As my title suggests, I'm considering my options with my current employer and looking for community input. Vague description I'm a courier for medical specimen in the American South for a national company. When I started a year ago my current employer netted me a good pay increase to 15/hr then 6mo later 16/hr so I was happy. For months, I got work emails bragging about the companies "10 billion$ record profits" and thank you's for how hard people worked during the pandemic.
Then a year later rent jumped over 100$ to 1350/mo and gas prices plus the price of almost everything else went up too. Now my monthly take covers rent and the insurance I get through work for my family. If it weren't for my wife working(and earning the same as me) we be screwed.
The reason I only see the two options is because when I started, the company opted to (finally) make their minimum pay 15/hr. They struggled(still are) to keep people in my position and I hear/see them have the same issues in the same building in a different job position than I'm told gets paid less. Now, a year later, they are raising to 16/hr. Which I only found out about because I was informed that 6mo ago I was given an accidental raise because I was miss classed by someone in hr and I was gonna lose 8 cents. So knowing they only give raises to people who advance in the company and their struggling to keep people in my position I don't see a raise happening if I ask for one during my year review. Even if I show them the numbers on how expensive it is to live in the area.
Job hopping is easy, it's how I've gotten 90% of my pay raises unfortunately, but I kinda like this job. Outside of pay, my only other complaint is we don't recieve hazard pay but are expected to work in snow/ice storms. I know nothing of unionizing outside of I will 99.99% likely face major push-back from my employer, and considering the 10bil I mentioned earlier I imagine it will be intense. Any sage advice would be appreciated.