Reporter Resigns After Publisher Says No to 3% Raise

My biggest raise of my carer (not counting job changes) was 12 percent. I was stunned. I have no idea why it was that high. It was twice what I'd gotten the previous two years. I was checking for a decimal point.

I was let go 90 days later, and my high salary was mentioned as one of the reasons.

 

At a small family-owned paper, I once received a $25 a week raise and was told the owners were raising everyone because they were tired of people leaving after six months or a year, so they hoped the raise would persuade people to want to stay longer.

I appreciated it, but I kept thinking to myself that the raise sure as heck wasn't going to stop me from leaving.

Then, four months later, the publisher calls me in and tells me that there was a mistake with my raise. I was about to think that the guy was an major asshole, until he smiled and said that my raise was supposed to have been $75 a week, and that not only would I get that raise, but that I would get retro pay, which came to about $800, in my next paycheck. I felt rich.

Yes, I realize it destroys my narrative about evil management (at that paper, they really were very nice, but when it was time, it was was time to move on) and yes, I did stay an extra couple of years.

 

And you found a new job? How long did it take, and what are you doing now?

 

Geez. Talk about winning the battle and losing the war.

 

It was really strange. I had never mentioned money to that boss. I hadn't interviewed anywhere else. My raises were 5 percent, 5 percent, 6 percent, 6 percent, 12 percent, unemployed. I understood getting let go. I will never understand why I got that raise.

 

I worked at a paper where we got a small raise, usually 3 to 4 percent, annually until 2008, then there were layoffs and no more raises, until we all got a small bump, 2 percent if I recall, in 2012.
When I gave notice later that year, I was offered a fairly significant raise to stay, more than the new job offered. I turned it down, partially because the salary was still a wash when I included a now greatly reduced commute, but I also wondered where all that money was the previous eight years I worked at the paper.

 

Biggest raise I've ever received has been 8 percent, and I got it two years ago. Of course, I hadn't gotten a raise at all in the four years prior.

 

Haha..."raise".

When I started at my current paper (union shop), I was told a new contract was coming up. We gave up 3% a year for 3 years.
Yup.
Fun fun.
So I make 8.7% less four years later.

 

Got a 22 percent raise after my first year in South Florida in 1986. If you added all my raises for the past 12 years together, they would not equal 22 percent.

 

That's awesome. Nice union, too.

 

What, it'd be better if it were the other way around? I hope that what someone pays me to do a job always is just a portion of the reason I continue to do it. The idea of being significantly overpaid is appealing, sure, but I wouldn't want to stay long in a job I didn't value, regardless of the paycheck.

It's always an individual call. And situations differ: A Mom-and-Pop business paying me as much as it can for my contributions gets a longer leash from me than some multinational corporation paying me twice that if it's paying my colleagues an extra $5K more for comparable work. Even if I were working longer and harder for Mom and Pop.

 

Worked at a paper where the managing editor was a preening jackass. Went in after a change in duties, a clear promotion, and asked for a raise. He smiled and said, "We react to market conditions. If we have to pay more to retain someone, then we might give that person a raise."

Had nibbles from three papers over the next few months, turned down two on their own merits, then went to the ME with the third offer. He smiled and said, "We determine our journalists' worth. We're not going to let some third party tell us that."

Took that one and never looked back.

At another paper, thanks to blind salary info from guild, I learned I was low on pay scale in our department, despite filling major role. Went to SE and asked for raise. He scurried to ME of that paper, came back a few days later and told me I was getting that raise. Turned out to be the best bump I ever got (more than 8%) without having to change jobs and relocate my life. Had they declined or come up with $10 a week, I wouldn't have felt compelled to leave. Wouldn't have watered down my efforts, either. Would have started looking around, though.