the company's biggest fears are a cascading effect of giving one person a raise and the rest will follow impacting their bottom line. I have fought hard for my guys but the big boss will always dig in heels and say no caving in has always served him well. He also told me the time to negotiate your compensation is when you are hired. He feels he has the leverage at that point.

I have to balance annual budgets and the cost of living raises and occasional merit raises along with health insurance costs definitely impact the financials spread over many employees. I work in the utility business so my only recourse is to recommend rate increases. Politicians are scared as hell of significant rate increases cause they know it can and will get them booted out of office so I paint a realistic and stark picture of the realities of aging infrastructure and inadequate staffing and they acquiescent to about half of what I need. That is how it is done.

I also feel like I am underpaid by around 15 - 20K a year but I plan ahead and know the exact date, I will plan to leave for better compensation. When you have a better offer on the table but would consider staying is when you have the leverage and the best time to approach the boss for a raise. If you are valuable, they know it will only be more expensive to replace you than to give you what you want.

I lost 4 guys this past summer and fall because they got better job opportunities. Two of them I was glad to see go but the other two I would have liked to stay but everyone is replaceable. You may not think that way but they are. I have since replaced all four guys with some greenhorns at entry-level pay. Things are still running and we will be better than before in a couple of years. Their pay is much less and they are younger and will work harder. If they don't in 6 months I will say sorry things are not working out and move on.