I have a lot of empathy for those with jobs wrecked by Inflation.  
However, your lack of perspective is eroding your motivation so badly, it’s going to destroy any chance of success.  

You literally just started a new career.   Every job has dues which must be paid.     You don’t just magically qualify for a new car and a “middle-class life”.   You’re going to have to job hop a few times, and maybe move to a different region.   It’s not a new phenomenon.   People of every generation had to earn it over Decades of hard work.      

It’s never been easy for the working class, but it’s weird how people have lost perspective and lost hope.

“There’s two kinds of Fair, county and state”

Another one for starting your own business. I was the exact same as you. Started my own shop in my 2 car garage, and 6 months later was doing it full time. A year after starting we bought a commercial property, and now 6 years later we're up to 20k sq ft of business.
There are so many paths to success in welding, fabrication, whatever. Watch the auctions and get some good used equipment. You got this. Your grammar is good so all you need to do is get started, get some traction, and get that business plan written up. You're like 90% there already. Just need to put all your skills to work in tandem. Network with people in your past career, current, and use that to your advantage as much as possible.

See thats not actually the issue. I like the job, the people hell even the facility. But I also look around and see the guys I work with who are fantastic workers and welders, making the same as the dude who just started and "knew the right people" and anyone in their right mind would question the future.

Just how long should I wait to get paid what I'm worth? 1 year? 5? 10?

I know that if a guy whose worked here for 3 years is making 17, what can I realistically expect? And is it worth it to me to never have a weekend off all while being underpaid?

The longer this goes on, the more inflation goes up the less I make.

Call it hubris if you want. But at 30 I'm done being a renter and driving 20 year old cars.

Same here. With FFP contracts, you cannot compete and will lose staff. We have seen team members that were here for more than 15 years just suddenly up and go. Got paid more, a lot more across the street. Contracts that were negotiated 5 years ago just cannot compete anymore.

I’m worried the salary compression turns into more than that, as career paths get roadblocked as well. I’ve been pigeonholed before and now to fly this time much earlier.

I evaluate my position and pay yearly with a raise proposal to my boss in the same timeframe. Nothing OP posted is anything new. Even in the 2012-2015 timeframe where lawyer pay was terrible in Florida, the same tactics were routinely used.

In the private sector you should always be looking for the next job that offers better compensation. If you know a three year employee is making 17 bucks why would you even consider staying three years?

Not everyone here makes 7 figure incomes

This was 15 years ago.

And it's still probably $20................

says the commie cock gobbler
If you're not working for a company that shared with its employees, maybe it is time to do something with your self rather than gobble commie cocks ;)
If your work was worth it, don't you think you would already be working for that company?
I don't know you but your posts speaks volumes to the other commies in this thread

Seriously, the non union guys I work with all are making a great living.

That's illegal if you can prove it.

Depending on the job it is sometimes hard for an employeer to keep up with the inflation. Especially in the field I work in, only a couple of jobs per year billed. Not like contant turnover day to day on stuff. Right now it's hard to bid jobs that take a year and lock in prices cause the price is going up faster than we can keep up with it. Same with hiring someone.

Word of mouth. Just like the mob, never write anything down, never have it recorded, not on the phone etc..That's what business lunches are for.

Not in medicine
In my AO jobs are fewer and pay stagnant to a bit less

Employees finally the upper hand. Good is about fucking time. Fuck the non paying assholes.

Some....hell most of them already are.  Before covid most would try to give people a 1.5-2% raise while benefits were costing more.  It's going to get ugly fast and I'm already seeing professional people jump ship in droves.

In general that's good advice.  In my situation the India contractors will be working on things I'm not directly involved with.  For now.

We were told the India contractors would only work in non-core technology areas.  I knew that was a lie when I heard it.  I'm "this close" to retirement so I'm not going to switch jobs over this, I enjoy what I work on quite a lot.  Maybe too much.

What industry?  Investment related question.

trades and skillsets getting paid more because burger flips get 15?

GOOD.

I should be at 50 an hour. Not 35.

And HR wonders why people leave.....this is their common practice and they assume they can keep it a secret somehow.  If HR was on it's game they would have increased your salary to compensate, but they'd rather you leave and have to pay an new employee more.

Hell even silicon valley was stupid enough to put it in writing, i'd bet these guys are no brighter.  

We hired someone 10 years younger than me with zero experience at my senior grade because "degree". After a year when that person realized they had zero aptitude for the job, was clueless, and it couldn't be made into a desk job, they quit.

It is the easy way out for HR.  Bump the wage of an existing employee and everyone else at that level demands the same. Let that person sod off into the sunset and hire a newbie at rock bottom wages.  They will work a few years and do the same thing, rinse and repeat.  HR stays busy I mean look at all the turnover they have to deal with, they need a new HR manager and raises to deal with the workload...

I mean what else would expect HR to do? It's not they can accurately track employee performance metrics and pay people according to ability and job function...  pffft what kind of fairy tale is that?

This is HR we are talking about, thier job is to look up salaries on glassdoor, then place compensation in the bottom third and tell management they are staying "consciously cost competative"

... sorry I may have some issues to vent here...

I just had a head hunter reach out to me today for engineering gigs (all require a BS ChemE or better) and the pay scales are all about $20k higher than the 2019 one he sent out, even for places like Augusta, GA. I mean, $150k for a Senior Process Engineering gig in Augusta is damned good money if memory serves. $140k for a 5 year process engineer in southern Arkansas? That's damned good.

In 2019 the GA gig would cap around $125k, the AR one maybe $110k.

Transitional inflation my ass. Be prepared to job hop every year going forward, or get a job that scales with inflation (like Sales).

We may have worked for the same company.....  Unfortunately my old company's HR department was stupid enough to circulate spreadsheets to VP's with comp info in them.  Then managers passed them down to managers to populate with their peoples information.    Said VP's forgot to delete manager's comp when passing down the spreadsheet.  

When I was a senior ME in 2018 I was getting about 135k and that I felt was decent money in ND. I think his numbers are pretty good but not top of the scale either.

If a person works Friday or Sunday night they’re paying an extra $150.00 just for coming in.  On holiday weekends it goes up to 300.00…and they even counted Father’s Day as a holiday weekend.  

glassdoor.com is a pretty good site to keep tabs on salaries.  Some of the company reviews could be fake or made by marketing departments so take those with a grain of salt.

No, I don't begrudge anyone leaving for greener pastures. The truth is that sometimes there just isn't money available or positions for advancement.

I just hope they're taking total compensation into account instead of just hourly wages. I could give everyone a 10% raise at the snap of my fingers for example, if we weren't already giving that money to the employees in the ESOP.  Repurchase obligations are a real cost.  But does a $2.50/hr raise to go to another company with insurance that costs more and covers less, no retirement contribution and less PTO accumulation sound like an attractive proposition?

Sometimes I wish benefits weren't a thing. It clouds costs and comp when comparing apples to oranges.

Uff da

Time to move on. If you prove more valuable than the noobs, don't be surprized if you get a call after you move.

I wish I could get paid more for opting out of the company health plan.

One of the big problems I see from my lowly perspective is that employers don't value workers based on their individual worth.

Some employees are bottom of the barrel and should be let go.

Most are average and do just enough that it's not worth firing them and having to train a replacement.

Occasionally, a super star will show up.  These are the guys that it would take hiring 2-3 average employees to replace their productivity.

Unfortunately, in my experience, all 3 groups get paid pretty much the same.

At a previous employer, I consistently had the highest annual reviews in the department, and probably the company.  

I worked twice as hard as most of my coworkers, gobbled up every hour of over time they would give me, and covered down on areas way outside my job description whenever the company was in a crunch.

For that, my annual raises would usually be about 0.2% higher than my peers.  It's not worth it.  

If my employer doesn't value my hard work more than the guy that spends half the day on his phone and shows up late all the time, then I'm going to walk.  Odds are I can start at a new company making at least what I was making at the old one, with similar or better bennies.

The only thing I'm really out is time in service towards more PTO.  Big deal.

How much time do we have before $100k becomes lower middle-class?

We’re in for a strange ride.

No disagreement here. One of the first things I changed when moving into management was the raise guidelines that gave people who weren't meeting expectations an annual raise, and instead added it to the meeting or exceeding categories.

While I understand it's not always in the company's best interest to terminate under performing employees, I never will understand why they'd get any merit increase that others deserve more.

I also want to start paying employees who do not take our health insurance. It'll just need to be done in a way, like a shift premium, that would be rescinded if they opted in down the road.

I am going to ask for a raise tomorrow.  They will refuse me and find a reason to get rid of me.  Hopefully in such a way that I can suck on the unemployment tit.

No reason to do a job that requires 6+ years of education when it only pays a few $/hr more than Dominos.

I know for my job, back when the recession hit, it came down to our job saying either a ton of people are going to get layer off or we all take pay/benefit cuts.  Of course no one wanted to lose their job so we took the cuts, with the promise from them that they would "make up for it" when things got better.  Ended up being around 6% base pay, cuts to dental/health/vision as well as they went from matching 401k to 0.1% match.  

Around 2016 or 2017 they decided its been long enough and to "pay us back." What did we get... a 3% raise over 3 years (aka a net loss of 3%) the benefits went up a hair, and a $500 bonus in our check.   and for some reason ever since then, they can't keep people and they really don't get why.

I can actually give you some insite from the ground level on this because we do an ESOP too.

It's all well and nice to factor that into the pay/benefits but the reality on the ground is much different. Esop's in theory are a really nice way to get both stockholder and employee's values aligned sure, but the reality is that I'm sure your company is like mine and those benefits only vest after a certain amount of time. For me it's a year. And while I would love to say that in 20 years or whatever when I "retire" I get some mythical fat check, that's not only not helping me right now but it's also not helping me that much down the road. Its basically giving the company a loan via reduced wages to cover this benefit, and it assumes a lot. First that the company will be able to rebuy those obligations when I leave in 20, and secondly that you can manage my money better then I can. For the extra 2.50 an hour I could be adding to my 401k, investing it or whatever.

And its almost impossible to view it as any real benefit if the company refuses to pay a wage that's sustainable, because there won't be a buy back that's worth a fuck after a year or two. So packaging it as some sort of sweet benefit ignores the reality of an HR department that has decided that it's somehow more cost effective to lose a good employee every 6-8 months to a better paying job elsewhere, and hire new people in at those same low wages that will just leave once they have gained a better offer. Which for a company like mine that has that cycle, it just means that they can advertise that it's some great incentive knowing damn well that 50% of new hires won't ever see a penny of that awesome "benefit".

And nearly every company 401k matches now to a %, and provides some sort of health insurance coverage.

You want to retain people it really comes down to pay, good PTO schedules with flexibility, a 401k matching and that's really all most people want. You'll certainly keep them if you look at raises based on ability and performance, and offer even a small Christmas bonus and maybe a paid day off on their birthday or even just the day off.

This mainly applies to blue collar clock punchers, I know most of GD millionaires would bawk and not having the company retreat to Bavaria paid for.

And you can take the money you save from hosting Company wide cookout's, and renting out the golf course for a company tournament to pay a small Christmas bonus. I know that I go there to work, and while I enjoy seeing my co-workers I don't care to do hacky sack races and eat overdone burgers cooked by some random guy from maintenance. And 90% of the rest of hourly workers agree. When shift ends we just want to go home to enjoy the 12 hours before were have to be back here.

Hell the "rented golf course" was the biggest joke ever. They schedule it for a Saturday we work, and for 30 mins before we get off was t off. Guess who took advantage of that? You guessed it, the president and upper management  and all the office peons that live for 9 holes. But thats also considered an "employee incentive" somehow.

These small changes will make a world of difference in retention. Just my 0.02 tho

If you'd like some help understanding ESOP mechanics to have a better grasp on everything your post makes painfully clear you don't, I would be happy to help you to the best of my ability. Either your company has done a poor job educating you or you didn't want to learn, both are unfortunately common.

If you just would like to be bitter about your circumstances and whether they're fair or ideal, I know from experience that's something you'll have to get passed on your own and genuinely wish you the best of luck.

My boss had a meeting Friday telling us all he hasn’t gotten a paycheck for a month and a half. So he’s furloughing people.

So he can have their paychecks, I guess.

You will have to change jobs, perhaps several times.  Or, start your own business.   Or, maybe a nice Union job or Government contract doing specialty welding.    You can use your dissatisfaction to power your career, but you won’t get there without a ton of sacrifice.

I've been in the same job basically now for more than 20 years and have lost income opportunities by staying.   I should have moved on before, but once you get locked into a pension and fixed your departments problems, it just easier to hang on.   I do a lot of consulting now and could do more with time.  I have skills that are not easily replaced in this area and am well-known by the people that need them.  I can *easily* make up salary/pension difference and cover inflation while working a lot few hours.  

I could hanging on for many years in the same position, but I doubt the compensation would grow much - likely not even pacing inflation.

They told us nothing about it, and we weren't allowed to go to the annual meeting since it wasn't active for a year. I'll admit I know little about the way it works

The city I work for has paid academy for just under $16/hr, and starts you at $18/hr after you’re done. Even if I still felt the call to serve, I think I’ll keep my $24/hr turning wrenches at the landfill.

There’s no way I’d be a cop on the I44 corridor for $18/hr, even in this smallish city.

It's common in my industry (cybersecurity), but ironically, given our clearance requirements, unless the employee is more PITA than performance, they are really restricted by the DoD contract guidelines.  That equates to less salary increases and more along the lines of bonuses.  Personally, I'm pushing close to the next tax bracket and really don't want a significant tax hit, so I'm just asking for other benefits vice money.

Those without the bargaining power are going to feel some pain.  However, as I tell the younger analysts, chasing salary doesn't always mean it's greener on the other side.  We had two analysts previously cut (.gov directed), that are now inquiring about coming back on board as we look at expanding our operations.  

A lot of volatility in several markets will make this a bumpy ride.

ROCK6

I am sooo thankful I recently changed jobs which yielded a 63% increase in pay. This year I will net more than I grossed last year. I still can't believe it.