Throwaway account. A little back story I (24M) worked as the lead project manager and estimator for a new development construction company. I start the job at 20 years old doing filing work for minimum wage but worked my way up and started doing all take offs, estimates and project management/coordination at the company. About two years in I got a raise to $25 an hour or about 50k a year which at the time I thought was good money. I am located in a big city and average pay for someone in my position at similar companies is about 70k-120k. I didn't realize this until a few months after my raise so I decided to wait a little to ask for more.
When I did ask for more about 8 months after my raise I was told that “now is not the time to be giving raises” since the pandemic slowed down business. Reminder I do all the estimating and project management so I have a rough idea of how much the company makes and I knew the company was still doing more than okay. But I was dumb and naïve and gave them the benefit of the doubt. Also this was my first real job so I just thought wow this sucks but I guess I just need to accept it and work harder, maybe then they'll see I deserve a raise. After chatting with a few friends in the same field I realized just how overworked and underpaid I truly was. So I asked again for a raise. My boss's response this time was that maybe we can discuss it some time soon since he's not sure if I deserved a raise just yet. I countered that I haven't received a raise in 2 years and the company offers no benefits or bonuses and if he wanted me to stay I need to be making more. His response to this is that I was right but I also don't need to be making more since I live with my parents still so what I'm being payed should be plenty. He added that maybe he could work on getting me a few more dollars an hour because he wants me to be happy but that was as high as he was going.
So a few weeks later I found something else and gave in my two weeks. The panic in my boss's face when I told him I was leaving was amazing. He started asking if it was because of the raise we spoke about and I said yes. He went on by saying how I'm not seeing the long term growth the company has to offer and what a mistake it would be to leave after coming so far. He also tried to open up the raise discussion again but I cut him short and said I already found something else and there was nothing he could do to get me to stay at this point. Two weeks later we parted ways and I started down a new path.
I kept in touch with my old coworkers who told me about the chaos that was going down in my absence and apparently one employee was not enough to handle all estimating and project management so they were forced to hire a second guy. The accountant let it “slip” that the guy doing estimating's contract was for 80K a year and the project managers contract was for 120K. 200k a year to replace me and I probably would have stayed for anything over 75K if he was smart enough to agree to giving me a raise the first time around. I'm glad that he never made me that offer because now I make more and I'm at a company with a much better work life balance. Overall I'm much happier now and I learnt a lot for the experience.
If you read this far thanks I just needed to let this out and I'm sorry for my bad grammar : ).