For employees, when was the last time....

For employees, when was the last time you and your employer changed your wages or general compensation and what % increase or decrease was it?

When is the next time you expect your wages to go up?

Are you in the public (including subcontractor) or private sector?

Just curious. No need for any PID.

My yearly review in December. 3% last year, don't have a clue for this year.

Hubby works for a government entity. He has not had a pay increase of any sort for over 7 years. No merit increase, no COLA, no nuthin'.

Large corporation...telecom industry standard platform for raises......the "bell curve" is ALIVE
and well in the telecom family....same for bonus money......while AT&T is "better" than most,
there still has been SIGNIFICANT downward pressure on ALL benefits/raises/bonus/perks....for
many years now.

I've had to private contract my work out for 8 years. I've been paid as much as $57.00 an hour (that was the already contracted price, I didn't request it or set the price) to recently (the last 4 years) I've had to try to undercut the market value of my services by contracting at $30.00 an hour.

I currently ONLY work for The Flume (my last programming contract ended in the middle of October), and if I was to figure actual time involved in putting together a 600 word article, versus the column inch rate I get, I'm making about $2.00 an hour.

The way I look at it $2.00 an hour is better than sitting on my butt and not using my skills.

And even though I have been programming for over 35 years, I also realize that I've just about reached my "use by date" in regards to what I can offer to the tech industry. My specialized technical skill sets have become legacy skills and my only option is to find maintenance programming with legacy systems.

And I'm 61 on Dec. 24 2013. Not a real good age to "start again" the tech business. At least not a good age to be when trying to find new work in tech.

But my bottom line is I'm never too proud to take a salary (or hourly rate) that can pay the bills. My financial and family responsibilities are more important than my ego. I learned a long time ago that what reality dictates is not necessarily what dreams are made of.

I'm cool with that.

on that note wrote: For employees, when was the last time you and your employer changed your wages or general compensation and what % increase or decrease was it?

When I first got out of college, 6-8% raises were typical. Later it was 3-4% with reviews stretched to 18 months. Nowdays I guess it is around 2-3% for most loyal wage slaves.

I do independent contract work so it is a negotiation and I usually set the rate based on what the current market is, or how much I think the work is valued at.

Otherwise I just ask for 20% annual raises and if that doesn't work, I get my Union Thug "Bruiser the Big Dookie" to get a better deal for me. With lots of boondoggle perks too!

BWHAHAHHAHA!

:rofllol

Mtn Gramma wrote: Hubby works for a government entity. He has not had a pay increase of any sort for over 7 years. No merit increase, no COLA, no nuthin'.

Wrong government entity I guess.

Bankrupt San Bernardino Spends $1 Million on Police Raises
Scott Shackford|Dec. 9, 2013 6:30 pm

A city charter apparently is a suicide pactIn our November Reason magazine feature, “How to Break an American City,” we highlighted the dysfunctional fiscal policies driving municipalities into the poorhouse. I made note of a specific policy in the city charter for San Bernardino, California, which was approved to enter bankruptcy earlier this year.

San Bernardino’s charter requires that the city tie the wages of its public safety employees to the averages of those paid in nearby cities with similar population sizes. Unfortunately, San Bernardino is the poorest of those cities, meaning it is legally bound to pay its police and firefighters much more than its market can bear. As a result, even while making its case for bankruptcy months ago, the City Council voted to increase some police salaries. They did so again just last week.

Courtesy of CalPensions and Public CEO:

Following the city charter, a reluctant San Bernardino city council las "......

http://reason.com/blog/2013/12/09/bankr ... -1-million

For the 20 years I was active duty, our pay raise was public knowledge and ranged from 2% to 6.9%, and is decided based on the ECI...but it seems that everybody and their brother gets a say in what the percentage of the raise in base pay is...there are also increases to allowances...it is very complicated and delineated at the link below.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_military_pay

Since I've been working in the civilian sector, each year I've received a raise. Usually in increments of five cents an hour (10 cents, 15 cents, or 25 cents, etc.) that takes effect on 1 January of each year. The least amount I've received was 10 cents an hour. I cannot tell you what percentage that is...I just know that I'm making close to four dollars more an hour than I was when I started working where I work 8 years ago...partly because there were two people working in my office when I started and it was decided when the other person quit not to hire someone else for a while to see if I could take on the tasks and keep up--I did well the remainder of the year--from April thru December--and since then there has only been one person doing the administrative work, so I got a nice raise that year.

It is our company policy to reward employees at the end of the year usually with bonuses based on the sales incurred throughout the year. Mind you...this is a "bonus" not a "given", so if our corporate headquarters decides not to give any, then we don't get any.

Got 3% last December after putting in over 1000 hours of unpaid overtime. If it's the same this year, I'll strike out on my own mid year next year. Then they can pay my contractor price.

So compared to the whole USA lot, things sound pretty good up here.

Just some FYI-

at 6% increase per year, you would double your pay in 12 year, at 4% you double in 18

But if you subtract say 3% inflation so now we are talking about real spending power - a 6% increase per year will double in 24 years and a 4% increase per year will double your pay in 70 years. Subtract out smart phones, high priced TV and internet and you likely feel poorer than a decade ago.

Don't forget how much govt services have increased in the last 10-20 years. A LOT. This is a raise for everyone, regardless of their income, better lifestyle for less money, so even at flat incomes relative to inflation, everyone gets more more more.

Now would the same folks be willing to estimate the increases in their productivity or work product in the same period. How much more were you actually producing year over year? Do you think you started getting paid more per work product unit or less over time? Did you increase 3% or 6% etc? Did you increase more back when you were getting the raises...was that just because you were in your 20s or 30s and were working harder? Not insults, real questions.