[genwin]

> When your boss tells you that he won't pay you any more because you don't have a degree, it builds.

It's just a convenient excuse. If it wasn't a degree it'd be something else. The boss was negotiating, so negotiation skills are what's needed in this situation, rather than a degree.

[rachelbythebay]

You're quite right. I was too young and inexperienced to know it at the time. It took several years to realize just how much they were taking advantage of me.

Still, he said it, and it incremented that internal counter of "reasons to resent", even if it was unfounded.

[Surio]

>> The boss was negotiating, so negotiation skills are what's needed

All right. Now I'm genuinely curious. What would you have said under those similar circumstances? :-)

[genwin]

It's best to ignore any objections and focus on getting paid a market rate (what other companies would pay). So something like "I'm worth $x". I find that the other side quickly stops raising objections and shifts to compromising on a $ figure. Still, jumping ship might be easier than getting a raise that's well beyond the rate of inflation.

[Surio]

Thanks for the reply.

>> Still, jumping ship might be easier

wry smile. Nothing wrong with what you've said. But come to think of it, you've endorsed rachel's POV regarding the building up of resentment with this answer. If jumping ship is the kind of disruption one has to make for what amounts to "convenient excuses" (and the manager goes on to pay 3x more to "worthless" network engineers -- read her reply above), then I say, let the resentments boil over!

EDIT: improved readability

[genwin]

I meant that jumping ship might be easier at any company. Businesses put rigid limits on raises. If you want to make a market rate it's best to get it when hired.

[Surio]

Ahhh. It's clearer when you put it like that. However, not everyone pulls an ace out of a card every time, time after time. ;-)

Net result, arbitrary excuses/comparison tactics like what OP points out, is actually more common than one would like it to be.