We're a smaller ASME weld shop that has gone through a lot in recent years mostly due to poor management, promises that aren't being kept, and the company just being very cheap in general. There's a lot of work to be done and we can't get people in the door to do it because my shop doesn't have a very good reputation.
Reviews are being put off or straight up forgotten over the last few months, causing morale to drop and tensions to raise. Guys are being cross-trained to fill gaps and are realizing they aren't being paid as much as others. To make matters worse, management has conveniently introduced a new auditing system that will track things you do and don't do more closely right before they announce that reviews are coming soon.
After weeks of being under a microscope and guys becoming more disgruntled, someone finally brings up raising costs and if the company was going to do anything to alleviate the pressure, which they agree to.
Fast forward a couple weeks, the company has a meeting for everyone join. They have a whole presentation waiting to tell us how much they're spending for this and that and how they've been affected by raising costs as well. So they decided that we're losing time on our breaks, but everyone's getting an extra $80 on their paycheck that is separate from our usual earnings. Future employees will not receive this, and it's only temporary and will be reviewed next year to determine if it changes or not.
I don't want to sound ungrateful, but that's roughly a dollar increase if you're working at least 40 hours a week and won't be noticed by most of us. Am I wrong for not being more appreciative? A cost of living raise is something you keep and it just seems like another attempt by the company to cheat us out of money.