[fx85ms]

How about you calm down instead of spewing nothing but toxic comments at almost every single reply this post has? I fail to see how OP is in any sense blackmailing his boss. All he is doing is asking for a pay raise. Regarding your point about making his boss look bad, may I remind you that never has once did the OP mention the name of his boss or the place he works at? If OP really wanted to make his boss look bad, would he have gone through the trouble of hiding his identity?

I take great offense at "try to understand why your boss only wanted to give you $45k and work on yourself". You're pushing the blame squarely on the OP. He has clarified that this salary is even LOWER than his intern pay. Now, wouldn't it be more reasonable to ask the boss why the pay is even lower than his previous salary?

You have made yourself look like the very kind of obnoxious boss that OP is talking about.