I work for a mid sized bio company. Let's just jump right in with the pros.
- Stock Awards: very generous company stock awards are possible every quarter
- Benefits: I pay under $30 per pay period for amazing benefits
- PTO and Sick: fair PTO and 80 hours of sick leave a year, as well as a floating holiday
- Food: they randomly buy the company food, probably twice a month
- More Food: 1 paid team outing per month to any restaurant that we don't need to clock out for
- 401k matching: a match of up to 4% a year
- Culture: generally one of the nicest places I've worked, most people are happy and there's no drama
Now all that being said let's get to the part that really concerns me.
Pay for every department is on the low end, I always hear people say you're getting paid with experience. It's not hard to go on Indeed and see your job at another company making upwards of 15% more a year. As most people may know, technicians are typically ranked being tech I, tech II, etc. and these bumps in ranks typically come with a pay increase. Most of our manufacturing techs have been here for a while. Not a single one has had a title and pay bump. You have to know how to do everything and get certified to train new techs, which is something you would expect to result in a bump in wages, but it doesn't. Upon bringing up the fact that trained techs are training new people for the same amount of pay, HR decided to lower the starting wage instead of giving experienced workers a pay raise. They pile way too much work onto manufacturing for how little they pay them.
You get a chance for a raise every quarter with our self-assessment surveys. This raise being 2% – 5% maximum. From what I've heard most people only actually end up getting something from these once a year, and it's on average 2%.
Every time I bring this up to my colleagues they claim the culture here won't be found at a job paying more money. Why do I need to choose? We should be paid a fair wage, not coaxed with a shit ton of free food.
Would you say the pros out weigh the cons?