When COVID and supply chain issues had sent gas prices through the roof, I was a little over a year at my job. Even though I was getting regular praise from management, I was about at the dead bottom of the pay scale. New hires were coming in and getting paid more than me. Seeing as how I was driving about 40 miles round trip to work here, I decided to just get a new job closer and put in my two weeks since gas prices were so high. Based on my average gas expenditure per week, I would need approximately a $2 per hour raise to make continuing working there financially viable compared to getting a job closer to home getting paid the same as I currently was. So that’s exactly what I did, I had a new job lined up and I put in my two weeks. After a couple of days, management pulled me into their office and practically begged me to stay, asking me why I was leaving, etc. So I just told them the truth, I was severely underpaid compared to my coworkers and the responsibilities I had, and gas money was eating me up. I said I didn’t really want to leave, but it wasn’t financially viable for me to stay making what I was making. So they said they’d give me a $1 raise, I told them I will take no less than $2. At a $2 raise, I would be near the top end of the pay scale for my position, and I basically told the store manager if he really means the praise he’s given me over the last year, it would just be the right and honest thing to do. After a few minutes of him trying to negotiate lower and me saying “you brought me in here and asked me to stay. If I am to stay these are my demands if I am to stay”, he agreed to the raise and that was that, I’m still working there and everything is chill
Compensation motivated this behavior because I needed more of it to keep paying my bills each month given rising gas prices. That was it for the most part. There was an equity issue to some extent, but that was kind of on the back burner in the sense of motivation. I did use the matter of equity as leverage in my negotiation though.
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