tl;dr – I have a base wage, but I work in a role with a 10% bonus for shift work. I got presented with a 5% raise (which is low considering how much I accomplished last year but it's something). Before the 5% raise has even kicked in yet, they're offering me a job in the company that's much more challenging, higher visibility, and is considered 2 levels higher than my current job. I asked to be paid the same as the person I'd be replacing, and instead they offered to pay me about the same as I'm making right now, meaning it would cancel out the 5% raise. Their excuse for low-balling is “but you don't have to do shift work anymore”. I'm pissed.
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I won’t go into a lot of specifics but in my company, every role has a number to represent its “level” and they go 1 through 5, where 1 is basically grunt work, 5 is being in charge of the whole program. We’re also divided into two broad types of work: crew and day shop. Crew is working 12 hour shifts, 7 am to 7 pm or 7 pm to 7 am (alternating each week), working 4 day on, 4 days off. Day shop is 8 hours a day, Monday through Friday during normal business hours.
Crew gets a 10% bonus on top of their base hourly wage as an incentive to work those rough hours. On average they're also working about 44 hours per week, so that's 10% more hours than day shop. It's also very easy to sign up for extra shifts if you'd like more money. Getting certifications to work on more positions on crew is how you get promoted from 1 to 2, and 2 to 3. Most of the time though, it's considered grunt work because it's a lot of staring at screens, pushing buttons, and you could teach almost anyone to do it. Day shop positions don't have a bonus and are locked in at 40 hours a week.
I started in 2020 as a 1 on crew. In Fall 2021 I got my first certification in a lead role on crew. They told me I would be promotable to a 2 but I got my certification just after the annual employee evaluation cycle ended, so it would count towards my promotion next cycle, meaning I'd have to wait until April 2023 to actually get promoted for it.
Fast forward to Spring 2022 and I got another certification for another lead role. I don't know why I agreed to it, I guess I just figured it would mean an even better raise once my promotion to 2 comes around. I'll add that for both certs, I certified in half the allotted time, saving the company a lot of money. I also trained another person from start to finish and got them certified too.
Fast forward to beginning of this month, they told me a couple weeks ago that I'm getting a 5% raise, effective in April. It's unclear if that also means I'll be a 2, but what's really important to me is the pay, obviously. Mind you, someone I talked to said they got a 13% raise when they went from 1 to 2, and they didn't even have as many certifications as I did at the time.
Then a week ago, one of my bosses (my boss's boss) came up to me and asked me if I'm still interested in a data modeling position within the company. I applied for it last year because it's an automatic promotion to 3, and the job sounds right up my alley. I think “Oh great, maybe the raise for this position will top the 5% I'm supposed to get, and I won't have to complain!”.
I talked to the guy I'd be replacing and asked what he makes. Then I did some math and figured out that when you take my current pay, add the 10% shift bonus, add the 5% raise, that's about the same as what he's making with no bonus. So I told them I'll take the job as long as I get paid just as much as the guy I'm replacing. And oh boy HEEEEERE WE GO with the “Gee whiz, sport, I'm not sure if we can do that for ya” talk from my boss, and he goes on about how pay is based on more than just position, etc. He said he'll work with the higher ups to see what they can offer and get back to me.
He later comes back with an offer. $3/hr short of what I'm looking for. I do the math once again and figure out that it's about as money as what I make right now on crew, with the shift bonus, without the 5% raise coming up. Taking that wage would mean no actual increase in pay, thus giving up the 5% raise. And they keep telling me it's normal because of the quality of life improvements that come with working regular hours and regular days. There are some things about working regular day hours that are better, yes. But not so much better that I can happily kiss an $8,000/yr raise goodbye.
It's such a shame because I do really want this job. It aligns with my interests, the kind of work I actually enjoy doing, and it would look really good on my resume in a year or two. But I have bills to pay and I don't think I can afford to fall further behind inflation for the 3rd year in a row.