Remember the Good old days of 10, 20, 30% pay rises every year

I’m 47 and I can’t ever remember a year I got 10, 20 let alone 30% payrise for doing the same job, can anyone?

A normal pay rise for doing the same role was 2 to 4 percent

All my significant pay rise was via promotions.

So when I read about stagnant wages, what is it that people are wanting and complaining about.

I mean does average wage earner really think, I got that 3% payrise (1% after inflation) I’m so happy I’m not leaving this average paying job?

 

Politicians get those kinds of rises every year. It’s good to be in the Ruling Class. Even if you are worse then useless the raises just keep coming.

 

The last increase we received, was classfied as a pay rise, but we all thought it was for unpaid labour.
When I was an apprentice, in the July month, we received a dividend.
7% of the net profit was divided by the total employee list and handed out, fully franked.
Also had an employer once, who allocated shares to their employees ! Came with conditions though.

 

Politician on average get less than 1% payrise, when annualised.

Besides it’s a bloody hard job. Most might do nothing for you or me, but have to concede it’s not cake walk to be elected.

It’s not like one emails in an application, wait by the beach and get phone call, congratulating you that you have been elected.

Can you imagine going to thousands of meetings every year about shit, that would bore a dead donkey lol.

 

I would call it “busy” work rather than hard work. Politicians may be busy but they are also unproductive, their business does not create prosperity for the country, only for themselves so they are being paid to be busy but not to produce any wealth or return for those that pay them. Based on that they don’t deserve their jobs in my view.

 

I need a pay rise so I can cover the cost increases caused by my last pay rise.

 

Remember the days of the late 80's when you got pay rises / increase in hourly rates nearly every month (8-9% wages growth 89/90)......inflation of 8%, official cash rate nearing 20%, home mortgage rates of 20%+, Bob Hawke's "No child living in poverty by 1990" Warrick Capper and stone washed jeans.....

then Newton's Third Law happened.........come early 90's wages growth sub 2%, inflation rates near 1%, cash rate sub 5%, mortgages sub 10%, more children now living in poverty, unemployment topping at at 11% (probably more), one Paul Keating...depressed grunge music, Stussy shirts and everyone wondering what just happened.....where did the party go???????????

For all the issues surrounding low wages growth, I'll take that and a job as opposed to the dole queue thanks.

 

You have to be in your 60s to remember those kind of pay increases. Kids these days will one day tell stories how they got paid for doing next to nothing. Then the party ended.

 

Many people I know haven't received a pay rise in years (3+). Not even small rise to account for annual inflation. I guess that's what they mean by wage stagnation.

 

IMF Working Paper: "Employment Protection Deregulation and Labor Shares in Advanced Economies"
Notice: don't even bother trying to read that unless you understand the language of macroeconomics
Source:http://www.imf.org/en/Publications/...-and-Labor-Shares-in-Advanced-Economies-46074

Layman's Digest Version from "The Age":
https://www.theage.com.au/business/...r-market-robbing-workers-20180829-p500hm.html

 

Is the business doing well, if it is that is pretty crap.

My advise to any one in that situation would be to look for a new job, unless some other benefits or no other job prospect ie small town, makes one stay.

End of the day it’s either they don’t appreciate employee or they are not doing well enough to afford 2% to 3%

And in both cases I’d rather find a new job.

 

Horses for courses.
If i was busy with meetings that i had to attend 10-12-14 hours a day 5-6 days a week i would consider that just as hard as when i was in the foundry shoveling sand and molding 8 hours a day.
I have done both brain work and body work in my life and at the time i say they are equal ,it is only when it comes to our later years that one can see the damage done to the body from continuous body work.
In my 20's when i was doing hard core body work i was in excellent condition and would whip any brain work person in an act of power, but now that i am in my 40s i can see the damage that i did back then and wish i had got into brain work earlier.

 

I started staff at a living wage of about $25 with annual increases of 8 to 10%. When it’s a decent place to work nobody leaves and in 5 years that $25 an hour has compounded to $40. It can quickly become unsustainable unless you can scale the turnover of the business as well.

 

Is this an entitlement expectation or are they actually adding value to justify an increase? Most people I hear whinging about not getting a pay rise do the bare minimum and go out of their way not to add value, further educate themselves, increase skills etc.

 

The people I hear expressing these thoughts (mostly relatives) aren't creating additional value through their work. That isn't their position in the company. They're not trying to climb the ladder.

They have however been faithfully performing their duties over the years, including up-skilling. And in that sense, they're now doing the same job for less money. Their purchasing power has been eroded by inflation. Obviously people are free to seek alternative employment, but wages across the board have been stagnant. I guess this is a broader economic problem rather than a problem with individual employee performance.

I do agree that many people do a "bare minimum" to get their salary. I also agree that adding value and upgraded skills is better than sitting back and whinging. However, I'm not sure that this would solve broader economic problems.

 

The late (and in my opinion great) Jim Rohn advised, and I paraphrase;
Wages are like a ladder, it is there for you to climb. Minimum wage is the first rung and the onus is on you to climb. It is not a bed, if it were then yes the minimum should be higher. People are paid not for their time but for the value they bring to the market place..
Whilst I do agree with the "vibe" of this, wages should at least be able to stay insync with inflation so as in Willrocks example people arent falling behind by just maintaining their position as a "typical" but essential cog in the overall workforce machine.

 

I understand and agree your sentiment. However I don't agree it applies to everyone in every situation. Not everyone wants to be or can be the CEO, or even middle management. And the ladder can only go so far for most people.

For example, one of the people I referred to is a secretary and has been in that role for over a decade. Her position involves answering phone, creating bookings, typing letters ... etc. Apart from technology changes which she has kept in pace with, her job has remained largely unchanged in the last decade. She is not on minimum wage, and there really isn't anywhere she can progress to, nor does she want to at her stage in life with.

I personally don't really care that these people haven't received wage increases. I just see it as an indicator of broader economic problems with the Australian economy.

 

[QUOTE="Not everyone wants to be or can be the CEO, or even middle management. And the ladder can only go so far for most people.
She is not on minimum wage, and there really isn't anywhere she can progress to, nor does she want to at her stage in life
I just see it as an indicator of broader economic problems with the Australian economy.[/QUOTE]

100% understand and agree. There does have to be some sort of safety net so in these instances they are not "priced out of life"
I am sure everyone would agree that 10 to 30% extra without adding benefit is not warranted nor sustainable in most circumstances wether we are talking wages, food or even real estate.

PM's being the exception to the rule obviously!

 

Precisely.

Two indisputable facts of the workplace:
-Employees do the minimum work possible to avoid getting fired.
-Employers pay the minimum possible to keep employees from quitting.

When you ask for a raise, you need more than anecdotal whining. It bodes well to actually have statistics on how much an employee of your profession typically garners in your locality AND how much more than average productivity you personally add to your department or product line or etc. Let the numbers do the talking. That is much easier to quantify if you work in manufacturing or sales than if you work in service professions, but you need to come up with hard stats and apply them somehow. If you don't understand your own industry well enough to do that, maybe it's time for a switch.

The average worker just plays on their phone at work as much as they can... and complains that they should get a raise - to their friends and family and maybe co-workers - never their manager. They use only the logic of time spent with the company and experience level, yet they only rehearse their arguments and never actually ask for the raise. They should not be amazed when that raise never arrives.

...if you want to see who works hard, simply look at people paid for performance metrics or people who are self employed / contractors. They are working like their paycheck depends on it. If they don't produce or their business fails, their finance takes a direct hit also. However, those with a typical J.O.B. with just hourly or salary and no bonuses or performance incentives? Well, what do you expect? That j.o.b. stands for "just over broke." There is no carrot to run the donkey cart... only a whip (maybe).

It is basically a case of complaining the game is unfair... or getting better at the game. The game is aka your life.

 

I didn’t think this thread was discussing how individuals can get a raise. While it’s a worthy discussion, it doesn’t address broader wage stagnation across the entire economy.