“I know rent has been upped a lot, I have friends and I've seen their rent. And I know that gas and grocery prices have gone up as well. But, I was just speaking to a top economist and he said that there's going to be a recession soon. You can look forward to that. We can't give raises based on the whims of the economy”
The company I work for just gave a company wide meeting where they said that. To the entire company. I work as a field technician and I was already underpaid when the inflation jumped. They are losing their technicians to better paying jobs left and right. In a very large state, they went from at least 4 techs to 1. And the company still isn't seeing what they're doing.
So, after a half year of holding out for things to “settle” (from our last company wide meeting) we get told this. I am 1 of 2 techs for my large state. I've convinced my state coworker to demand to be paid what he's worth too.
While I knew I was being taken advantage of, I didn't think I could do anything about it. I've been reading through this subreddit a lot in the past half year and you guys have helped me realize that I can do something about it. So, he and I are going to demand pay raises. The company would be absolutely screwed if we both walked.
Now, here's where you guys come in: I've never asked for a raise before. How do I approach this without making it a threat? I don't make my bills off my base pay, so I wanted to bring that up. My supervisor is a chill guy and I think he'd give a shit (don't know for sure until this is resolved), but the higher management are absolutely assholes.
TL:DR the company I work for essentially said “too bad you can't make your bills, but we can't increase pay,” so I'm demanding a fair wage, along with my only other coworker in the state. What's your advice?