Annual Raise

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I don’t have a degree yet, and made $20.10 an hour, and just got an increase of 4%, so I now make $20.90 an hour. Is this a decent increase, or an awful one? 80 cents.

I think this about sums it up:

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It's certainly better than zero, but not particularly great.

Over 4 years you'd be at $23.51/hr, about 17% higher than you started at. For comparisons sake, if you put 4 years into a Red Seal Trade apprenticeship you'd typically start at around 50% of Journeyman rate and then increase up to full rate over 4 years or so - a 100% increase - and then you'd make that rate + benefits for the rest of your career, especially working for a union company.

My first job besides delivering newspapers was working at McDonald's. Minimum wage had scheduled increases that happened right after/at my annual review time, so my wage stayed at minimum wage for the over 4 years I worked there while they gave raises to others who started at the same time. That was really crappy and tbh kind of damaging to my sense of self economic worth - I wish I'd known better to just demand a proper raise like my peers received Or quit. Those raises people got back then in 1997/1998 were typically 25-50 cents per hour.

Where I work now the raises I've given people have been more like 10-15% plus a new bonus structure that last year worked out to almost 19% for my personal bonus. But, it's the first time in my career I've worked at a company like this with lucrative products & services that's growing very quickly and can justify paying people very well for their jobs. Raises and bonuses like the ones we've given out here are Not average or normal. They only really happen in growing tech companies like ours.

At a friend's wife's job, where she's the Financial Controller (CPA) for a construction company, they have career plan paths worked out for all their new hire office staff for them to be able to double their starting pay in less than 5 years. That's Also fairly unheard of - typically people only get significant raises by finding a new job and negotiating higher starting pay for themselves.


All that said, 4% is better than 0.. but if you have an opportunity to shift gears into working in a different field where there are bigger raises, or contractual ones under a Union contract, then you may want to consider a new job/career.. otherwise 4 years from now you may earn 17% more than when you started vs. potentially 100% more by working in a different field and learning a different skill. Depends what options are available to you and what your aptitude for work is. This IS a time of great change in the employment market.. "The Great Resignation," as people quit jobs for higher pay elsewhere.. maybe prime time for you to consider other options & career paths that will pay you better if you can get the job.

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