I got a 20% raise at my last review. In one sense it’s no big deal because I went from being very underpaid to only moderately underpaid. 20% of a paltry amount isn’t as impressive as 20% of a significant amount. The whole department got significant raises to try to catch us up before everyone leaves. Roberto and I came on to replace two people that left for jobs that paid 80% more.
My boss was very adamant that I keep quiet about how much I was getting. They usually say something about not telling anybody, but he explained for at least three minutes how bad it would be if I told anyone. The other departments were getting the shaft to afford our raise.
One of our developers is leaving Estacado for Cascadia (as I will be in a few months) so we had a going away party last night. Jim Gutierrez, a product manager that used to work in QA, and another guy were talking about their raise, which amounted to $15 a paycheck. I stayed as quiet as I could, but Jim drew me into the conversation.
“I think that we got so shafted that Will here should buy our drinks,” Jim said.
“Heh… not unless they’re giving me a bigger raise I’m not.”
He laughed. “What, 20% isn’t enough for you?”
Jim, having previously worked in QA, was still close to a couple people in the department. So I wasn’t surprised that he knew. I was surprised that he would come out and say that before God and country. Particularly in a Happy Hour with people from all sorts of different departments. Not knowing what to say, I put on a chuckle and said, “Hush, you.”
Jim’s eyes bulged. “Oh, my God! You actually got twenty percent?! I was being facetious. Holy {excrement}! Hey everybody, Will got a 20% raise! I’ll bet the whole department did!”
Ouch… and it is a good thing that you are leaving, that little exchange is a sure way to damage relationships in many levels.
Comment by logtar — April 15, 2008 @ 1:48 pm
Talk about an awkward situation. Do the tech companies in Delosa have lower salaries in general or is just specific to your company or particular subset? Geographical variations in salary interest me, because the field I’m in salaries tend to be higher outside of higher cost areas. I’m curious if that’s true for you as well.
Comment by ecco — April 16, 2008 @ 8:13 am
It’s more a function of the kinds of companies I work. I tend to work at places that have fewer than a couple hundred employees and they seem to consistently pay less than a lot of their larger counterparts when it comes to employees with relevent experience. The starting wages aren’t necessarily bad, but raises are either extremely paltry or non-existent. You pretty much have to get promoted to get anything substantial most of the time. The good news is that with small-to-midling companies there are more opportunities for genuine advancement. Everyone that has left here while I’ve been here has left for a lot more money at a bigger company.
At bigger companies, salaries don’t tend to be particularly high, but I think that if you measure it against the cost-of-living, you come out ahead in comparison to large coastal metropolii.
Comment by trumwill — April 16, 2008 @ 9:31 am