Raises? 1

[TDAA]

So, just a quick poll, How mny got raises this year, in this economic climate?

My company is not doing any raises for anyone, including me, of course? This goes for the people working for me.

Some are hapy to just have a job at this point, others want to see an increase that the profit (loss) does not seem to be able to support.

So, how about you?

 

[Pipeline1972]

well i got a letter today from HR saying i won't have a raise. 17 months on the job, good reviews, yet not one cent of raise. with the inflation going through the roof, i'm making less than when i started...
I'm so not motivated to work today!!

Process - Piping

 

[RVSWA]

As and owner, I haven't taken home any more than my base salary. We gave our key employees(engineers) a bonus and plan on a modest raise but the housing crunch has hit us pretty hard so I'm bracing for 18 months of slim pickins.

 

[MRM]

2.7% raise, 26.2% bonus at the end of 2007.

 

[IRstuff]

oh duh, I've actually had a raise for almost 2 months, but only about 4%.

TTFN

FAQ731-376

 

[LittleWheels]

No bonus but raise well above inflation. I always said they weren't paying me enough...

 

[HgTX]

In general, even in good times, we don't get cost-of-living raises here, at least not anything that keeps up. Every several years, the legislature will vote to give us something that makes up for maybe a year or two of inflation.

Hg

Eng-Tips policies: faq731-376

 

[Pipeline1972]

that's why they have unions in Europe...
No employer will try getting away with no cost-of-living adjustments..

Process - Piping

 

[HgTX]

I am in a particularly anti-union state. I can't speak for other parts of the country.

Hg

Eng-Tips policies: faq731-376

 

[Cachuca]

No raise yet, I guess maybe none at all, we will see.

 

[DesignerGuy16]

I got a 2.5% raise 3 months on the job (1.5 years ago). This year they've "suspended" reviews till later. So basically no raise.

James Spisich
Design Engineer, CSWP

 

[Unotec]

We got <4% 'cost of living' adjustment. Pffffff hahahaha! This is Ablerta!

<<A good friend will bail you out of jail, but a true friend
will be sitting beside you saying ” Damn that was fun!” - Unknown>>

 

[PeterStock]

Just under 5% a couple of months ago. Now whe have had a few layoffs, mostly in operations. Timt to start looking.

Peter Stockhausen
Pollak Switching Products

 

[moltenmetal]

Cost of living, this and every year after I'd been working for 10 years. Adjust the salary vs years of experience data to dollars of constant value and you'll see that it amounts to 10% of starting salary per year for the first 10 years, followed by little to no net salary growth thereafter.

But that's just salary. I also get a bonus that you wouldn't believe if I were at liberty to tell you...Let's just say that I've had an upper decile salary for 9/10 of the past decade. And I richly deserve it, given how much money I personally make for my employer.

Have I ever told you how much I love my job?! And I'm not just talking about the pay...

My employer believes in shared pain for shared gain. Base salary sucks, but the bonus system is very, very generous- if the company remains profitable. It's in everyone's (direct, financial) interest to keep the customers satisfied AND the operation profitable...amazing the corporate harmony, cooperation, innovation etc. that this generates.

Some really dumb new folks negotiate a higher starting salary in return for less bonus, leaving more for the rest of us. But no shared pain equals no share of the gain- they get theirs up front every month, whether we're profitable or not. They don't take more than a year or so to change their tune generally. Even dumb folks smarten up eventually!

If we were a public company we'd never get away with paying ourselves so well- when the business is profitable. Fortunately the employees are also the share-holders, and the non-employee share-holders know which side their bread is buttered on and don't mess with the system.

We do some oil and gas business, but we also do business for the people that use oil and gas to make products. Their business has completely dried up, but the oil/gas folks are spending like drunken sailors and we're happy to take our share. During the long run-up in oil prices, the oil consumers' business dried up quicker than the oil- producers spending grew. Fortunately we kept everybody- and everybody took it in the teeth on the salary- or else we'd have been totally unprepared to sieze this market boom.

The Dilbert guy has it nailed: my favorite strip has the pointy-haired boss saying, "It's our policy to hire only the best technical professionals". Dilbert replies, "And is not also our policy to pay the industry AVERAGE?". The boss replies, "That's the way we like 'em: bright, but clueless"...

 

[ScottyUK]

Our raises came early in the year - January or February. It was so hugely significant that I couldn't even tell you which month it was in. I think it was about 4% but my costs of living are rising significantly faster, and that was after a good appraisal where I met or exceeded all my targets. My 'bonus' - effectively a lumped overtime payment - was about 15%, which brings my salary roughly back in line with the industry norm, but in the words of our dear personnel department "it isn't contractually guaranteed"!

I'm currently about 4 weeks away from starting with my new employer because the enjoyment-of-job / compensation / quality-of-life equation has become so imbalanced over the past few years. It's worth the extra 12 miles each way just to enjoy going to work again. I am sure it will work out at my new employer - otherwise I wouldn't be going - but even if things were to go sour in the recession that is supposedly looming there is such a desperate shortage of professional engineers in the UK's heavy electrical sector that I'm not too worried. Lately I seem to get at least a couple of phone calls each day from utility and O&G recruiters!


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If we learn from our mistakes I'm getting a great education!

 

[Mr168]

6% - Max permissible based on year end evaluation for my company. Quite a few of our guys received mid-year raises as well to try and keep them working for us. Fossil Power industry.

 

[StressGuy]

Pipeline1972, it sounds like you really need to get yourself to Texas.

I also work for an E&C company in Houston serving the Oil and Gas business. I've been getting double digit raises for the past couple of years. The market here in Houston has become fiercely competitive as companies are actively recruiting to staff all the work that's build up. Of course, back in the dark days around 2001, raises were small and widely spaced and we were all just hoping to survive the bottom.

I recently heard rumors that new grad mechanical engineers in Texas are asking $90,000 to start. That's a little higher than I expected, but not much. I thought they were "only" looking at $75,000 or so these days.

Edward L. Klein
Pipe Stress Engineer
Houston, Texas

"All the world is a Spring"

All opinions expressed here are my own and not my company's.

 

[Lion06]

75k - 90k to start? I went into the wrong field of engineering!

 

[frv]

Not dealing with thermo is worth 20k lass a year

 

[Lion06]

Just for the record - I love what I do. The extra money wouldn't be worth it.

 

[moltenmetal]

Stressguy: glad to see that you're reaping the benefit of surviving the long drought. All booms bust again though, which makes it doubly important to profit from the boom when it comes! My grandfather probably didn't make it past grade 6, but even he knew that you make hay when the sun shines...

Somebody here had a tagline about reciting the oilman's prayer, which was dead on:

"Dear Lord, please give us another oil boom. I promise not to p*ss it away this time!"