[ajays]

I'm a guy, and I was underpaid for many years at $LARGE_CO. I finally found this out when the CEO gave "normalizing" raises to narrow the spread of salaries at the same position, and I got a nice raise. That left a bitter taste in my mouth, and I left shortly after.

Some of us (men and women) are just not cut out to play this salary game. :-(

[r00fus]

There are two sides to this coin - if you are getting valuable experience or you really love your job, then you need to factor in the fact that you may get more elsewhere, but the working conditions or culture may not suit you.

It never hurts to keep tabs on the market by doing interviews outside. In fact, I'm pretty sure I know many folks that got promotions/raises simply because they bothered to look elsewhere.

Keeping in mind, of course, that monetary compensation is only one aspect of a rewarding job.

[pincubator]

I experienced the two sides of the coin first hand. Right after college, I started to work at a start-up; everything was just awesome, people were cool, job was interesting, I was extremely happy. 3 months into the job, after I talked to my colleagues, I realized that I was severely underpaid. I asked for a raise, got something like 5%. After 2 weeks, I switch to a job paying me exactly x 2 of my salary.

Worst decision of my life, and I still regret it to this day. But knowing the fact that my old job was taking advantage of me just because I am a new-graduate, I couldn't return back there. But sometimes money isn't really worth comparing to being absolutely happy at work.

[nosefrog]

> Worst decision of my life, and I still regret it to this day.

Interesting framing. The way I see it, you were successful in determining that you're worth more, but you landed at the wrong place. Like, the issue isn't that jobs that are awesome AND that pay well don't exist, the problem was you just didn't land in one.

[Osiris]

I really don't understand the reluctance of companies to pay their employees as much as they reasonably can. If a company is struggling or burning cash, sure I get it, but if you're Apple and have $200 billion in the bank, why are you not paying your employees significantly more? That money sitting in the bank isn't doing you any good, and there's something to be said for reducing turnover and generating loyalty by demonstrating to your employees that you recognize the full value they provide.