Ask HN: What did you do when a employer rejected a raise?
TLDR:<p>Start looking for another job if you aren&#x27;t happy there. If you are happy there or want to stick around for a while, ask your boss what it will take to allow you more opportunity&#x2F;raises with the company.<p>OR read the story that is relatable:<p>When I first started in software development a few years after I graduated college and desperate for work to pay off my student loans, I landed a Visual Basic 6 job repairing bugs and adding new features in autobody shop software. I passed the logic test but failed the math horribly, and yet they still hired me at $10 per hour back in 2012.<p>I&#x27;d only been a self-taught programmer so most of what I learned, while the knowledge was good, I had to relearn some things and after about 3 months of building little software programs and improving, they finally let me work in their main program, though we would run hours and hours of test code before comitting projects, of course.<p>My boss was a tyrant asshole who had to always be right and prove he was the alpha male whenever the team was present. Any ideas had to be his and me and a few other co-workers learned how to play that game... a Greek man. &quot;Make him think it is his idea to get it passed!&quot; It worked but it took weeks and months to get anything incorporated.<p>He increased my pay to $12 an hour. At the time, I really thought I should be getting paid around $20-$25&#x2F;hr for a programmer but being still new and somewhat learning, I accepted. I eventually increased productivity and attracted more and more clients.. I think he went from just a hundred or so clients to acquiring over a thousand. He had competition but he was the dominant autobody shop software in the nation. So I knew my worth was bringing him value and I wanted a raise. His form of a raise was taking me out to lunch once a month. And that was as far as I could get.<p>So with my college degree and newfound knowledge learning everything I could, and tired of his arrogant behavior, I set out to find another job. I spent about 4 months looking before I finally got a bite. They were happy to hire me at $16&#x2F;hr for a combination of web design work and Flash. I had to go back and tell my boss I was giving in my 2 weeks notice.<p>My intentions were never to leave his company. I wanted to get another job offer so I could go back to him and tell them how much I was making so he would give me a raise, but once I had that other job offer... the environment was more enticing than it would be to stay. I wouldn&#x27;t have to deal with a tyrant miromanaging boss anymore... and so, here I was... wanting to make the most money, but did I want to sell my soul to do it?<p>He asked me how much they were paying me. I told him I couldn&#x27;t reveal that information but it was enough to convince me to leave. He offered double my salary so $24&#x2F;hr. This was what I wanted to be getting paid! It was an amazing offer! But guess what? I didn&#x27;t want it because I knew it was attached to the stick he&#x27;d be dangling before me. I had grown tired of his tyrannical ways of being a boss and knew that money was going to be thrown up in my face if I didn&#x27;t do my job correctly every time or mistakes were found. If mistakes were found, he might be prone to dock my pay or &quot;make me pay for my wasted time.&quot;<p>Well, I ended up working his job at the pay I wanted for a very short time: the deal was, I would work days at my other job and nights at his company. It only lasted a week because he installed spyware on my computer to see what I was doing. I had put a playlist on YouTube while I was working and he called me into his office one day (before I started the other job), and asked me why I was getting paid $24 an hour to listen to music all night. Not sure if anyone knows this but the browser records every YouTube url while on a playlist. There was no way he could see what I was doing though I did log every thing I was working on but he seemed to ignore the log file that recorded my saves. I was in the Visual Basic 6 application doing my job while YouTube was in the background. When I explained this to him, he seemed awestruck but told me I had a job to do and was getting paid to do it.<p>I knew this wasn&#x27;t going to end well and I would be micromanaged to the point where it was no longer worth it. I ended up quitting a few days later for his inability to trust that I was there to do my job, especially that I took it seriously considering I was getting paid that much in all my life. I left and went to work the other job at $16&#x2F;hr.<p>At the same time, I ended up getting a third new job with this new job that I worked at the same time: one was from 8 AM to 5 PM ($16&#x2F;hr), the other was from 6 PM to 2 AM ($18&#x2F;hr). The morning job ended up laying me off a year and a half later and as of today, I&#x27;m making a few bucks more now than what I was originally making at the first job. I could&#x27;ve been making that money years ago, as it did take a few more years to get there, but I eventually ended up getting beyond where I was expecting to be.<p>The first job made autobody software called <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;crash-writer.com" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;crash-writer.com</a> which was bought out by a company called Web-Est, which was strictly online and no longer on a Windows computer. They ended up destroying the &quot;Crash-writeR&quot; software. So had I stayed, I would&#x27;ve probably been living in fear of my job constantly, only to be laid off because he ended up selling his software to his competition, which ended up eliminating him in the industry.<p>All things happen for a reason and I have no regrets. So to that, I say to you, here are several options to consider:<p>1. Keep doing your job while you are looking for another if you really want to make more money.<p>2. Go back to your boss and tell him what you have done to be considered for a raise.<p>3. Go back to your boss and ask him what you can do to make the money that you desire and how many months that would take to achieve.<p>4. Accept the outcome and do nothing and go to work and be as happy as you can be for as long as you can without feeling you are just giving away your soul for what he values it at. It&#x27;s your life. It&#x27;s your time. It&#x27;s your years. Do with it what you will. Choice is yours.<p>Today I find myself in a very similar boat to you just the same: I am now working a job that is fully remote but there are no raises or bonuses anymore and this became a &quot;company policy&quot; a year ago. There is not even an option to ask for a raise. Most people are abandoning ship while I still remain. The reason for this is the remote gig allows me to spend time and take care of my family and it allows me to travel. So I do just the same as I always have done: take advantage of the situation where you can wake up in a new city or town every week or month. Or find another job where I have time to do both.