I’ve worked at the same hospital for 22+ years. I’ve had exemplary performance reviews every year. I stayed loyal to my employer and my peers through the pandemic when I could have made 2-3x as much traveling. All my bosses know and openly admit I’m invaluable because of my institutional knowledge, work ethic and clinical skills. I do a laundry list of things everyday that are not in my job description. Last week I literally saved the life of one of my co-workers who had a cardiac arrest. I was also informed that one of my ideas saved the organization $1 million in the last six months and will likely save them more than $2 million a year going forward. About a month before any of that, I asked to be paid at the top of my pay scale which is a $3/hr raise and still only about half of what many far less experienced travel nurses were paid during the pandemic. Today I was informed by the compensation department that they do not factor in work performance or productivity into their decisions, only years of service. In order to reach the top of the pay scale, I will need to put in 7 more years with them and get a $0.46/yr raise to get to the additional $3/hr. I feel defeated and it’s not in my nature to be vindictive. What should I do?