When my brother was graduating from college in 1989 (and I was just a lowly EM1(SS) in the Navy), he told me that he wouldn’t “entertain any offer under $50,000 a year.” I asked him where he got that figure and he said that his professors said that’s what his education was worth.
Six months later, he got his first job earning $18k...and became a conservative shortly thereafter.
That's how everybody in our family feels.
I will say employers are taking advantage of the "glut" of workers. When our kid graduated with his Master's he had been working the same job as an intern, just went full time once he graduated.
They had led him to believe there'd be a pay raise upon graduation. There wasn't...but he was happy to have a job, so he continued doing his best.
Fast forward 18 months and he was offered a job at a company that got his name "through the grapevine" (actually another one of his graduate alumni.)
Solid company, great benefits and sizeable raise, plus much closer to home, so he took it.
When he gave his employer his 2 weeks notice, all of a sudden his job was worth $20K more a year than they had been paying him. Shame on them for not paying a competitive wage, in the first place. But that's business.
However, that also is why there's no loyalty to employers like there once was. He moved on to the new job. Husband's job took an across the board pay cut a few years ago, and pay freeze for the last 4 years. Supposedly that's ending, because the employer is getting worried they're going to lose seasoned employees. But as you said, it's just good to have a job when many don't.
When Bush was president. They were called hamburger flippers.
Well fer cryin out loud: Don’t ask!
Make an offer of what you believe they are worth, and let it stand there. Either they take it or not.
Or, you can make a low-ball offer, and see if the chump is stupid enough to take it. In which case, you don’t want them.
Sheesh. If you expect an answer other than “the moon”, you’re kidding yourself. Who starts a negotiation with anything else?
I thoroughly enjoyed reading that article. It was full of wisdom. Thank you for sharing it.
One month after I joined NCR, they cut our commission from 13% to 1.5% and cut our salary to $211/week. This for we six who had just been picked from 505 applicants. When we quit the district manager went on a rampage against our “uselessness” and our “treason.” Man, I remember that place like having had a broken back. Sometimes you are mistreated at work.
This writer says, over and over, that somehow we all have to “pay our dues” to succeed. Oh, everyone except him. He’s done paying, and now others can pay. Because it’s their turn. Or something.
What nonsense. The myth that you have to “pay your dues” was thought up by bitter insecure bullies looking to scare people into working crap jobs for free. It’s anti-business and it’s anti-free market. It’s positively feudal.
In my business, the entertainment industry, too many kids get tricked into fetching coffee and picking up dry cleaning until they’re thirty-five years old, thinking they’ll be rewarded with a big job. But it rarely works that way.
In return for your labor, no matter how menial, you must be acquiring skills, or you walk away. Maybe you type scripts for a TV writer. Okay, but while you’re typing, you’re also sitting in the writers’ room, learning to be a TV writer.
In my twenties I swapped my time and energy for minimum wage and an education in my chosen profession. It was a fair exchange.
Anyone who works any job under the “dues paying” delusion without a fair return (like earning decent wages or or learning how to rebuild a transmission) is making a big mistake. The idea that you have to “pay dues” means you’re somehow in debt before you even start. You’re not. You don’t owe anyone anything, except hard work for a decent return, either money or training.