What was the largest one year increase in wages did you ever get?

[NNN0LHI]

Most I ever got was 3% per year. Towards the end we negotiated a COLA(Cost Of Living Adjustment), increase plus our 3% yearly raise but all the COLA did was keep us at even.

Whats the most increase you ever got from one year to the next?

Don

[hfojvt]

1. about $2500

which was about 30%.

I was working as a part-time janitor for $5.50 an hour for about 30 hours a week. Then I got a job at the local auto parts factory which paid $7.15 an hour and gave one week's notice. Unable to find a replacement for me, my employer offered me $7.15 an hour to stay.

I suppose there was also the time I went from part-time work to full time work. That would be a jump of about 80% after taxes, but more if you include the insurance which eventually paid a $13,000 hospital bill.

[CBGLuthier]

2. roughly 140%

Joys of downsizing and being one of the few critical people left. From an independent company with almost two hundred employees to a branch with five including a secretary in under a year.

This was last late century.

[snooper2]

3. about 14%

nt

[closeupready]

4. 17%.

Back in 1999.

[mike_c]

5. I tripled my salary and got substantial benefits when I started my post-doc....

Went from making approximately $8K per year with no benefits as a teaching and research stipend to making $25K with insurance, retirement, etc as a post-doctoral research associate. This was in 1995. I'll tell you what, after seven years in college and grad school full time making less than ten grand annually, that $25K was awfully nice! My first "real" job, i.e. my first tenure track faculty position a year later was somewhat less of a boost-- I think I started at about $32K. Still, after years of student living, that seemed like a LOT of money!

[trackfan]

6. 73%

from $11 to $15/hr.

[SheilaT]

7. This goes back 40 plus years:

My base pay working for Mohawk Airlines went from $440 per month to $510 per month because the entire pay scale was increased when I'd been on the job about 8 or 9 months. The large increase was because we were underpaid compared to all the other airlines out there. Then, on my yearly anniversary it went to $540/month. This was 1969/70. My rent was just over $100/month. I didn't have a car and took the bus, and I'm sorry to say I have no idea what bus fare was at the time. Less than 50 cents, I think. This was in the Washington, DC area. I lived in Alexandria and worked at National Airport. Average people did not have credit cards in those days, so I paid by cash or check for everything, and often bought clothes on layaway. For the kiddies here who have never heard of that concept, you'd go to the store, select what you wanted, put some money down for the merchant to hold, and pay it off bit by bit until it was yours. In those days stores did not charge a fee for layaway, as I recall.

I had just enough money to cover my basic expenses and needs, and it was a world without a lot of the things we now take for granted. I had the cheapest phone service I could get, which limited me to 30 calls per month or I'd pay more. We had a company credit union, and I had them take out $25.00 a paycheck, which was a huge amount. My take-home every two weeks was typically around $100-$125. The amount would vary because of overtime and shift differential. One paycheck went to rent, the other to everything else. Even after that first year, despite that relatively large raise, I had very little left over. What I did have left over I spent travelling, taking advantage of the amazing travel opportunities as an airline employee.

In fact, because our pay scales were published, and no one got merit raises, we all knew what each other made. Over the years I travelled far more than the typical airline employee, and every so often a co-worker would ask me, "How can you afford all those trips?" To which I'd always reply, "I don't own a car." The cost of owning and operating even a very low-cost and fuel-efficient and reliable car is a real killer, especially when you are just getting by.

The best part was that I had no debt. I didn't have much in savings, because what I'd save up I'd spend, but it was a very good life in many ways. And the habits of frugality I acquired them have done me well in the last few years when my life situation has changed and I have much less income than before.

[sinkingfeeling]

8. Received one promotion raise of 32%.

[old mark]

9. Working in the same job, so an actual raise, about 6%-it was a makeup after

wage freezes for 2 years, so it was actually a fluke. It was a state government job with a union contract.

mark

[NNN0LHI]

10. In normal economic times was your increase pegged similar to mine at 3% per year?

Because 3% seemed to be enough to keep our heads above water. I was just trying to figure out if 3% was kind of the standard increase during good times for everyone?

Don

[old mark]

18. When we got annual raises, it worked out to about 3%...many times they were

"deferred" or downright eliminated if there was a budget problem. We were supposed to get COLA's from time to time as well, but when I retired almost 4 years ago, we had received just 1 cost of living increase since 1973.

mark

[Speck Tater]

11. I once changed jobs for almost 100% increase.

Went from programming video games for salary only to doing the same for salary + royalties on sales. That was back in the 1980's.

[Nikia]

12. 7% for the same job with the same company

This was after 1 year of employment there.

[walldude]

13. 300% I worked 16 years at the same job

the last 6 years without even a cost of living raise. Finally became an independent contractor and found out that they were charging 4 times what they were paying me for my labor. Now I get paid the going rate and no one but me is in charge of me.

[Sisaruus]

14. 38% increase last year

with a title change 11 months after my hire date.

Although it was a title change, it basically remained the same job.

[Synicus Maximus]

15. Standard raise 13 %. Bonuses 22%.

[Lisa0825]

16. I got a 27% increase when I got a new job right after being laid off..

and then I got laid off from that one 6 months later. Now I am back at the old job again, at slightly more than when I left! LOL! So took about a 24% decrease, but I love my job and the commute is much shorter, which makes up for about half the difference.

[WestSeattle2]

17. $14k - about 20% at the time