I've seen so many people throw the “if you didn't get a 10% cost of living increase this year, you actually took a pay CUT” phrase put there in this, and other, subs during discussions. Where did this figure come from? It's not even close to accurate for my situation, several friends I've discussed situations with, and many of you that I've seen post actual numbers in threads.
For example, a year ago, I was paying $1450 a month for my 2/2.5 townhome in Orlando, FL. My landlord just raised us to $1700 for our lease extension. It's the second raise in less than 6 months. Our last lease ended about 5 months ago, we extended for 5 months at $1600/mo. We decided to sign another 1 year lease, and he raised us to $1700/mo. AND – he told us his business partners wanted to raise to 1800, but “he loves us as tenants and didn't want to lose us, so he talked them down to 17”.
That's literally over a 17% increase since last year. The housing market is ridiculous right now, I know. But it's not like my rent is going to get lowered if the housing market deflates a bit back down to reality. When was the last time your landlord LOWERED your rent? Oh, never? Yep, of course not.
And I know I'm not just in a unique, bad situation that I just need to look elsewhere. I know this for two reasons. 1, I've obviously looked around my area, and I'm still on the lower side of things with rent right now. It's gone up that much or more everywhere. 2, As I said before, I've discussed with friends and seen plenty of others describe the same situation on here.
And that's just RENT we are talking about here. There are many other bills that fall under “cost of living”.
So where did this 10% number come from? I VERY much doubt that's the national average either. It just feels like a made up figure to keep employers from having to increase wages more.
10% increase is nothing for those of us whose salaries are too low to begin with. Especially when inflation, cost of living, and everything else is considered.
We shouldn't even be discussing the 10% cost of living number. That just causes too many people to think 10% is acceptable, and then that 15-20% is “generous”. We, on average, are GROSSLY under paid as is. 10% didn't even keep me up with my true cost of living increase. I'd have still taken a pay cut at 15, even 20%.
I admit, I don't know what the right number is, and I don't know what the solution is, so I'm not going to bother tossing out a suggestion of a more suitable increase. Because I also realize an increase in wages just causes everything to rise in price even more. I just know this isn't working, and it's extremely demoralizing to think about.
Finally – apologies if this doesn't fit the sub necessarily. I needed to vent, and it felt close enough to post here. And I know so many of you are in this same boat, so I'm hoping to see some replies with similar feelings to help ease the pain.