How long have you gone without a raise?

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Road Guy

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Coming up on 5 years with no raise. And a year of furloughs ... I know it could be worse but Christ this is getting old!

 
I went 4 years, along with a 5% to 20% to 5% redux in salary. Then, last October, got a raise. It helped that we were VERY busy. I feel your pain, brotha!

 
Ok, with the bad news previously posted I wont say that I got one last month....

 
5 YEARS!! Time to look elsewhere. When I worked for a chemical company in 2003, nobody in the entire company received a raise that one year. I left the following year and have never had an issue since. Experienced engineers with the right qualificiations are somewhat hard to find currently, even in this economy (we are currently attempting to hire three project engineers, three maintenance/mechanical engineers, and a process control engineer) and it is hard to find qualified applicants.

 
Last raise was when I got my PE back in January 2008. Last COLA was July 2007.

Sucks hard.

 
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I think it was 1.5 yrs between COLAs. But other than COLAs it has been since 2004, when i went from Eng II to Eng III.

 
I have to start looking around, but in Georgia there is a vote for a statewide 1% tax for transportation in August, if that passes, it would make transportation work about as busy as it was in the late 90's early 00's... I had planned to sit tight until the vote happened..

the one good thing they did was break the vote into regions, so its not a statewide pass or fail, but I am estimating about half of the regions they set up will pass..

I dont know what Washington is doing with the Federal Motor Fuel Tax, but it doesnt appear to be coming to Georgia...

 
Got one about 2 weeks ago. I was coming up on 4 years though so I know the feeling.

 
5% this year for getting my PE

Before that err...a while but I've also been laid off and moved (3 different jobs) over the past 4 years.

 
4.5 and 5 years is a VERY long time to go without a raise. Personally I would not endure that as I believe engineers should be paid what they are worth (speaking from private industry). Of course there are always extenuating circumstances and the whole economy issue. We were put on a wage freeze for 18 months when the economy tanked. Once that was lifted, we were back to merit raises. But ground was lost in that time for being paid fair market value. I continued to monitor how profitable my company was each quarter. With that in mind I started searching around for avg. salary levels for someone with my qualifications. I quickly learned that I was being underpaid by approximately 25%. So I took a few interviews of which some made offers in the range I was expecting. That gave me the confidence to go to my boss and explain to him why I thought I deserved a 10-15% raise (on top of the 5% I received for merit). I explained how my responsibilities have grown and that I was willing to take on more to justify the raise. I like what I do and where I work so I didn't just want to hang it up and leave for only more money. He thanked me for bringing this to his attention and the raise was granted. Had he said no, I would have said I need to pursue a different direction then and accepted the other company's offer (he did not know of the other offer though).

Anyway, if you feel you are underpaid or deserve a raise, make it known. Don't assume someone knows that you are troubled by your current salary or the fact that you haven't had a raise in however long. From my research, industry is slowly picking back up and companies are becoming more profitable again. They need to pass that on to the valuable employees that are contributing to that profitability.

 
I will likely be falling to the no raises for a while now. Our contract is up at the end of june and the governor hasn't been too optimistic about how negiociations are going to go....I forsee a reduction in pay due to increases in medical and pension contributions in my future

 
In general, if a company isn't paying its employees a competitive rate, either they are having financial problems and may go out of business (so, look elsewhere), or they are stingy, and will use any excuse to keep pay down, and most likely won't attract or retain good employees (so, look elsewhere). Now, in this economy, you may not find anything - if you don't look you are guaranteed to not find.

 
Coming up on 5 years with no raise. And a year of furloughs ... I know it could be worse but Christ this is getting old!
It's a good thing that you started this cash cow about six years ago then isn't it? ;)

 
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yes it was, although my vacation homes in Costa Rica have suffered since I have to dedicate so much time here...

 
11 years. I had to leave....Bankrupt state government that has actually cut salaries since I left.

 
Ok, this thread is depressing. I may be in a different place then others on the board as I have been working in the manufacturing world instead of for the government or private firms. Don't know what to tell you but going for several years without a raise seems harsh to me.

 
About a year. Nobody got one last year, but was informed I've got one coming as soon as they finalize the paperwork. Don't know how much, though. Their new setup has it fluctuating between departments and is tied to their impossible to interpret review cycle.

 
3 years has been the longest I have gone without a bump in pay; 2007-2010 were pretty rough. Market definitely has changed (for the better) based upon the movement of people between companies and the number of new jobs coming through the doors in recent months.

Think positive :)

 
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