I currently work at a place I do actually, thoroughly enjoy being. I get along well with the majority of my coworkers, and the ones I've butted heads with have eventually found common ground in some form. It's still a WORK environment, not a social one, but the drama in my area of the world is extremely minimal.
When I started I was hourly. Thanks to a borderline political fiasco, I got moved to salary, but I had to reapply for my job as though I was a new applicant. I had to prove why I was the better choice than any new candidate.
A year or so later, HR found out I wasn't being paid the legal minimum for my job/position. That was a nice raise. Now the minimum for my position, posted online, has increased again. Mine has not.
Last year I showed my boss that not only did I know how to do everything required for promotion, but I was even able to provide examples of when I had done a number of items listed. If it was going to be hoops to jump through to do the promotion in name – see above regarding just moving to salary – I also brought up the mismatch of posted salaries.
We're a subgroup, sort of contracted to/belonging to a larger company. We're Puerto Rico to the United States of America in a way; we have to abide by their rules, but we don't always get the fun parts, and this was one of those moments. While we are attached to Company, we are not in fact Company. They claim credit for our successes and distance themselves from our failures.
I was told our offshoot was not consulted before the raise was implemented, and therefore they did not have the means to pay me anything more at this time.
I know we aren't funded overly well. I admit I don't know much of anything about finance. I do love working here and get along famously with my close fellow staff members. I don't want to leave but I also don't want to be jerked around.
I've been looking around for a new job just to see what I might be able to make, but it's half-hearted. I have massive medical bills on the horizon and I'm not going to be able to face them with my current income.
I'm not entirely sure what I should do.