What irks me most about this no-raise mentality is that you make less effective money year over year than your starting salary due to inflation but your value to the company has increased from experience and institutional knowledge.

> your value to the company has increased from experience and institutional knowledge

It's my understanding that regular raises used to be the standard practice in the private sector of the US employment market for this exact reason.

Every year, you'd have your performance review, and assuming it wasn't bad, you'd get some sort of a raise.

I'm not sure where this nonsensical "no-raise mentality" comes from, when clearly it will hurt retention and lose the employer some of its most valuable employees with their knowledge, skills, and experience.

Multiple companies are paying to increase veteran retention, and I've generally been working for these companies, but the complaints here make it seem like it's the exception rather than the rule.

> Every year, you'd have your performance review, and assuming it wasn't bad, you'd get some sort of a raise.

Even when they do have this, those raises usually max out around 5%. Maybe 10% if you're utterly amazing.

Problem is, you can get 20% just by moving, so unless the company is astonishingly employee friendly, you're always losing out.

I agree completely. Everyone who worked in the big tech hubs knows you typically get the best raises by job-hopping. Still, 5-10% raises are at least trying to prevent that. I cannot fathom a company doing zero, as implied by the "no-raise mentality" comment.

A 2-3% is VERY common. Unacceptable even in the days of 2% inflation.

Seriously. And the dollar has lost 13% of its value with compounded inflation in just over the last year.

And now, since the start of inflation, in the last year, the value of a dollar has eroded 13%. Have you gotten a 13% raise just to maintain your cost of living?

Hahahahahahahahaha

No.

Of course we haven't. Of course we never will. To paraphrase my current CEO: "Cost of living adjustments have never been a part of our pay raises."

And also, of course, as a public company they won't cut into their record profits and growth to take care of their employees. To quote Wall Street: "Grow or Die."

How do they expect to fucking keep talent when we can just jump house and make that much more to companies that have adjusted to inflation?

Intern conversions and new hires. Business people see us as cogs, not skilled craftsmen. You keep skilled resources, you replace cogs.

Plus, there’s always those who have drunk the koolaide and, despite being seen and treated like cogs, can’t imagine ever leaving the company; can’t imagine their leaders as anything but benevolent.

Damn, I felt that.