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Employees who stay in companies longer than two years get paid 50% less (2014)

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Re: Employees who stay in companies longer than two years get paid 50% less (2014)

#51
post #26

Yep, I see this in industrial automation. My company is particularly bad about it, since the corporate office is in Houston where you can hire people for the duration of a project fairly easily. Problem is, my part of the company isn't in Houston, so qualified employees are hard to find. So we need to hold on to people, which is hard when we rarely hand out raises. I do my best to train up my guys, but I know that th…

Stop suppressing wages and quit.

I get the impression from the parent post that they have no control over compensation and therefore are doing the best they can, with what they have, for the people around them.

Re: Employees who stay in companies longer than two years get paid 50% less (2014)

#53
Caution: you might get paid 50% more to work at a company that is 500% worse managed, and therefore is hemorrhaging employees so fast that the only way they can maintain staffing levels is to offer a hefty premium above normal market wages to get new suckers to take a chance on them.

If you're nihilistic and believe all employers are rotten, then jumping ship every 2 years might be a decent game strategy, but I tend to believe that good employers do exist and are just somewhat rare. So if you find a unicorn, I would recommend holding onto it.

Re: Employees who stay in companies longer than two years get paid 50% less (2014)

#54
Employers don't reward long-term employees because they don't need to. Even though everyone knows you make more by job-hopping, companies are following a rational strategy because too few people "walk the walk" despite wanting more salary. Arguably unethical, but rational.

At the cost of losing a minority of job-hoppers they retain the cheap majority that:

    - finds job interviews exhausting, or is anxious about being rejected

    - dislikes conflict or negotiation

    - has good relationships with colleagues they don't want to lose

    - has a comfortable commute or WFH arrangement they don't want to change

    - is proud of becoming an expert / go-to-person in some part of the business and doesn't want to lose that source of social capital

    - is proud of product or service they have made a big contribution to and wants to "see it through to the end"

    - believes leaving would place an unfair burden on other team-members or would be disloyal to a manager they consider a friend

    - (US only) cannot risk losing healthcare
It's possible that in the future the ratio of job-hoppers to lifers changes and companies find they need to switch strategies. But until that happens the job-hoppers will have the upperhand compared to the lifers.

It's the same reason why your phone/insurance/whatever provider puts up the prices year-after-year: although some people leave, enough people simply put up with it that they make more money this way. "Do nothing" is an easy choice and companies are banking on enough people making that choice.

Re: Employees who stay in companies longer than two years get paid 50% less (2014)

#55
post #54

Employers don't reward long-term employees because they don't need to. Even though everyone knows you make more by job-hopping, companies are following a rational strategy because too few people "walk the walk" despite wanting more salary. Arguably unethical, but rational. At the cost of losing a minority of job-hoppers they retain the cheap majority that: - finds job interviews exhausting, or is anxious about being…

In a sense, it’s trading convenience and stability for compensation.

Re: Employees who stay in companies longer than two years get paid 50% less (2014)

#56
post #53

Caution: you might get paid 50% more to work at a company that is 500% worse managed, and therefore is hemorrhaging employees so fast that the only way they can maintain staffing levels is to offer a hefty premium above normal market wages to get new suckers to take a chance on them. If you're nihilistic and believe all employers are rotten, then jumping ship every 2 years might be a decent game strategy, but I tend…

This is true. The pool of companies hiring is biased towards companies with poor retention.

Re: Employees who stay in companies longer than two years get paid 50% less (2014)

#57

Odd to see skepticism here, I thought this was well known. I've seen it first hand just a couple years ago where a large company was offering new hires a 20% bump, and yet when I told them I was leaving the counter offer was only a 3~% bump.

I think people are skeptical of the 50% figure. New employees joining a firm might make more than the current employees at the same level, but do they make 50% more?

Re: Employees who stay in companies longer than two years get paid 50% less (2014)

#58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've run into this. I work at a place that claims they pay top market rate. I've poked around other options and it seems like they're right about that! Back in 2014 when this article was posted, it was probably more true. Lots of money frothing around and salaries were growing and growing faster than employers were willing to keep up with for existing employees (although even then, I had a job that gave me a substant…

I've run into this too, hopping from one FAANG to another. In fact, the second company's comp offer was so close to my current comp (about 0.1% over), it's hard to imagine there wasn't some covert information sharing going on. The "job hop for a salary bump" conversations always seem to assume you are early in your career, where this works. My first job hop was for about +50%. My second one was for around +20%. 20 ye…

Yep, similar experience at about 15 years into my career. Not to say it'd be impossible to increase, but the opportunities are few and far between especially in a cooled off market. And the actual job might be a lot worse/more stressful.

Always be reevaluating, though, the situation could change in a couple years. But until then I sleep well at night knowing I'm paid near top of market at a decent company. Not worth chasing those last couple percentiles, personally.

Re: Employees who stay in companies longer than two years get paid 50% less (2014)

#59
post #54

Employers don't reward long-term employees because they don't need to. Even though everyone knows you make more by job-hopping, companies are following a rational strategy because too few people "walk the walk" despite wanting more salary. Arguably unethical, but rational. At the cost of losing a minority of job-hoppers they retain the cheap majority that: - finds job interviews exhausting, or is anxious about being…

In a sense, it’s trading convenience and stability for compensation.

[deleted]

Re: Employees who stay in companies longer than two years get paid 50% less (2014)

#60

Odd to see skepticism here, I thought this was well known. I've seen it first hand just a couple years ago where a large company was offering new hires a 20% bump, and yet when I told them I was leaving the counter offer was only a 3~% bump.

I would be interested to see this after switching every 2 years for a couple decades.

It goes up 20% each switch, but there still has to be a ceiling where the company can just hire 2-3 young people for the same price.

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