1.3% increase - Am i being taken advantage of?

This should cheer open up. No pay rise or cost of living increase or for 3 years, no training in 5.5 years. Lesson 1 how to motivate staff.

This year we have a new boss, training already in hand. Fingers crossed.

 

Depending on how you're looking at it, it really can seem like quite a lot for just one year! Or if you want to be optimistic, it's only 2%! Your boss is probably a fan of the latter.

I've got my pay frozen at last year's levels for the next two years, but my boss isn't to blame. I get to blame politicians for that, so nothing out of the ordinary.

 

How about people that expect to keep surviving on the same money year after year while inflation, increasing travel expenses etc kicks their a**?

 

Tell me about it.

Lucky i now pay a mate for a lift home from work. Still got a 2 hour walk in each day, but keeps me fit.


Not sure i could afford the 13% travel rises that are expected, and they want people to use public transport, omg there having a laugh.

 

You've got a computer, you're not just surviving, you're living. Times are "hard" for us rich white westerners right now, but rest assured you're still pretty damn well off so long as you've got electricity, running water, and can afford instant noodles, baked beans, and root vegetables.

 

Its already gone up 7%, and i'm one of those people. My travel card is 1/4 of my salary.

I saved up for a long time to build this pc, and it was in parts, not all in one go.. A lot of them are 2nd hand mate, including the GPU and RAM.
I've been without electricity for weeks on end (back in SA), and without food too, so i know exactly what you're talking about. But i'm in a first world country right now.

 

Right, you are, which gives you different expectations and higher desires. That said, you're still doing fine if you're online on a computer right now. You're not just doing fine compared with people in third world countries, you're doing fine compared with many many other people in the UK who can barely afford to eat, heat their homes, and pay the electricity bill. Let alone having the internet and a functioning computer.

It sucks to tighten the belt, sure, but you're hardly in a position of great deprivation.

 

You're absolutely correct specofdust. But answer me this....

Do you think employers are all struggling and cannot afford the increases, or are some of them giving low increases because they know that the employees will not fight it, because "times are hard and its better to have a bad increase than no job at all"

 

I think its ok to be on a low wage, and be able to cover the bills and so on,

Its only people that do nowt and get benefits and end up better off than hard working people that gets my goat.

 

This is true. I see a lot of this where i live.

 

Probably some are, that's how capitalism works. You're worth less because there are other people out there who'd be happy to do the job you do for what you do it for now. So instead of giving you extra money, they keep you on at the wage other people would be prepared to do your job for. You can accept the slightly lower wage (in real terms) or quit, with your employer safe in the knowledge that someone else will fill your role.

That's because your time is worth less now than it used to be.

I'm sure there are very few goats not gotten by this, one of the few bright sides of having a government which makes ideological cuts is that along with the many people who're down on their luck or sick in a serious way who're going to have their benefits cut, some of the scroungers will too.

 

Welcome to capitalism.

ION, people who think it's "normal" to "expect" an inflationary pay rise every single year need to get out more.

Of course I suspect the OP (and probably half the people on this forum) are too young to remember the end of the Thatcher years in any detail.

 

Too young thank god, but i've heard a great deal about it, and i pity the people that were there for it.

My reason for this thread was not to rant, hence it has no rant title. It was merely to find out what the reasons were behind a low increase, and if it is a standard thing here. I've been in the UK for two years, but i'm still learning about the ins and outs of the system. Forgive me if i come across as ungrateful; i'm really not.

 

I'm sorry, I didn't realise you weren't a UK native. I wouldn't have posted a tough reply otherwise. Yes it is commonplace. Many people have had no pay rise, a pay cut, or a below inflation pay rise. At my workplace, we had no pay rise and 3 extra days holiday in its place - I earn the minimum wage as it is. For comparison's sake, my father earns £84,000 a year, and he has no pay rise in 3 years. So its a myth that the better earners have enjoyed juicy pay rises. I don't feel anger towards my employer for no pay rise - the unit I work in is desperately struggling and other colleagues are in line to be made redundant. I'm happy that I've just got work - as a young person in the UK, 20% are unemployed so it could be worse.

 

Wow you must be working your a** off to try stand out from the crowd. I'd be thinking its my time every time they called me to the office.

 

Well my job is pretty safe for the moment. I left university with huge debt and I've paid it all off, so if I got made redundant tomorrow, I'm better placed. These kinds of times are ultimately transitory - the UK boomed for a long time with low unemployment and interest rates, and we will have that again. In a few years there will be a lot of positivity and the economy will grow strongly. The world economy is changing very quickly so it takes time for everyone to readjust to a powerful East.

 

Spec is right. Let's do a thought experiment. Imagine working in a factory. A really repetitive, dull, unpleasant job like cleaning fish or chicken carcasses, or assembling cheap goods. The pay is piss, the hours 16 a day. The conditions noisy, dirty and smelly. You can't talk to the person standing next to you; they speak some foreign language, and anyway, you got quotas to make else they'll dock your pay. There is no pension scheme, no sick pay. You work or you starve, until you are too old to work and then you starve.

For 90% of the world, life is like this. All their life.

The wealth and standard of living of the world is very unevenly spread. If you were able to take a big spatula and spread it out perfectly even across the globe, you'd find that living conditions for us would become intolerably hard. For the remaining 90%, it would still improve beyond their wildest dreams.

 

having been made redundant twice in the same year a couple of years ago, i decided to start my own business, whilst i'm not earning massive amounts at the moment, i am hoping (once my health improves) that my business starts to increase.

 

We could all play a game where we are obsessed about people who are worse off than ourselves. That would get us nowhere. Thats because there are always people worse off than us. Your two children have been killed? I betcha theres something with more than 2 children who have been killed. You lost your job? I bet theres someone where they and their spouse lost their jobs. And so on. Its a pointless tangent and you should focus on you, not on what hypothetical people do or do not have.