Double your pay or take a $3000. cut?

[DoubleDogFarm]

I heard this on the radio a few nights ago.

You have a office job or any job. Your salary is $25,000. annually.

The company doubles your pay to $50,000. a year. Then you find out that all your fellow employees were given a raise of $60,000. and they do the exact same work.

Here's the question, Are you happy with the raise or is it not fair. Also they put a slight twist to it. Would you be willing to take a pay cut down to $22,000. if all were paid the same.

I think the poll was something like 58% would go for the pay cut.

I would be extremely happy with the double in pay.
Employees should never talk amongst themselve about their pay
I feel the 58% agreeing to a pay cut is BS.

Eric

[gumbo2176]

Double my salary and I'm a happy camper. I, for one, never was one to discuss wages with fellow employees.

This is not to say it wouldn't seem unfair for fellow employees to make an extra $10K over me a year for the same job. I'd have to make an inquiry as to why.

I'm with you on the 58% willing to take a $3K a year cut-----unless it was done as a last ditch effort to help keep the company solvent and jobs available as opposed to shutting down and going on unemployment till something else opens up.

[gixxerific]

BS

I take a double, on the rocks please.

[Charlie MV]

Double for me just like the Dog Farm. We are commercial property developers. Loss of a tenant is a huge pay cut obviously. It's whatever times 12!! Filling an empty space is a huge raise as well. I don't care what the other kids on the block are getting.

[PunkRotten]

I'd take double pay and not worry abut everyone else. It's people worrying about others and what they have that makes them unhappy.

[GardenRN]

I'd go for the double pay. But if everyone else got 60, I may assume that I must be doing something to have shorted myself. And I'd be careful to cross my T's and dot my I's. I'd figure it was a message saying "we'd like to keep you employed here, but we need you to pick it up a notch".

Maybe that's just me. I'm very self conscious about slip ups at work when they happen.

[rainbowgardener]

EMPLOYERS always tell you that... never discuss your pay with other employees. That's because it allows them to keep doing all their games. Women have worked on jobs for many years before they finally figured out that the men were making a whole bunch more for the same job. (And then if they try to file for discrimination, they are told too late, deadline is past, you had to file within 6 months of when you got hired at that salary.)

And many jobs what you get paid depends on how good a negotiator you were when you were getting hired. They don't name a starting salary, they ask you to name it and negotiate it. And again women tend to be way worse at this, low ball themselves. I think everyone's salary should be public, but if it isn't people should talk and figure out what is going on.

Why assume if you are getting paid less, it's because you weren't as good? Maybe the boss just doesn't like women, brunettes, gay people or whatever. Or maybe they just thought they could get away with it.

Employees need to be in solidarity with each other! Transparency helps build that.

[Smallgardener]

I would take the pay increase. Nothing was said about how long each person had been at the job. But you would be surprised in the disperaty in work place pay. Some times it is harder to hire a new person than it is to keep an eployee that has been there a while. Any payraise is welcome in this day and age.

[GardenRN]

Oh MG, I disagree. I get what you're saying, but I don't want every and anybody to know what I'm making...It's nobody else's business. I tell a few very close friends and my mother what I make. Outside of my household, that's it. Nobody else knows except my boss and the payroll lady.

I guess people have different views on it. But I was brought up to believe that this is a private matter.

[rainbowgardener]

Oh MG, I disagree. I get what you're saying, but I don't want every and anybody to know what I'm making...It's nobody else's business. I tell a few very close friends and my mother what I make. Outside of my household, that's it. Nobody else knows except my boss and the payroll lady.

I guess people have different views on it. But I was brought up to believe that this is a private matter.

That helps keeps us all isolated and keeps us from working together for fairness and better conditions for all.

[GardenRN]

Oops, I mean t RG lol

I understand the point of view. I can't say you're wrong. At the same time, I know what my job is worth. I knew it before I started. So that's what I told them I wanted. They either come off it or they don't. And then I have to decide to take their offer or not. That's just how it works.

A brand new RN, just out of school in my area won't take less than $22/h. Maybe 20 if they really want to work somewhere. So going into a new RN job I'd know that. I believe right in the beginning is where you make it or break it. Because if you start out as high as you can, then raises and everything else are pretty much across the board, especially now that the economy is what it is. If you start out low, no raises are going to catch you up. You'll always be behind. And there's no way to know what your future coworkers are making before you even work with them. Unless, I suppose, you're proposing that this be listed somewhere.

Not trying to argue really...hope you're not feeling attacked.

[Charlie MV]

I've never approached salary except from a business owner's stand point. My salary now is the same as my wife's. We share the load. I'm better at some things as is she. The money goes into the marital coffers.

When I owned a business with employees male and females were paid according to their worth to me. My best finisher in 25 years of cabinet shop ownership was a female. Within a year of her hiring she was making almost the same amount as my best bench man who had 12 years with me.

Paying less for any reason other than the employee's value is just plain stupid. It took me a minimum of 2 years to train a new employee in our methods even if they came experienced. The finisher I mentioned was scatter brained, chatty and annoying but she had a skill that made me jump her way up the wage scale. I never had an employee ask for a raise except her. I gave her exactly what she asked for. I wasn't willing to risk losing her.

[lorax]

If I'm living where I live and I was making 25K a year, I'll quit and play in the garden because I've now got enough of a nest egg to make it feasable.

Honestly, though, with my current income, I'd take the doubled salary and smile.

[GardenRN]

I've never approached salary except from a business owner's stand point. My salary now is the same as my wife's. We share the load. I'm better at some things as is she. The money goes into the marital coffers.

When I owned a business with employees male and females were paid according to their worth to me. My best finisher in 25 years of cabinet shop ownership was a female. Within a year of her hiring she was making almost the same amount as my best bench man who had 12 years with me.

Paying less for any reason other than the employee's value is just plain stupid. It took me a minimum of 2 years to train a new employee in our methods even if they came experienced. The finisher I mentioned was scatter brained, chatty and annoying but she had a skill that made me jump her way up the wage scale. I never had an employee ask for a raise except her. I gave her exactly what she asked for. I wasn't willing to risk losing her.

But you sound like an honest boss. Admittedly, most supervisors are probably looking to keep you for as little as possible. They have their own raises and bonuses tied directly to keeping cost down in their dept. So it's in their best interest. This is exactly how it is where I work. But there are subtle ways (when appropriate) to let your boss know, as I have done, "look, quit jerkin me around or I'm outta here." Of course, that only works if you have the grounds (and gusto) to back it up. Don't do this if you know you are a crappy employee...lol you know who you are.

[DoubleDogFarm]

I'm a crappy employee and I may just have to fire myself.

Eric

[GardenRN]

Nah Eric, you need yourself around, you know, to run the business and all. And if you fire yourself you won't be able to hire anyone to take your place.

If you'll excuse me now, "I'm leaving now to go find myself. If I should return before I get back, please ask me to wait."

[DoubleDogFarm]

Nah Eric, you need yourself around, you know, to run the business and all. And if you fire yourself you won't be able to hire anyone to take your place.

If you'll excuse me now, "I'm leaving now to go find myself. If I should return before I get back, please ask me to wait."

Hope you do so you'll be beside myself and not beside oneself.

Eric

[Charlie MV]

I've never approached salary except from a business owner's stand point. My salary now is the same as my wife's. We share the load. I'm better at some things as is she. The money goes into the marital coffers.

When I owned a business with employees male and females were paid according to their worth to me. My best finisher in 25 years of cabinet shop ownership was a female. Within a year of her hiring she was making almost the same amount as my best bench man who had 12 years with me.

Paying less for any reason other than the employee's value is just plain stupid. It took me a minimum of 2 years to train a new employee in our methods even if they came experienced. The finisher I mentioned was scatter brained, chatty and annoying but she had a skill that made me jump her way up the wage scale. I never had an employee ask for a raise except her. I gave her exactly what she asked for. I wasn't willing to risk losing her.

But you sound like an honest boss. Admittedly, most supervisors are probably looking to keep you for as little as possible. They have their own raises and bonuses tied directly to keeping cost down in their dept. So it's in their best interest. This is exactly how it is where I work. But there are subtle ways (when appropriate) to let your boss know, as I have done, "look, quit jerkin me around or I'm outta here." Of course, that only works if you have the grounds (and gusto) to back it up. Don't do this if you know you are a crappy employee...lol you know who you are.

Seriously, it wasn't altruism. It was self preservation. It took too long to train an employee for me to run the risk of losing them so I paid well. This chick had a head full of snakes but she had mad skills so it was worth it to not only pay her well but to sit and listen to her jabber politely.

Most of the time I knew if an employee would never be able to do the job. Then I had "the talk" which consisted of me having a heart to heart asking them if this was the career they really wanted to dedicate their lives to. I rarely fired anyone. It was pretty easy to lead them to a place where they fired themselves and headed for greener pastures.