I've been looking for a job since February because I don't feel appreciated by my current company. So much so, in fact, that the idea of going there every day makes me nauseous as I'm backing out of the driveway every morning.
I finally received a verbal offer from a company. The hiring team were all excited by my experience and loved that I was already joking and smiling with other employees while I was waiting for my interviews to start. They made me a generous offer that would leave me bringing home about the same money (even though it's about $4/hr less, cheaper benefits would break even) and with a schedule that will give me back my social life in exchange for a 20min longer commute. They called me with this offer before I even made it out of the company complex.
While waiting for the offer letter I received a call this morning. They told me that they could only bring me on at $10/hr less than their original offer and this was non-negotiable. This would mean about $28k/yr less than I currently make.
Just to be clear, I live in the SF bay area. Anything less than $40 an hour here is not a livable wage. At least not with any sort of comfort. Rent is off the charts, and the only hope anyone has of buying a home is to be so wealthy that they can outbid the investment firms.
Moral of the story: we need to keep fighting. So long as scabs keep taking jobs for less than they're worth, our quality of life will continue to drop. These companies need to be willing to pay for the skills and experience they say they want.