My Employee Made More Than Me This Year! (Give Her a Raise?)

My Employee Made More Than Me This Year! (Give Her a Raise?)

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[deniselittle]

Love this one. I have worked for a small company for 10 years. Over the years my employer has taken me out to dinner, breakfast, given me gift cards, a couple of surprise bonuses, extra days off with pay and helped me emotionally and financially during a family crisis.

[kevinpittsable]

A pizza party is different when it comes from a giant corporation. When it comes from the owner of a small business who made less money than she paid to her full time 50k/year employee… that actually means something. Some of yall don’t know the difference.

[TimB]

Give some extra time off, holiday time off is so much appreciated in a busy growing business world.

[tomw]

I’d just be real with her. “You’re doing a great job and I appreciate the hell out you. Here’s the deal. We only made 42k in gross profits last year. You’re literally the highest paid employee here including me. I’d love to give you a raise and you absolutely deserve it but I just can’t right now. What I can promise you is that we’re building a great little business here and as we grow you will be well compensated.”

What I’d then do is the next day give her a $1000 check as a bonus without her expecting it just to enforce that appreciate her especially if she’s truly doing a great job. Then I’d work like hell to get more customers in the door.

[Joce]

She cannot afford a full-time employee. She can only afford somebody for 30 hours a week and she will probably have to work 60 hours a week to cover the difference.

[JJbooga]

It's amazing how far appreciation will go. I am a lead preschool in a public school and I have two assistant teachers that are much older. I have no control over salaries and it's a long school year. But every spring we have an appreciation dinner at my house--just the three of us. I write a Jeopardy game based on funny things that happened in the classroom, kids quotes, early childhood trivia. A small gift. And it has surprised me how much that really small silly celebration has mattered to the team.

[kennyjohnston]

Yep. People don’t understand gross vs net. I’m a truck driver, my company GROSSED 500k… after all expenses, we net only 75k… for the whole year. Business are expensive as heck. The taxes, maintence, government fees… it’s all stuff I gotta account for…

[jimv]

My wife worked at a small clinic that due to poor money management they had to layoff two people and everyone got a 10% pay cut. Bummer…..maybe a year or two later when things settled down…..everyone got their pay back up….the amount of back pay of the paycut was paid back out to the employees WITH interest….I guess that is how you run a small business and treat your employees like family……Note the poor money management problem was not the clinics fault, but on the Government Medicare/Medicaid payment process.

[saelaird]

If I had an employee earning 50k and I did nothing in the business and still passively netted 42k... That's OK.

But if she's working in the business herself, that's no good.

[jeremydantzig]

Treating them to a meal and saying thank you is good initially but if you keep doing that and don’t give employees a raise after a while, they’ll eventually leave. You have to compensate them for the work and effort they’re putting in.

[Iron_spider]

I think it depends on how badly you need the full time employee. If the business is going to tank if she leaves, you do whatever you can to get her paid.

[sarscov]

She has to pay these employees market value. If the employee finds a better paying position then tough luck. Your business isn't doing well enough.

[brooklynsdiary]

Never underestimate a good old fashioned one on one sit down and conversation about how much we appreciate you and your value to the company. That sometimes means more that money. Sometimes lol

[builtontherockhomestead]

My mom was a secretary while attending law school. Later she got a job as an attorney for the state of California. Every year when Administrator Appreciation Day/secretary Day rolled around my mom always got her Administrator/secretary gifts. I remember my mom telling me how hard these people work and often bosses take them for granted. She made sure to show her appreciation. Flowers, a gift certificate for a restaurant, etc. It doesn't take much to show appreciation.

[kpweqwi]

As a nurse in a hospital for many years, I have never felt appreciated when the managers buy the staff pizza. It always felt like they were undervaluing the staff and trying to make themselves feel and look better. Unless your staff really really loves pizza, I would not buy pizza for them. Do something that requires more thought and effort.

[jimroscovius]

Years ago, when I worked for Radio Shack, I ran the computer department in a Radio Shack store. I got paid based on computer sales. My boss ran the entire store and his pay was based on that. The problem was that what I made was considered a debit to his profit. Therefore, I made more than he did. That did not go over well and I heard about it every week or more.

[yuckyool]

I joined a small company that was on the upswing. Never got equity, but as the company did better & better (we had 10 amazing years), the owners were VERY generous with bonuses and other benefits. Food/meals are always appreciated as the expense can be deducted off the top-line by the company and providing a free (~$15?) meal is like the employee "earned" $20.

[genglandoh]

With high inflation, a job market that is hot and no pay raise there is a large risk that they will quit.
It is good the owner is thinking about what she can do and I hope she makes a good decision.

[bombshellmusical]

Why not give her an extra week of holiday leave? That should cost nothing but would be a big improvement in her quality of life. Or you could give her 1 day off per month.

[mistiinseattle]

Oh great. Yeh pizza is really going to make them feel special