Employees Who Stay In Companies Longer Than Two Years Get Paid 50% Less

Forbes ^ | 06/23/2014 | Cameron King

[SeekAndFind]

The worst kept secret is that employees are making less on average every year. There are millions of reasons for this, but we’re going to focus on one that we can control. Staying employed at the same company for over two years on average is going to make you earn less over your lifetime by about 50% or more.

Keep in mind that 50% is a conservative number at the lowest end of the spectrum. This is assuming that your career is only going to last 10 years. The longer you work, the greater the difference will become over your lifetime.

Arguments for Changing Jobs

The average raise an employee can expect in 2014 is 3%. Even the most underperforming employee can expect a 1.3% raise. The best performers can hope for a 4.5% raise. But, the inflation rate is currently 2.1% calculated based on the Consumer Price Index published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This means that your raise is actually less than 1%. This is probably sobering enough to make you reach for a drink.

In 2014, the average employee is going to earn less than a 1% raise and there is very little that we can do to change management’s decision. But, we can decide whether we want to stay at a company that is going to give us a raise for less than 1%. The average raise an employee receives for leaving is between a 10% to 20% increase in salary. Obviously, there are extreme cases where people receive upwards of 50%, but this depends on each person’s individual circumstances and industries.

[Nepeta]

Many employees today are part-time or temporary. What I have noted is Management continues to see them in the same light they would a full-time employee. Companies have failed terribly in that respect.

People are not interchangeable. Character counts. In some companies, nobody much cares about the quality of the product going out the door, and they actually coerce employees to pass product with substandard quality. I knew an outfit that claimed cGMP compliance that would re-run analyses 15 times to finally get one that would pass. Testing into compliance...is fraudulent.

Some people will cave to pressure, some will not.

I watched a guy who was responsible for flashpoint test of reaction vessel rinsings. Most of the other technicians required about 4 dilutions to read the point where the organics could go down the sewers without being a fire hazards, but David's samples ALWAYS passed on the first try! Some dark night, the sewers of Dayton will explode.

Character, reliability, honesty, knowledge...it all counts.

[DManA]

I don’t think it’s a workable model. I think they are being pushed into it by the idiotic policies of the Federal Government. Just one more of the “unintended consequences”.

[FreedomPoster]

Shadowstats is worthwhile. They put things in the 5-6% range.

http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data/inflation-charts

[DManA]

Even after they fire you.

Curiously, they still expect loyalty.

You're fired. We'll give you some money if you sign this 10 year non-compete contract.

[Carriage Hill]

Thanks.

[soupertramp]

Right. It's utter B.S. I stayed at a consulting firm for a whopping three months before I decided I wanted to get out of that corporate, political environment. They expect you to have loyalty but don't really care about you beyond your being a cog in the machine. I was reading another article about this same thing, and they recommended using other job offers to negotiate a higher salary at your current job. But that's a terrible idea--and for precisely the reason you mentioned: they want loyalty, NOT people looking to change jobs every single year. If you're going to leave (and you should if your workplace sucks), just go, man.