Last month was a recordbreaking one for raises offered by small firms. James Freeman reports at the Wall Street Journal:
The fierce competition for workers among U.S. employers has inspired another record-setting month for wage hikes at small firms. That’s according to the latest monthly employment survey from the National Federation of Independent Business, due out later today.
NFIB Chief Economist William Dunkelberg reports on the December numbers from member companies participating in the survey:
Seasonally adjusted, a net 48 percent reported raising compensation, up 4 points from November and a 48-year record high reading. A net 32 percent plan to raise compensation in the next three months, unchanged from November’s record high reading.
Maybe I should start looking for a new job. I’ve had my present one for a year now. I’d hate to leave my present employer in the lurch (I would leave a very large hole)
Just ask for a raise.
Steve
In my field the way you get a raise is changing jobs. Asking for and getting a raise is extremely rare. I worked for my previous employer for seven years without getting a raise. I knew people there who’d worked much longer without a raise.
Ouch. Our nurses are very aggressive about wanting raises. It is at least yearly and they carefully track raises by other local hospitals. Docs are nearly as aggressive except for a few specific specialties, generally the ones already making the most money.
Steve
Workers at the primary grocery chain here are going on strike this week. The chain is hiring scabs for $18/hour. They were already undermanned. Our local store has been a shit-show for the last six months.
Just last year my daughter applied for a job there for around $14/hour, a bit above Colorado’s minimum wage.
Now everything around here starts at $15-$16/hour as the bottom and there are still help wanted signs everywhere.
As I’ve noted before, I don’t know how this ends.
I’m lucky – I’ve gotten a number of raises but I’m in an industry that’s done very well with Covid.