I'm unsure...

[Becks]

OK...Earlier this month, New Jersey's minimum wage went up to $7.15 an hour. Not a problem. I just got my yearly raise last week, and I'm now making $8.45 an hour. I'm making $1.30 an hour over minimum wage...just like when I started 3 years ago. (I also asked for, and got, a raise last winter, due to being cross-trained.) Because of that last raise, I'm hesitant to ask for another one, BUT... I'm not happy at all about working there three years, and basically being back where I started.

Should I ask for another raise?

[Ryu]

wow.. thats a really high min wage (and wage )
i had the same thing happen or almost happen i dont remember which, but either way new people make as much if not more than me and i feel the same way about asking for a new raise
i dunno what totell you but if you go for it explain why you are asking

[Sofar]

Minimum wage is $7.95 in these parts, and the bottom fell out of the rental market around here recently, so living here on minimum wage is easy.

When I was hired a month ago, minimum wage was $7.65, and my starting wages were eight bucks an hour. Two days after I was hired minium wage went up by thirty cents. Now I'm only a nickel above minimum wage.

[Confuzed-Monkey]

It may be different for me, different state and probably different company, but once a year I can ask for a review of salary.

This means that they will check my salary against current incoming hires(average pay), if I am lower, they will give me a raise to match. If I'm higher then nothing happens. We start slightly over minimum wage fortunately.

I am very happy (money wise) were I'm at. I can make between 13-20 hour depending on commission(spiff), from a base pay of 11.20 hr.

I think they call it a "Cost of Living" adjustment, or something to that effect.


If you have a good supervisor to talk to, I would relate all of this info to them, and share your concern that you are not satisfied with the pay. The only thing I would shy away from is telling them you know how much new people are making. Sometimes that can be a sore issue for some managers.

Good Luck

CM

[symposes]

Where i work it is a constant battle...
The employer is trying to get away with paying us Bluecollars as little as possible.
a fair amount of us blue collars have 2 jobs, and i have heard a few have 2 jobs+foodstamps, and still cannot make ends meet.(i dont know if its because of poor money skills, or the fact maybe because they have wives and children, or husbands and children. but still...)
basicly the employer has been giving rasies that dont even compete with inflation.
and the entire bluecollar work force here has had to fight, and there is talk of unionization, just to get our pay raises to even come close to matching inflation
whereas the whitecollars are getting all this extra money..
head whitecollar dude got a payraise of like 200%(no joke, contract negotiation and a couple of bonuses tripled his income. NO FREAKING JOKE. id like to see him unclog a toilet. or fix hole in a drywall wall. or something like that. His philosphy is screw the working man. His whole attitude towards us BCs when there isnt a camera in his face, is utterly horrendous.)
the bluecollars got at pool raise that topped out at best at 3.5 (at the very very very very very best. id say the average raise was closer to 2.8 maybe, while inflation is 3.3%)(one guy in my department got a penny raise 2 years in a row. which everyone in my department says isnt fair at all.)(employeer was trying to make him quit. if they fired him, there would have been unemployement. thats a whole nother story though.)
on a side note, % raises are silly. if you make 10k a year, 3% means jack crap. if you make 100k it means something.

[Department stores *sigh*]

we had the same thing happen here actually. min wage was 5.90 and went up to 7. i started working at 7.50 when the min wage was 5.90. Then when i got my raise i also got an increase due to the min wage increase which put me up close to 9ish at the time. Finally capped out at 9.75 and commision when i quit hehe ^^

[Depot Denizen]

In the Republic of Vermont, minimum wage went to $7.50. I'm making about $10 now. Unfortunately in Burlington, the cost of renting places is around $600-$700 for a bare apartment. The "cost of living" in the area is about $12 an hour, at least. After I graduate college, I'll prolly try and make it fulltime at my current job, and see about getting a nice raise while I'm at it. My dad is making buckoo bucks right now, but he's also been in the sheet metal business for a loooong time.

[Worker-Intellectual]

My store is cheap. They always try to give you your raise/review just before minimum wage goes up, so I thank the NDP whenever I get a raise, and pray that the Conservatives (or the Liberals, but they will never get elected in this province) never get in.

[Becks]

I talked to my department manager yesterday, and he said I should ask for a raise. The next time I'll see the store manager I need to ask will be Tuesday. Wish me luck!!!!

[Rahmota]

I dunno what to tell you. here in Ohio min wage is still the federal slave wage. At the car dealership I was making 7.50/hr after working there for 3 years and becoming the head of the detail department. I asked for a cost of living adjustment since it had been almost 9 months since my last raise and they fired me.

they tried to claim I was lazy, refused to do my work and just spent my entire day being an insubordinate disrespectful bum. This after I had basically gone out of my way to keep the lot nice and organized and clean and my space in the building clean. And covered for their butts with the higher ups in the dealerchain as well as being their gopher for their lunch and stuff (including making a few whiskey runs down to th elocal liquer store on the clock.) Not that I minded because they let me take just about beater on the lt I wanted to rollto do that in. But after doing all that and i ask for a small raise of 50 cents n hour they do that backstabbing. Kinda makes me a bit bitter.

I wound up turnign them into the state for a few of the things I saw durign my time there. Last I heard the manager lost his car salesman liscence.

[Gurndigarn]

But after doing all that and i ask for a small raise of 50 cents n hour they do that backstabbing. Kinda makes me a bit bitter.

Yeah, but look at it this way. Even if they didn't get reamed by the state, firing you because you asked for a raise means that they just lost a quality employee. You know how rare those are? You just don't throw them away if you know what you're doing.

[Rahmota]

Gurndigarn stated:firing you because you asked for a raise means that they just lost a quality employee.

I don't really think they cared. As one of the mechanics that worked there told me mechanic's boxes have wheels on them for a reason.

[Cia]

Minimum wage is $5.15 in South Dakota.

I make twice that now but I had to graduate college before I made more than minimum while working for my Dad.

[booger]

Minimum wage is $5.15 in Wyoming too. But they can pay you $4.25 training wage for the first 90 days if you are under a certain age (21, I think but I could be wrong). $4.25 an hour is just lame!

My job started me quite a bit above minimum but still not near enough to live off of. Husband and I both have to work full time to pay the bills, and we don't even have any kids to support. *sigh* I went to college so I wouldn't have to struggle like my parents did. But I suppose all of the fast food and retail "fun" I have endured is good for me.

[Becks]

I promised an update, and here it is. I got the raise. Check out the post in Bragging Base.