland area than we already are.

That's why I like living in the Tri. It's a big enough town that I can get most anything I want/need, it's still pretty red here, and I have an awesome range less than a 30-minute drive away that only costs me $50/year - that's pretty hard to beat. But I may just buy a spread over in Idaho and move there, and rent out this place after I retire for the passive income, since it's all paid for, and property values remain quite high. It's worth twice what I paid for it in 2005, when it was brand new...

 

[Ironbar]

When was the last raise you received unrelated to change in job duties or change of employer. I was talking with dayshift supervisor last week and he said it's been more than three years since cost of living raises have been handed out. I'm starting to get a little worried that if we have a downturn in economy that it's going to turn into a 4, 5 or more year wait

Meanwhile Sherwin Williams jacked up our paint cost by about 30% over the last year or so (including 12% hike coming in Feb).

Last year in March. Getting another one this March. 2.3%. I also received a dollar an hour raise, and a larger bonus this year than last.

That said, I'm still not happy with my pay. I worked my ash off for my company last year, and did almost two million in gross sales for them BY MYSELF. That accounted for just over 13% of total sales for my store alone, and I'm still getting paid less than some checkout clerks at Costco.

 

[arakboss]

I have been giving the idea of looking for a new job more thought lately but it seems like a very disruptive idea to me. I have a bad feeling that cost of living raises are not going to happen again this year. The boss was complaining last night about another supplier raising material cost by 15%. They had previously raised prices late last year. My plan B is to request that my work week be changed to 4 ten hour days instead of 5 eight hour days, so I can have more weekends to recreate, visit my cabin property, etc. The boss will resist this idea as he believes it doesn't translate into the same amount of production and dayshift may not be able to keep up with prepping of my parts. Otherwise I will have to suck up the status quo or look for a new job. Finding a new job that meets my criteria will be very difficult even in todays pro employee environment. First world problems, I know.

 

[TTSX]

I have been giving the idea of looking for a new job more thought lately but it seems like a very disruptive idea to me. I have a bad feeling that cost of living raises are not going to happen again this year. The boss was complaining last night about another supplier raising material cost by 15%. They had previously raised prices late last year. My plan B is to request that my work week be changed to 4 ten hour days instead of 5 eight hour days, so I can have more weekends to recreate, visit my cabin property, etc. The boss will resist this idea as he believes it doesn't translate into the same amount of production and dayshift may not be able to keep up with prepping of my parts. Otherwise I will have to suck up the status quo or look for a new job. Finding a new job that meets my criteria will be very difficult even in todays pro employee environment. First world problems, I know.

Have you simply asked for a raise? Also what are your criteria for a new job?

 

[arakboss]

Have you simply asked for a raise? Also what are your criteria for a new job?

I have not asked, my employer has been the type that hands out raises to everyone at the same time and they are usually a flat amount. My criteria list is long but for starters I want to work graveyard shift with no coworkers, customers, etc. $23 to start and at least a weeks worth of vacation to start (I get three right now). Inside, no driving, no uniforms, no security work, no driving of forklifts, etc, flexible break schedules. I would prefer something less physical. The parts I am often working on now are getting bigger and heavier and I am getting older. They bought a bigger oven and opened up the doors so they could do bigger parts but bigger usually means heavier. I can keep up with it for now but I can tell that won't be the case forever. Shoulders will be giving me problems one of these days.

There will be other criteria that aren't top of mind right now.


Edit: before I ask for a raise I would like to have my ultimatum plan all worked out.