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Would You be Satisfied With a 2% Raise?
Picture this: You work for a company that is consistently ranked as one of the fastest growing companies in the region. Almost every week there is a new daily sales record. New markets and acquisitions happen like clockwork. You bust your ass day in and day out. You can’t take a second job even if you wanted to because you never know when you’ll get out of work on any given day, and you never know if you’ll be working Saturday until the day before. You care about doing things right (unlike seemingly most of your coworkers), and you do your damndest to make sure the customer (who you never see, and never will see) is happy. For all this, you take home $20,000 a year.
Would you be satisfied with a 2% raise?
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I struggle with the plight of the service industry. The $10/hr worker is checking out our groceries, serving meals, and is in many retail positions.
In the case of the big W, I’d rather see some of my tax money going to support their workers than to the big oil companies. These folk are part of the hard working 47% that some don’t care about, but we can’t ignore them. I don’t have all the answers to this, and I hesitate to suggest the government get involved in micromanaging the economy, but I do favor a tax structure that helps these workers.
As I re-read your article – the very least W can do is to offer standing schedules. The wages are one issue, but the disruption due to the random scheduling is pretty crazy, I don’t know how the workers cope with that. Any change to normal scheduling should be time-and-a-half and not mandatory.
Joe, I’m having a bit of trouble figuring out who W is.
You didn’t mention the business name, but it sounded like Walmart, especially from what I’ve been seeing in the news this week.
That’s what I thought you meant, but no, I work in a distribution center for a plumbing/heating distributor.
Is this a joke?? Of course not.
I feel like I’m missing something here though..
2% on $20,000 god that’s only $400, that wouldn’t even matter. That’s barely enough to keep up with inflation.
No joke, and you’re not missing anything.
Official price inflation for the year is right at 2%, which I looked up the night before I got that pay stub. Had it been less, I would’ve flipped my shit on the spot for exactly that reason.
I don’t know…. I’d accept it over a 0% raise, which is what I’m getting this year, plus our bonus will be half of what it was last year…..
But I’m grateful that I have a job, ‘cuz there are alot of people who don’t have one…….
I don’t understand the ideas of “demanding” and “accepting” things from your employer. You agreed to work for a certain wage, if you don’t want to work for that wage anymore, look for a new job. That’s what I’m doing…..
jmc, my answer to that in a new post: http://debtsucksblog.com/2012/11/25/why-proper-pay-matters/
It is really unfortunate! But it is one of those things where it is better than nothing. Also, a raise is rarely negotiable…
I got a 4% raise after 2 years working for a multinational. Not impressed to say the least!!
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