Am I underpaid?

People are a lot different than real estate or cars.

They are unique, and bring unique capabilities to their job.

I have probably hired 200 carpenters over the years. NONE of them were equal, or brought similar characteristics to the job.

Some were faster. Some had better quality. Some were better with steel, some with wood. Some really excelled at the difficult jobs, some could handle customers really well. Some could layout, some could run a crew. Some could work extended hours, or night shift. Some could do trim work in historic homes. Some brought additional business to the company.

Every one of them brought a different value to the company. Some of those skills had a hirer market need, and earned the company more money.

I have always paid more for those skills with more value. Some of them made a LOT more (like double the "going rate", or more). Some even earned sales commissions on top of their salary.

If I had to establish a "fair market value" for a carpenter, it would have had to have been very close to the lowest common denominator, or the company would have gone broke.

Good thing I didn't treat them the same.

As someone who's career has consisted of being the man in the middle of the worker and the owner/upper management, my observation is that loyalty on both sides of the fence is dead.

You owe your employer X number of hours at whatever rate you agreed to hire on. He owes you nothing beyond that and good chance that he can't afford anymore anyways.

In today's work world, the only reason to stay at one job is because it suits your situation. Actual salary or hourly is only part of the package. There is the peer group, the commute, the challenges/interest, the potential of the company, the benefits package and or perks. Its complicated. Up to you to assign your own value matrix.

In a previous life, I used to hire people to crawl through a mangrove swamp with 150 lbs of equipment on them. Paid them the handsome price of $2.00/day. When they came to ask for a raise, I had to remind them that they actually asked (begged) for the job, and that there were 100 people lined up asking for their job.

Never thought I would see NA working under the same rules, but here we are.

Seems like forever ago we talked about this. Congrats on the bump!

Paul_VR6 wrote: Seems like forever ago we talked about this. Congrats on the bump!

Thanks! I am excited. For the first time in my professional life I feel like I am compensated adequately.