I have a really good job, but of course with recent U.S. inflation and gas hikes, I am really believing I am not paid nearly enough.
The company skipped raises out of concern of loss of profits from covid for like 2 years. However, the books are public as it is a non-profit and they made money each year…
So, I'm in a lower position rank wise in the company, but critical. I have to go into the office mon-friday. No wfh. I've never gotten a raise due to covid. I make about 2 or 3 dollars over my states minimum wage as it has been going up every year during covid regardless, due to a planned rollout (MA). The fact that I am one of about 5-10 MAX employees out of 80 that have to go in every week, coupled with the company stating they will let people work from home indefinitely makes me believe on top of an inflation raise and a minimum wage hike raise I am still underpaid if don't get a “critical employee when the mentality among what work looks like now” raise or milage compensation.
Realistically, if I didn't have to go to work, I'd straight up sell my car. But since I do, I have calculated just for work it's 1500+/yr in gas alone now, plus my insurance goes up due to the amount of travel I put in, the value of my car goes down due to the mileage going up, you have to figure my annual maintenance is slightly elevated due to increased use and the increased use opens me up to risk of bodily harm from car accidents and of course just random extra expenses like a flat tire would happen more often.
If I legitimately didn't get a raise, I think you could deduct the cost of me having to have a car in order to have the job and factor that I make less than minimum wage just to have the job.
The company claims that they're going to be giving raises in one or two months or something. I don't know if there will be back pay, but even if there was, I'd bet it would only be back pay starting from January 1st 2022 not the whole pandemic and it would probably be between 2 to 4%: not even matching inflation.
I really like the job and they otherwise treat me really well, but it just seems stupid to keep it at my rate, so I'm not sure what to do.