After 4 years, im finally leaving my full-time retail job at a small business. I was a student for the first 2.5 years, so the low pay wasn't my priority, as I had financial aid and support from family. Now that I've graduated, work consumed my life. COVID hit, and a happy workplace turned into skeleton-crews and mismanagement. I'm finally working up the courage to apply for other jobs. A local university has a lot of assistant openings for 2-10k more than I'm earning now, with full benefits.
After working there for 4 years, the workers (asst. Managers and below) kind of unofficially unionized, a brutal holiday season and stripped any remaining morale, and people were fed up. We started discussing wages. I was the first to negotiate my wage, bringing me 50 cents higher than one asst. and even with the other.
We lost one of our best shift leads to another local business that's a fraction of the size and revenue, and they started them out at $15 with benefits. We don't even get PTO, a policy that didn't even change with COVID. I've seen the numbers in our store, there's no way they can't afford the overhead of paying living wages to their employees.
I'm done going above and beyond for a job that expects professionalism, but pays “first job” wages. I've been through too many “first jobs” and I'm sick of it.
I'm going to tell my boss today that I'm going to look for other jobs. We have had a good working relationship, and although I don't owe them anything, I intend to give them as much time as possible to fill my position so the other employees don't suffer. This will also likely lead to better starting wages for new staff, and hopefully they continue discussing wages so the senior staff. I know they won't give me what I need to stay, and I take some solace in the fact that I'm indispensable, so my exit is going to cause trouble.