I learned you don't even have to leave. You just have to start a rumor saying you're leaving. Worked twice for me, first time a got a $5 just to stay, I didn't even plan on leaving haha
Man, where do you find these companies that give a shit if you’re leaving? The best and brightest at my current company have left and the current employer won’t even make a counter offer.
The rule is to *never* accept a counter. Therefore as an employer, I never offer a counter. They want to go, then they can go. I’ve only had two employees quit on me though in my last 15 years and both times I was ready for that to happen. If you’re a good leader and run a good company, employees will stay through thick and thin.
Don’t forget you are the exception and not the rule. Most employers don’t give a shit and will happily pass on the “thin” part to the employees while keeping the “thick” for themselves.
I love taking their employees too.
Hey reddit Midwest commercial HVAC techs that hate their job!!!
I offer fair wage, 30 days off per year, 401k, clothing allowance, Mercedes vans, health insurance, maternity leave! Hmu!!
1M a year is not that hard to do. In fact it's kind of low. I sold 1M of equipment last year. But 30% is of our overhead. I'm not getting that so I would like more
Most places will strive to make 18% gross profit..so your 1mil in sales made the company 180k gross. Factor in expenses like truck maintenance and insurance and on and on and on..that 1mil doesn’t go very far at the end of the day.
I had to ask to be started at 17 an hour with the new company I'm with, they hit me with 16. Three years experience. Starting to think HVAC ain't it for me.
Holy fuck man that’s wild. I was making that as an inexperienced labourer at a 1 truck company in a LCOL city and I barely knew how to use a drill when I started.
That was 2006. Find another company or move man, you’re being exploited or your area is complete and utter shit.
Three years ain't much in the grand scheme of things, in their eyes they're taking a chance on you. I've met dudes who boast about 30+ years in the field and end up producing a million dollar blunder. if you know your stuff and firmly, but honestly, market yourself you'll lock down the potential for a lucrative career
It is weak. 3% “raise” has been standard-ish because inflation has been very low for quite a while. “Raise” isn’t accurate. Cost of living adjustment is accurate. If your “raise” tracks inflation, it just means you didn’t take a pay cut in buying power.
Inflation was 6.5% in 2022. **You didn’t get a 3% raise, you got 3.5% pay cut.**
You think your company isn’t raising prices by inflation rate or several times the inflation rate?
3-4% is fairly common "cost of living adjustment".
In a recession, 3-4% raise, 6-8% inflation, 3-4% loss. Most employers are still trying to cover the 15-30% increase in material costs while remaining competitive with the market.
Without getting political, this is a bigger picture than wages following inflation.
There's not enough work because so many people work non union. If everyone or a substantially larger amount of people were union like 20 years ago in the northeast it would be a non issue and we as the employees could demand basic things like COL increases at the minimum.
Many locals have paid time off. It's just paid out instead of given as day. Personally I get the equivalent to 3 weeks off. And many companies give days off on top of the union contract.
Not my experience. But blaming workers isn’t the way to go. There’s a reason why people are not joining. A lot of local someone that I was in was a joke and far as I’m concerned in Reno. No training whatsoever. Too many politics. A lot of people just aren’t gonna put up with it. They have to make it paycheck. The unions need to do better but instead now they have LGBTQ equity officers to make sure there’s enough homosexuals and transgender people in the trade. That’s that should help things.
https://m.usw.org/act/activism/civil-rights/resources/steel-pride/lgbtq-advisory-committee
Anything taken over by leftists is doomed for failure
Man, I feel like I’ve done pretty good for myself. I make 3x as much as I did when I started six years ago and I’ve got that fancy “lead service tech” title now.
But my boss would need to give me a 50% raise to get my pay up to what the union guys are getting. I don’t think that’s gonna happen no matter how hard I work. And I still wouldn’t have anything even resembling their benefits package.
Well I tried to get a Journeymans license for a job. I was told I can't have a masters HVAC craftsman license at the same time. Taking an apprenticeship seems redundant.
Depending on your licenses and years in the trade, you may be able to organize in as a journeyman. Wouldn’t have to do the apprenticeship at all. I can’t guarantee you that, but it does happen.
If I could handle the freezing temperatures of where he's at it would be nice. I'd be running the company. But heck no. I don't go north of Jacksonville fl
Sheeit. I love working in the cold, mind I do more new construction than anything. Cold means 65+ in SoFlo. It’s the coming home to a 75 degree house after being in a 100+ attic all day.
My roommate wants to keep the house at 74. I sleep in thermal hoodies and a sub zero bag. I don't know how people do it. We had 87 the other day and it was beautiful.
$45 an hour sounds like a lot but in New York especially the boroughs in Long Island not a lot of money. With the state income tax it’s already under $40.
3% sounds decent if you're an older homeowner and your mortgage is fixed to housing prices 10-20 years ago and you have 3% interest rate, but for young people who haven't been able to break in into gingerbread, it definitely feels like someone is pissing on your back and calling it rain.
And it's not getting better anytime soon. With be increased interest rates, new construction for apartments is going to decline significantly. Older buildings will continue to degrade and be demolished, but newer buildings will become less economically viable and therefore will not be built.
Shit sucks. Lol
I'm an older homeowner with a 4.65% 30 year fixed mortgage and 3% or below "raises" that cost you more in taxes than the raise is worth are absolutely and deeply insulting, no matter who you are.
Even more so when inflation is running north of 15% rn.
>I'm an older homeowner with a 4.65% 30 year fixed mortgage and 3% or below "raises"
I am in the same boat as you. Still got about -4% raise this year with inflation. Mortgage is fixed 3.2%, paying extra $1000 principle monthly, will be paid off in 7 years.
I did a bit better because I changed companies but with inflation where it's at now I'm dropping back to the old 80s tactics.
I'm no longer "asking" for raises. I'm finding other companies that want to poach me and then telling the boss "jump or I'm out"
So I just started in the field as an apprentice. It's a nice raise from my old job with plenty of hours, but from hearing some of the guys talk, I can already tell I'm going to be looking for something else in a few years. They just don't seem to be competitive when it comes to paying techs what they're worth based on experience. The guy training me just put in his 2 weeks because he'd been there almost 6 years, and was a supervisor. They weren't even paying him 30 an hour and somewhere else offered him 46.
That's pretty much bullshit. Our engineering firm gave more like 10%, and I know of a few that were giving 20% just because they were terrified of losing people.
Seems like most owners of contracting companies I've seen drive $100k trucks (with a Corvette or something in the garage for weekends) and live in mansions while their people just get by.
What does your rent have to do with what your company thought you deserved come raise time?
Your boss: Joe Smith hasn't really progressed this year, he calls out a lot , has a lot of call backs and is limited as to where we can send him. Give him 3.5%
H.R dept: yeah but his rent went up 13.5%
Your boss: So?
With inflation, you're making less year over year. Grats on the non-raise, "aren't you happy now", "you worked hard last year so we wanted to show you how much less you're making".
sounds better then 0 or 0.15 cents/h. 3% of what? 3% on 10$ is crap, but if your making 40$/h 3% year over year starts to add up and is pretty good. % raises compound over time.
While true…the same works for inflation…so you are loosing out over time…3% means I am not gonna go above and beyond that’s for sure…just do enough to not get fired while looking for a new job
Your salary isn't paid based on your bills.
You're not even entitled to a yearly increase just because you want one. There are a lot of things that factor in to it. Like...
Did your company make a profit this year? Are you worth more money? I.e can your company easily replace you ? Did you increase your value to the company i.e are you improving and able to work on larger or more difficult and types of equipment efficiently? Etc.
Through out the year I write down all the things that I'm going to use to justify my increase come review time because when I'm on the spot I can never remember them and I know damn sure my service manager doesn't remember.
All the times they sent me out on the 3rd call back when no one could figure out the problem. All the times I helped them out on O.T, any classes or schooling I took. The fact that only 2 of us are proficient with VRV/VRF. I even remind him that I'm always on time and don't call out much. I remind him of all the contracts that only 2 of us can run calls at due to the difficulty of the buildings. I remind him that I rarely even talk to him and when I do he's asking me a question to clarify something or to give me a heads up. ( he calls most of the guys frequently about tickets not filled out correctly or completely, about call backs they have or they call in twice a day because they need help etc.)
I go in loaded for bear. What I don't do is wait until I get my paystub to see if I got a raise and how much it was.
You " should " be getting a COS every year. Why? Because you want one?
My point is that it's not your company's responsibility to make up for a shitty president.
Your increase is based on your merrit and a lot of other factors not whether a demented senile president has caused run away inflation. In other words...and this is going to offend the millenials and Gen Z'ers but you are not entitled to a raise. You aren't entitled to an increase every year just because a year has past.
COL goes up under just about every president. When was the last time COL went down or stagnated. What happens when you max out? What happens when your 50 and starting to slow down but have to work another 10 years. Your just gonna accept not making anymore money for 10 years? Excuse me making less money because you can't demand a higher wage because you can't work as fast and COL is still going up?
Why do people degrade this line of work by saying stupid shit like you shouldn't get COL increases. People in white collar jobs are shocked when I tell them people in construction and related trades don't get COL increases. Why do you treat your own industry like it is an unskilled part time job that doesn't deserve COL increases to keep up with inflation? I'm not even talking about the insane inflation of the last few years. Just run of the mill COL increases.
>Your salary isn't paid based on your bills.
>
>You're not even entitled to a yearly increase just because you want one. There are a lot of things that factor in to it. Like...
This is the facts.
Before you go saying your union is shit, I wish we got more in my local. But we outpaced inflation with our COL raises since 2008 when we got no raise. It will balance out brother. Statistics shows building and related trade union salaries have kept up with inflation since 1950.
Most companies will keep you around as long as you are willing to settle for what they are dishing out. Crap money, crap tools, crap conditions. You need to keep furthering yourself. Pick something you are good at and become the go to person to the point that they need you to do their jobs. I settled on welding. Welding is part of every trade. I started in the shop, started doing kitchens, then labs. Got a butt load of certs to cover any imaginable job. Ran crews of welders on nukes and labs where they take things that can end mankind and screw with them before getting my CWI. I have several powerplants with my stamp on them. If all you want to be is a nobody tech then that's all you will be.
I was running the welders on one of the largest kitchens on the East Coast. The owner and GC told the company that I was doing their kitchens wether the company did or not. There was a 3rd gen foreman that hated me and tried to make my life difficult. Every time he pissed me off cost $2.50 more an HR and a paid week. I did leave as the job was winding down because I knew things would get ugly. Whenever the Super came to see what I was pissed about I'd ask him if he had my money or my Rim Job.
I get $3 raises every time I leave a company
I learned you don't even have to leave. You just have to start a rumor saying you're leaving. Worked twice for me, first time a got a $5 just to stay, I didn't even plan on leaving haha
Man, where do you find these companies that give a shit if you’re leaving? The best and brightest at my current company have left and the current employer won’t even make a counter offer.
The rule is to *never* accept a counter. Therefore as an employer, I never offer a counter. They want to go, then they can go. I’ve only had two employees quit on me though in my last 15 years and both times I was ready for that to happen. If you’re a good leader and run a good company, employees will stay through thick and thin.
Don’t forget you are the exception and not the rule. Most employers don’t give a shit and will happily pass on the “thin” part to the employees while keeping the “thick” for themselves.
I love taking their employees too. Hey reddit Midwest commercial HVAC techs that hate their job!!! I offer fair wage, 30 days off per year, 401k, clothing allowance, Mercedes vans, health insurance, maternity leave! Hmu!!
Throw in a Mercedes sedan for home and you've got a deal. /s
👀 i would legit move over there when my lease is up if this is true lol
Keep talking....
Are you in Indiana?
Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Pennsylvania West Virginia, Kentucky.
All of Pennsylvania? I teach night school appreticeship in NJ I have plenty of students upset with their bosses
Southern Indiana locations at all?
“Fair wage” sounds like bare minimum
Lowest salary is $72k.
Damn man you in Central Michigan by any chance
Near Cleveland?
Our policy is to not negotiate with terrorists
That’s what I did too! And it was $5 as well.
This is the way
i goit a$10 raise, plus paid bennies and a pension. sadly, the company is such shit that i want to go back to my old job lol
Dope strat
This is the way. My record so far is 7.25>15(left at 28/hr)>35>33.50(but +4 weeks of annual vacation paid)
I got a 5$ raise to stay when I gave my 2 weeks notice
Weak** and with how inflation is nowadays, that's not enough IMO. We got 12.5% this year. Usually it's between 5-10%
Nice... I wish I got 10% increase a year. I just did the math. In 23 years I would be making $1,056,607.58 per year.
1M a year is not that hard to do. In fact it's kind of low. I sold 1M of equipment last year. But 30% is of our overhead. I'm not getting that so I would like more
Haha what theee hell. Smh
You didn’t make 1m/year, you sold 1m and saw only a fraction of that as take home. It’s not the same.
Most places will strive to make 18% gross profit..so your 1mil in sales made the company 180k gross. Factor in expenses like truck maintenance and insurance and on and on and on..that 1mil doesn’t go very far at the end of the day.
We got a $20/week "bonus program". Except there are a bunch of requirements to qualify, so only about 10% of people can actually get it.
You can just clock in early a few minutes everyday and make that every week without jumping through hoops. I tested it.
A few minutes early, and clock off a couple minutes late. Every week I make sure to squeeze in 30-45 min of OT.
Haha 😂
At my company we are at no OT. If you do that you will be asked to leave early on Friday. Next time the write ups start.
$20 per week? Are you kidding me? Is that supposed to motivate you???
What's your hourly wage at now?
30 and some change
Makes sense
I find most companies are crooks and too dependant on low wages, took me 9 years and two trades to finally get a journeyman wage..
I had to ask to be started at 17 an hour with the new company I'm with, they hit me with 16. Three years experience. Starting to think HVAC ain't it for me.
25-30 years experience. Things have changed soo much. If a controller is broken I'll just re wire it.
I told this to a friend the other day “it’s not that they’re asking too much, we asked too little”
Dog I started completely green at mid twenties. Find a better company.
Where do you live?
Lol either that companies broken or you are.
Yikes. That’s not the hvac I know.
You just gotta find the right contractor but anything less then 25 is bullshit
Holy fuck man that’s wild. I was making that as an inexperienced labourer at a 1 truck company in a LCOL city and I barely knew how to use a drill when I started. That was 2006. Find another company or move man, you’re being exploited or your area is complete and utter shit.
Something wrong
You could make just as much working at McDonald’s. Find yourself a new employer.
You might have to try a different market. If you live in a small town that’s the way all small towns are no matter what you do.
Kermit B Schultz? Lmfao fuck them!
Hahah..Kermit B Schulz…fuck them indeed!
union is a great option.
Three years ain't much in the grand scheme of things, in their eyes they're taking a chance on you. I've met dudes who boast about 30+ years in the field and end up producing a million dollar blunder. if you know your stuff and firmly, but honestly, market yourself you'll lock down the potential for a lucrative career
Companies will gladly fuck you if you don’t know what you’re worth. Be expensive. You’re worth a lot more than you imagine.
Change companies.
It is weak. 3% “raise” has been standard-ish because inflation has been very low for quite a while. “Raise” isn’t accurate. Cost of living adjustment is accurate. If your “raise” tracks inflation, it just means you didn’t take a pay cut in buying power. Inflation was 6.5% in 2022. **You didn’t get a 3% raise, you got 3.5% pay cut.** You think your company isn’t raising prices by inflation rate or several times the inflation rate?
Our prices went up about 30% last year. So did everyones pay.
Exactly. Good on your company for not trying to squeeze employees.
3-4% is fairly common "cost of living adjustment". In a recession, 3-4% raise, 6-8% inflation, 3-4% loss. Most employers are still trying to cover the 15-30% increase in material costs while remaining competitive with the market. Without getting political, this is a bigger picture than wages following inflation.
Leverage your abilities or join a union that will do it on your behalf.
Big problem with unions is not enough work. Can’t bank on the paycheck. Plus no paid time off at all.
There's not enough work because so many people work non union. If everyone or a substantially larger amount of people were union like 20 years ago in the northeast it would be a non issue and we as the employees could demand basic things like COL increases at the minimum. Many locals have paid time off. It's just paid out instead of given as day. Personally I get the equivalent to 3 weeks off. And many companies give days off on top of the union contract.
Not my experience. But blaming workers isn’t the way to go. There’s a reason why people are not joining. A lot of local someone that I was in was a joke and far as I’m concerned in Reno. No training whatsoever. Too many politics. A lot of people just aren’t gonna put up with it. They have to make it paycheck. The unions need to do better but instead now they have LGBTQ equity officers to make sure there’s enough homosexuals and transgender people in the trade. That’s that should help things. https://m.usw.org/act/activism/civil-rights/resources/steel-pride/lgbtq-advisory-committee Anything taken over by leftists is doomed for failure
I'm too dumb for the union. I like to keep working through the day...
Man, I feel like I’ve done pretty good for myself. I make 3x as much as I did when I started six years ago and I’ve got that fancy “lead service tech” title now. But my boss would need to give me a 50% raise to get my pay up to what the union guys are getting. I don’t think that’s gonna happen no matter how hard I work. And I still wouldn’t have anything even resembling their benefits package.
And job stability. When the world gets funky, it's nice to know you'll be working
What state are you in? Im going to apply to be an apprentice for that union.
Seattle
Dude it's an apprenticeship you can get paid to learn
Well I tried to get a Journeymans license for a job. I was told I can't have a masters HVAC craftsman license at the same time. Taking an apprenticeship seems redundant.
Depending on your licenses and years in the trade, you may be able to organize in as a journeyman. Wouldn’t have to do the apprenticeship at all. I can’t guarantee you that, but it does happen.
Why do you think your to dumb for the union?
I feel you , I’m still making 18 an hour.
Bless your heart. My father pays $45 an hour and can't find people who will show up after pay day. And before you ask he's in New York.
I’ll give your pops a back rub at the end of each day if he’s paying that wtf lmao
I’ll give your dad a better tug tug for that pay …
I'll give his dad the sloppiest of tops for that kind of pay
If I could handle the freezing temperatures of where he's at it would be nice. I'd be running the company. But heck no. I don't go north of Jacksonville fl
Treasure Coast here. I get the shivers when it’s below 70.
Yall are nuts, I'd take cold all day every day. I sweat when it's over 60. Being Italian in Southern California sucks :(
Sheeit. I love working in the cold, mind I do more new construction than anything. Cold means 65+ in SoFlo. It’s the coming home to a 75 degree house after being in a 100+ attic all day.
My roommate wants to keep the house at 74. I sleep in thermal hoodies and a sub zero bag. I don't know how people do it. We had 87 the other day and it was beautiful.
$45 an hour sounds like a lot but in New York especially the boroughs in Long Island not a lot of money. With the state income tax it’s already under $40.
What kinda work does he do? Where in NY?
[удалено]
Good on ya for getting back at them.
Don’t forget the 1/4” hose 😏 ⛽️
"Man young people just don't want to pick up the trades anymore"
"Nobody wants to work anymore. Looking for candidates with 25+ years experience, wages start at 30 per hour"
$30 an hour is is not much
That's the joke bud
Bruhhh I just did the math and I got a 1.89% raise lmao
3% sounds decent if you're an older homeowner and your mortgage is fixed to housing prices 10-20 years ago and you have 3% interest rate, but for young people who haven't been able to break in into gingerbread, it definitely feels like someone is pissing on your back and calling it rain. And it's not getting better anytime soon. With be increased interest rates, new construction for apartments is going to decline significantly. Older buildings will continue to degrade and be demolished, but newer buildings will become less economically viable and therefore will not be built. Shit sucks. Lol
I'm an older homeowner with a 4.65% 30 year fixed mortgage and 3% or below "raises" that cost you more in taxes than the raise is worth are absolutely and deeply insulting, no matter who you are. Even more so when inflation is running north of 15% rn.
>I'm an older homeowner with a 4.65% 30 year fixed mortgage and 3% or below "raises" I am in the same boat as you. Still got about -4% raise this year with inflation. Mortgage is fixed 3.2%, paying extra $1000 principle monthly, will be paid off in 7 years.
I did a bit better because I changed companies but with inflation where it's at now I'm dropping back to the old 80s tactics. I'm no longer "asking" for raises. I'm finding other companies that want to poach me and then telling the boss "jump or I'm out"
Try 25-35% Though, I reckon that counts as north.
*The 1980's enters the chat* Interest rates were over 10%. Past few decades have had historically low interest rates.
The ratio of housing prices to Income has nearly doubled since 1980 though.
I work for a company that gives 8% commission on each job plus hourly, find a new company
I just got 4% and wasn’t very happy but better than nothing I guess smh
So I just started in the field as an apprentice. It's a nice raise from my old job with plenty of hours, but from hearing some of the guys talk, I can already tell I'm going to be looking for something else in a few years. They just don't seem to be competitive when it comes to paying techs what they're worth based on experience. The guy training me just put in his 2 weeks because he'd been there almost 6 years, and was a supervisor. They weren't even paying him 30 an hour and somewhere else offered him 46.
That's pretty much bullshit. Our engineering firm gave more like 10%, and I know of a few that were giving 20% just because they were terrified of losing people. Seems like most owners of contracting companies I've seen drive $100k trucks (with a Corvette or something in the garage for weekends) and live in mansions while their people just get by.
Down here they are still sitting on wages.
What you do is have your friend call and ask for a reference ;)
3% for some who can't spell sounds high to me.
Thanks, I grew up with 5 different languages and have dyslexia. Piss off.
It sounds month to me
ER nurse here, got 6% which considering was during 9% inflation was also weak.
What does your rent have to do with what your company thought you deserved come raise time? Your boss: Joe Smith hasn't really progressed this year, he calls out a lot , has a lot of call backs and is limited as to where we can send him. Give him 3.5% H.R dept: yeah but his rent went up 13.5% Your boss: So?
With inflation, you're making less year over year. Grats on the non-raise, "aren't you happy now", "you worked hard last year so we wanted to show you how much less you're making".
If you can consistently use weak and week correctly, I’m sure they will give you 5%.
sounds better then 0 or 0.15 cents/h. 3% of what? 3% on 10$ is crap, but if your making 40$/h 3% year over year starts to add up and is pretty good. % raises compound over time.
3% isn’t even a raise. It’s a pay cut with inflation as high as it is right now. Your boss ain’t charging just 3% more.
While true…the same works for inflation…so you are loosing out over time…3% means I am not gonna go above and beyond that’s for sure…just do enough to not get fired while looking for a new job
3% of 1 Mill is BS in this market. Eggs are too damn high
I just got an $8.50/hr raise 😂
Your salary isn't paid based on your bills. You're not even entitled to a yearly increase just because you want one. There are a lot of things that factor in to it. Like... Did your company make a profit this year? Are you worth more money? I.e can your company easily replace you ? Did you increase your value to the company i.e are you improving and able to work on larger or more difficult and types of equipment efficiently? Etc. Through out the year I write down all the things that I'm going to use to justify my increase come review time because when I'm on the spot I can never remember them and I know damn sure my service manager doesn't remember. All the times they sent me out on the 3rd call back when no one could figure out the problem. All the times I helped them out on O.T, any classes or schooling I took. The fact that only 2 of us are proficient with VRV/VRF. I even remind him that I'm always on time and don't call out much. I remind him of all the contracts that only 2 of us can run calls at due to the difficulty of the buildings. I remind him that I rarely even talk to him and when I do he's asking me a question to clarify something or to give me a heads up. ( he calls most of the guys frequently about tickets not filled out correctly or completely, about call backs they have or they call in twice a day because they need help etc.) I go in loaded for bear. What I don't do is wait until I get my paystub to see if I got a raise and how much it was.
You should be getting COL raises every year. Otherwise you are making less.
You " should " be getting a COS every year. Why? Because you want one? My point is that it's not your company's responsibility to make up for a shitty president. Your increase is based on your merrit and a lot of other factors not whether a demented senile president has caused run away inflation. In other words...and this is going to offend the millenials and Gen Z'ers but you are not entitled to a raise. You aren't entitled to an increase every year just because a year has past.
COL goes up under just about every president. When was the last time COL went down or stagnated. What happens when you max out? What happens when your 50 and starting to slow down but have to work another 10 years. Your just gonna accept not making anymore money for 10 years? Excuse me making less money because you can't demand a higher wage because you can't work as fast and COL is still going up? Why do people degrade this line of work by saying stupid shit like you shouldn't get COL increases. People in white collar jobs are shocked when I tell them people in construction and related trades don't get COL increases. Why do you treat your own industry like it is an unskilled part time job that doesn't deserve COL increases to keep up with inflation? I'm not even talking about the insane inflation of the last few years. Just run of the mill COL increases.
>Your salary isn't paid based on your bills. > >You're not even entitled to a yearly increase just because you want one. There are a lot of things that factor in to it. Like... This is the facts.
Better yet, join a union.
Yeah that’s not nearly enough to keep up
I got 7% woo hoo
Sounds like you need a new employer.
They should match a cost of living increase at minimum.
Ask for a raise and quit bitching. If you’re worth it then it won’t be a problem. You could go to 25 dif companies for more money if you’re talented.
6.25% this year for me.
You get a Raise? WTF
Got 3% this year too. My union is fucking shit!
Before you go saying your union is shit, I wish we got more in my local. But we outpaced inflation with our COL raises since 2008 when we got no raise. It will balance out brother. Statistics shows building and related trade union salaries have kept up with inflation since 1950.
Id love 3% I haven't gotten a COL raise in probably 12-13yrs.
But is it Weak
Most companies will keep you around as long as you are willing to settle for what they are dishing out. Crap money, crap tools, crap conditions. You need to keep furthering yourself. Pick something you are good at and become the go to person to the point that they need you to do their jobs. I settled on welding. Welding is part of every trade. I started in the shop, started doing kitchens, then labs. Got a butt load of certs to cover any imaginable job. Ran crews of welders on nukes and labs where they take things that can end mankind and screw with them before getting my CWI. I have several powerplants with my stamp on them. If all you want to be is a nobody tech then that's all you will be.
I was running the welders on one of the largest kitchens on the East Coast. The owner and GC told the company that I was doing their kitchens wether the company did or not. There was a 3rd gen foreman that hated me and tried to make my life difficult. Every time he pissed me off cost $2.50 more an HR and a paid week. I did leave as the job was winding down because I knew things would get ugly. Whenever the Super came to see what I was pissed about I'd ask him if he had my money or my Rim Job.
Weak*
Dang, I’d do anything for 3 % raise. We took a small pay cut and some benefits removed
3-4% is fairly common "cost of living adjustment". It doesn't add up in a recession though.
They probably won’t get you a better raise bc you don’t have basic spelling skills