Been working for my company for nearly 4 years as a contractor. As a contractor I get no benefits (I have health insurance from my wife's job), no stuck options or paid holidays. The only days we get off each year are Thanksgiving day and Christmas day. Every other normal holiday we are required to work while the FTE (Full time employee) get 11 holidays off plus a full week paid off during Christmas.
I'm the most senior in my department and make the most money currently outside of the FTE.
How I am losing:
-No real movement within the company. A couple years back they told us contractors will never be converted to FTE just for time in (even though they originally told us after 1 year we could be converted)
-There are 2 levels to my role and I am level 2. Even though I have been here significantly longer than everyone else (the next closest person has been here 2 years), and have additional responsibilities, I am only making $1-2 more than my coworkers.
-Since I am not a “yes man” willing to give my time and life over to the company, I've never been promoted to a different position even though my manager said I am the best in our department and he can trust me with any project.
-My commute sucks. I live an hour and a half away and take a train to work. 15 hours a week is just commuting, which ends up being roughly 28 days a year.
How I am winning:
+Even though there is no movement, even if I did move to a different position, I wouldn't get paid more or potentially even get paid less. The other roles within the department would require me to do more work for the same pay. They have started cutting peoples pay for moving to different departments now too even so I could get paid less.
+I am getting paid nearly the same as our team leads and newer FTE. The company stopped hiring internally so they could hire externally for less money. So I'm making more money for doing significantly less work.
+I continually get $1 raise every year in this position. I'll be hitting $37/hr soon for a job where I am mostly doing bare minimum work.
On one hand I feel lame never really moving to a different position, but on the other hand, I enjoy getting paid the most for doing the least amount of work possible. My coworkers often have to do a lot of OT or more work for the same exact pay or less than me.
The pay is the only thing keeping me at this job though.