I once came very close to leaving a job because the compensation wasn’t enough. I was working in a retail store and had been there for over a year. We had recently hired new employees and I learned that they were making over a $1 more an hour than I was. I scheduled a meeting with my manager and went into it with the mindset of she either raises my rate or I quit. In the end we were able to come to an agreement where I got a raise and everything worked out in the end, but I was almost forced to quit to because I wasn’t being paid what I deserved.

Compensation, or rather lack of it, motivated my behavior because I knew I was one of the most valuable employees with a lot of knowledge about the product and company, and wasn’t being paid as such. I left that I deserved to at least make the same amount as the new hires because I was already trained and an asset to the store.

I felt that I wasn’t valued and that the store cared more about the new hires than it did me or other employees that had been there for a while. It was difficult to learn because I was loyal to the store and company and felt I was putting in a lot of effort and hard work, but I wasn’t being appreciated. I’ve always felt that compensation should reflect your level of work and effort and knowledge, but it didn’t feel like that was the case with me at the time and it made me not want to work there until the situation was remedied.