Ask HN: What did you do when a employer rejected a raise?

This is absolutely what you should be doing.

Start looking for another job if you aren'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/raises with the company.

OR read the story that is relatable:

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.

I'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.

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. "Make him think it is his idea to get it passed!" It worked but it took weeks and months to get anything incorporated.

He increased my pay to $12 an hour. At the time, I really thought I should be getting paid around $20-$25/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.

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/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.

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'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?

He asked me how much they were paying me. I told him I couldn't reveal that information but it was enough to convince me to leave. He offered double my salary so $24/hr. This was what I wanted to be getting paid! It was an amazing offer! But guess what? I didn't want it because I knew it was attached to the stick he'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't do my job correctly every time or mistakes were found. If mistakes were found, he might be prone to dock my pay or "make me pay for my wasted time."

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...

> "but I don't really want to quit, the team is nice, I kinda like this work environment, it's a full remote gig with decent hours."

Money is not everything.

I'm not sure why exactly (there are many factors including your initial most probably underestimated salary as a reference point etc.), but I never seen it working.

A good company that values you will say yes to a raise. The fact that they say no means either a. they don't value you, or b. they can't afford to pay you fairly. Neither of those things is a good sign...

Get out there and interview. You don't know what you'll find. The best bet is that you'll find a higher paying job.

What happens when your boss says no to matching your new offer? Do you quit? If not and you keep working, do you think your boss will overwork you/push you out afterwards? And then you'll have no job.

Really this situation boils down to how much risk you're willing to accept, how willing you are to leave your current job, and how much you value being paid market rate.

Money is just part of your comp. Would you take market rate salary if it meant an in-office job with un-decent hours and a not-nice team? I hope not!

People on here talk about job hopping constantly to keep increasing salary, but while that may work for them, is it what you want to do?

Can you try something like: Asking your boss what it would take to get the raise you asked for? Are there milestones/a timeline in place? Can you get anything today?

This is a really terrible idea. Don't do this. Employers know this trick, and neither your current employer nor the one you're trying to use as leverage will appreciate your doing this.

Don't burn bridges, and do assume these companies talk. Our industry is smaller than many people think.

> What do you usually do in this kind of situation?

I've done a self-evaluation. Is my current job worth working at with my current pay rate? If so, then I stay at my current pay rate. If not, then I start looking for another job -- but I do it seriously, not as a trick to try to coerce my employer.

If they are not willing to adjust anything, they dont really value you enough, then you at least know it and can start looking for something else.

Anyway, no one regrets interviewing. You always learn something new, especially if you've been at this job/position for a while.

Yes. Get the better offer. But you don't have to force their hand and be harsh about it. If you like your current job, don't say "match this or I'll leave" - instead, say "hey, I got this other offer, I really like working here, could you please match it?"

Then if they say no, you can decide whether you want to stay or leave. If instead you said match or I'll leave, then you kinda force yourself into the leaving option.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mwk1n33HaHY

I'm sorry to hear that.

> I could probably find a new better paid job in a few weeks, but I don't really want to quit, the team is nice, I kinda like this work environment, it's a full remote gig with decent hours.

It sounds like there are real plusses to your current position, yet you are nonplussed. Would you truly be considering interviewing elsewhere if you felt fully satisfied with your current position?

> I've been thinking about interviewing for jobs that I don't plan on getting, just to get a better offer and force my boss hand, does that sound like a decent idea?

Generally, one may not force a superior's hand, at least not without real possibility of resentment and political instability. If you're going to the trouble of interviewing, wouldn't it be worthwhile to consider your options?

> What do you usually do in this kind of situation?

If I were in this situation, I would certainly feel under-appreciated at the very least. I would seriously consider my options, and I would not make any decision in haste. Nor would I take too long to decide. Carpe diem.

What would I have to lose by interviewing? Wouldn't having more options to choose from be advantageous, regardless of which option I were to choose? Optionality is valuable.

Frankly, if I were in your position and I were to have an outside offer in hand, I would not volunteer that information to my boss to elicit a counter offer. I would just leave. After all, he already made it known how much -- or how little -- he thinks I'm worth by rejecting my proposed raise in the first place. Even if he were to match the offer, would he really think that I'm worth it? How might it affect me in the long term if I were to stay, with or without the raise?

Best of luck, and I hope things go as well as they can for you.

I think you should always be interviewing. See what you're worth, see what the climate is like, hone your interviewing skills for the next time you *need* to interview, and maybe get a better offer at a more interesting place.

But never ever present any kind of alternate offer to your manager, or let them know you've interviewed. This is equivalent to asking them to beat a counteroffer, and this will almost always end in disaster.

Best case scenario: You get the raise, but the next time there are general raises you will be passed over. After all, you already got your raise.

Middle case scenario: You don't get your raise. If the threat was idle then you stay where you were at the pay you had, but there will be general resentment. You will get to work on less interesting things and your opinion will be less heard. You will be sidelined in your role because you were even considering looking outside the company. Eventually you'll want to leave anyway.

Worst case scenario: Your company will match or even beat the offer. They will spend the next couple months pairing you with other engineers who will quietly learn what you're doing, and then once the other position has been rejected and filled you will get laid off. Or fired for cause. It isn't hard to engineer enough to argue that, and even if you're fired without cause unemployment doesn't go very far.

I've leveraged an offer to get my compensation increased several times, without having to actually leave, and it did nothing to harm my standing with my employer. If anything, my immediate management respected me more for "playing the system" to my advantage.

Finally do make sure you question any "wisdom" that taking the counteroffer is a bad idea is coming from. It is often repeated by recruiters, but clearly this is for self-serving reasons, so beware of that.

I've been working remotely for over 20 years and WFH was not really a thing until very recently, that small benefit has kept me at the same company for probably a few years too long. I valued the ability to work from home at about $15,000 so even a perfect job that required me to come into the office every day needed to offer me $20,000 more than I'm making even to be considered. What things do you value about your current job that's not monetary and then put a monetary value -do you love your co-workers, would $5000 make you love them less? Do you enjoy the work, would $10,000 allow you to enjoy something else?

The issue of course is you are trading the known for the unknown, will you love the next job as much as your current job and are you willing to gamble, will $15,000 make that gamble easier? Everyone has a number what's yours?