What kind of raise did you get this year?

[Joubert[$]]

Our fiscal year end is March 31 so we're just looking at raises now. Each year, we do raises for the coming year in May & June. We also have a very healthy profit sharing plan, so a bigger chunk of our comp each year is variable.

What % did folks in your company see as a salary increase over the last year? And would you be willing to trade your increase for the chance at a higher bonus?

[amykhar]

we had a salary freeze for a year right before I left where I was. Bonuses didn't look too good either.

[kurt_messick]

In addition to cutting staff, the seminary may not have any raises this year. Last year it was 3%. No bonuses, no profit-share or any such thing exists there.

[slick4591[$]]

Our fiscal year starts October 1. This year we had an adjustment to our salary scale. Since I was topped out they created another step and then designated between felony and misdemeanor positions. Add in the cost of living raise and it totaled a little over 9%. Hell of a lot better that the 2% the previous years.

Bonuses? What are those?

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

Also from the not-for-profit world:

We get 4% annually - 2% cost of living, 2% merit (although you have to be a real big screw-up, like on the verge of being fired, to get less than the 2% merit). No bonuses. You get a few thou when you graduate with an advanced degree or if you're changing positions you can negotiate yourself a good chunk of change but once you're there, that's your slot with an additional 4% on your annual work anniversary.

[conradd]

I've been here five months and haven't figured out the salary system yet. It's a public agency, so we have a salary schedule. I was hired on step 2 and there is a 5.75% COLA due at some point. I'll go to step 3 at my 6 month review and step 4 after a year. To confuse things further, there is a for-profit side to the agency too, and there is a bonus on earnings from that side. So, I guess I'm getting the increase and the bonus, although a 5.75% COLA is high enough that I wouldn't risk it on a higher bonus.

Deb
risk averse to the max

[Redlass]

We're also a non-profit. We're also one of those companies that does well when the economy is poor (as more people go back to school and more companies outsource their training). During the 90s when everyone was getting major raises we had salary freezes and 2% raises.

This year we got 5% raises and next year we're budgeted for 4%. The only reason we're dropping to 4% is because our parent organization is having a bad year.

[taurusmoon]

We are now on year two of a wage freeze.

Bonuses were cut dramatically last year too.

New fiscal begins Nov. 1. We have yet to learn what the future has in store for us.


Sara

[mnehr]

Ours is down, I only got 5% this year.. it sounds like a lot, but my firt year I received a 12%, my second year a 15%, then two major promotions so the last couple of year's increases have seemed trivial..

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

Note to self: find out where mnher works and apply...

[mnehr]

We have openings. In NY we have openings in Albany for ACCOUNT MANAGER / OPERATIONS EXECUTIVE, IT Business Consultant, Network Telecom I.
If any of those interest you, are in your field, and if Albany is a good area, drop me an e-mail..
(The Operations Exec job would actually have you traveling most of the time..)

[mnehr]

sorry, a mistake, the IT Consultant is actually based in Rochester..

[jgibson2[$]]

I work for a nonprofit, too. Pay raises? They'd better be impressive this time around. 5 years ago I got a 10% pay cut. It took 4 years to get back to where I'd been. This past year I got about 4%. I can go to Childrens in DC and almost double my salary. It's not that much further away and I'd know several people who've headed there ahead of me. I hear they're lots busier than we are, but no way can they be busier than we were when I got into this line of work. Besides, with that kind of a pay boost, I could handle being busy.

[murasaki]

The entire Army is in the process of getting a 14% raise over a five year period (this was a big Clinton initiative for some reason, no complaints).

Base Pay: My husband and I both got 5% raises in January--which everyone or at least most ranks got. We both went over 8 years of service this month and are getting another 5% raise. The service raises only come during even numbered years. The really big raises are for promotion to the next rank. We should both make major before we get another time-in-service raise.

We also got cost of living raises for our housing allowances and subsistence allowances (2%). My husband's housing allowance stayed the same but his rent increased upon renewal of his lease so we're taking a small loss on that. My housing allowance went up 3%, but the increase was more than eaten up by the 6.7% rent increase I had.

We still come out on the plus side, overall. But no bonuses, ever, for anything. We get little ribbons for "bonuses."

--naomi

[pluckyduck]

Doesn't look as if my bonus ship is coming in this year.....maybe an itty bitty tugboat.

Fiscal ends June 30 and my bonus is based on a percentage of the bottom line net profits. In February, I thought we were in excellent position to turn some excellent numbers.... ...... and after a shockingly flat March and April and half May.....

Sigh.

Anybody wanna buy some pens?

Andrea

[magenta321]

I worked at a non-profit, and raises were always 5% until you hit the salary ceiling. I think the ceiling comes after you have been there for 15-20 years. Most employees there are lifers.

My new place, I am too new to have experienced raises.

Both places had Christmas bonuses. At the last place, the bonus was a ham.

The new place used to pay between $300-900 in bonuses per employee at Christmas. However, supposedly that got too expensive (ya think?) so they are doing away with them this year. Supposedly, to make up for that, they started matching your IRA contributions, up to 6%. Bah. I'm not even elligable for the IRA yet anyway. Need to be there a year first.

The new place has only been around since November of 1997, so they are still new and learning. They did, however, just give a bonus to all of their "intermediate" employees (ones who had been there three years or more) where they get an extra week of vacation.

But a lot of things there suck, money wise, like having Oxford Insurance (puh-lease!) and not having dental insurance until you've been there for three years. Ug.

[Joubert[$]]

Well, for what it's worth, our entire senor management team was frozen last year too. People say, "Well, yes, you got a bonus", and yes we did, but as some of you know, mortgage bankers and other lenders prefer looking at base. It takes a long time and trend to make them consider bonus, and then they still discount it.

We're thinking along the lines of 3-5% for staff positions this year (what we did last year) and probably another freeze for management. But that's not a function of the company's finances. Instead, we have a CEO who likes us to have a large portion of our compensation deferred.

We actually face a bigger problem next year. Last year's bonuses were good. This year's will be stellar. Darn few people will see less than a 10% bonus, many will see 30% or more. It's profit based, but growth requires infrastructure, and eventually -- maybe as soon as next year -- those bonuses will start going back down.

Meanwhile, there's an entire crew, who after two years, believe this bonus is a birthright.

[jgibson2[$]]

Joubert,
I can see the problem with bonuses. People come to depend on them -- to plan their spending as if the bonus was part of their guaranteed salary rather than what it actually is. It sounds like you're going to have a problem when the bonuses start to drop.

We did actually get "bonus" checks -- supplemental checks at Christmas time a couple of years in a row. It's been a while, but it was more a "please don't leave before the raises come in August" sort of thing -- and a pittance at that. When it stopped happening, people got mad. Me, I've never counted on getting more than that pigmy turkey they hand out in December. I hand my ticket over to the nun who collects them to hand out to needy families in the neighborhood and go buy myself a real turkey.

[murasaki]

Meanwhile, there's an entire crew, who after two years, believe this bonus is a birthright.

Yep. I've seen this frequently with government civilian employees. They expect the 1.5% bonus (not much, but that's what every unit that has civilian employees budgets for: 1.5% of the total civilian salary). Of course, we (the leadership) can play with who gets what. Some employees get 3%, some get time-off instead, one or two get up to 5%. Some don't get anything or less than 1.5% and you can bet there's some grousing about it.

My contention is that a bonus is an unexpected surprise for a job well-done. If you budget for it and expect it, then you'd better work hard to ensure you get it. And, if our unit had an unusually large number of emergency leaves that we had to pay for, then that money has to come from somewhere and sometimes, it comes from the bonus account.

--naomi

[quasar]

People still get raises?

That's news to me. Haven't seen a raise or a bonus in a long, long time.

Janice