She's On The Money - Pay-rise Schmay-rise!

Episode Date: May 11, 2023

Happy Friday! Help celebrate our favorite day of the week as we share your money wins and losses, answer a Money Dilemma about declaring your salary expectations in a job application, AND you slid into our DMs this week about pay rises. They're always exciting right? Well what if they don't match the success of your company, or even inflation? The girls have feelings on this one, and you did too! Acknowledgement of Country By Natarsha Bamblett aka Queen Acknowledgements. The advice shared on She's On The Money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's On The Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. If you do choose to buy a financial product, read the PDS, TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards your needs.  Victoria Devine and She's On The Money are authorised representatives of Money Sherpa PTY LTD ABN - 321649 27708,  AFSL - 451289.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hello, my name is Natasha Nabanunga-Bamblett. I'm a proud Yorta Yorta, Kernai, Wolperi and Awadjeri woman. And before we get started on She's on the Money podcast, I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land of which this podcast is recorded on Awadjeri country, acknowledging the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming through. As this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing and the storytelling of you to make a difference for today and lasting impact for tomorrow. Let's get into it. She's on the money.

She's on the money. Hello and welcome to She's On The Money, the podcast for millennials who want financial freedom. Today, my friends, is Friday, which means it is time to get our little team together and celebrate you, our incredible She's On The Money community. Today, Jessica Ricci over there. Hi, my friend. Hello. She is going to be sharing our favorite money wins. We're going to be helping to answer a juicy money dilemma, which this week is all about discussing your salary expectations in a job interview. And we're going to be unpacking something you slid into our DMs about, which this week is all about employer remuneration and asking for a raise. So let's get into it,

my friends. Bec, how has your week been? Hi. Pretty good. Slow. Really slow. I'm housing out producers now at the moment. Oh. Wait, does that mean you've got a cat? I've got a cat. You've got a cat? And honestly, I've never taken care of a cat before. My world has changed. Like I'm out of the pub and I have to go home at five o'clock to feed something and make sure it's still alive. And I don't actually know what this world is. Are you converted now? Are you a cat person? I think I'm pretty close. Yeah. I think I'm pretty close to being converted. One of us. One of us.

Oh, no, I don't want this live. I don't want this live. You do, you do. Our producer, for those of you following along at home, has a beautiful Burmese called Jean Parmesan. Jean Parmesan. He is a brown Burmese, so he's like a chalky colour, and he is the most friendly boy.

So tell us, Bec, where is he sleeping? I don't know because he leaves the room. Annalisa told me that he would be sleeping with me right against me, but he is avoiding me at all costs. Is that making you feel bad? I'm like, what is it? Do I smell? Do I, what do you hate about me?

He's trying to stop himself from falling in love with you. I get it. I think that's what it is. I think that's why I'm also still single. Everyone's just scared they'll fall deeply in love with me. Yeah. It's a terrifying concept. It's terrifying.

I'm really scared of it as well. I get it. You're only human. Happens to Jess all the time. Jess, how's your week been? Have you accidentally fallen in love? I haven't, but you know what? I don't know if Mercury is in retrograde.

Mercury has to be in retrograde. And I'm feeling frazzled this week for no good reason either. Like it's not as if anything has gone drastically wrong, but I think I just started off my Monday feeling like I didn't know my head's on my toes and then, yeah, it's just continued through the week a little bit with a few crazy things. Yeah, are you scared that something is about to constantly, about to go wrong?

Does that make sense? Like you're on the edge. You're so frazzled that nothing's gone wrong yet, but any second now something will. Yes, I think so. And it was really funny. I was having a moment the other day. I had no Pepsi Max left in the house. I was dealing with a crisis and all I had was Solo

and it was, it's things like that, that are just so first world and inconsequential and absolutely ridiculously stupid. And I'm embarrassed that I'm even admitting them out loud, but it's just the compounding impact of like lots of teeny tiny little things going wrong that are making me go, oh my God, like I just can't this week. I feel like that happens all the time to me because if something actually goes into crisis, I seem to switch into crisis mode and I'm really good with dealing with it. Like I'll be like, okay, cool. Well, Beck, you need to do this. And Jess, could you please X, Y, Z, doesn't matter, work or life. I lose my shoe. I'm done. I am done. We are having a meltdown. I am not going to deal with that well. I will cry. I'll

be hysteric. I will literally be a little nightmare. But then you'll be like, oh V, this actual really big crisis happened. And I'll be like, oh, no worries. I'll pull my stuff together because I have every single ability to lead you in a crisis. Personal crisis though, when I lost a shoe. Different story. Or like we ran out of tea bags the other day and I cried. Like, what is wrong with me? That's fair. Just a moment. Mercury, she's doing her thing. She's doing her thing. Something in the microwave. I don't know. I don't know. The Gatorade. Yeah, the Gatorade in the microwave. Like, I don't know. Like someone's done it and they cooked it on high. Like, I'm not interested. So Jess, let's talk about something that is interesting,

which is our community money wins. Every single week we go through these and they're one of my favorite things to sit on my phone and perv on. What have you pulled out as your favorites of the week? So this week I have a money win from Laura who says, I received a scholarship to do some post-grad study. I originally thought it would cover the cost of 10K, but they emailed me to say I'd only get 7.5. I wrote a polite email asking why I wasn't getting the full amount reimbursed. And they've since emailed back saying they made an error and I'll actually get 15. Not only covering the cost of the course, but the time for me to study as well. Money win. And also it pays to ask, doesn't it?

just ask the question. Just ask. Worst thing they could say is no. A thousand percent. My next money win comes from Joe who said money win. My fiance proposed with his grandmother's ring. Oh no, that's so wholesome. Right. Money lost. It will need to be resized, but that beats the cost of a new engagement ring from a jeweler. Absolutely. Nice. Still money win. Still money win. Yeah, that's sick. And there's a bunch of comments saying congratulations, Joe. We're so excited for you. My next money win comes from Ilona who said, got our lease renewed last week with an increase in our rent, of course, by $100 a week. I emailed the real estate agent to negotiate it down to an $80 increase and the owner agreed to it. Small money win from now, money lost from

August when the increased rent kicks in. Yeah, but good on you for negotiating it. I feel like they're going up really, really steeply at the moment and it's always worth a crack. There's a post on our Instagram at she's on the money AUS. We put in a little scripty script with some suggestions of things you could say to your landlord or your property manager if they do email you with a rent increase. So if you're in the same boat as a loaner, it might be worth going back and getting a little help from there. My next money win comes from Catherine who said, one of my colleagues suggested I request higher duties allowance to be paid as my supervisor has left and I'm assuming a lot of his workload. Raised the paperwork on Friday and it was signed

today and the best part is it was backdated to the 7th of April when my old supervisor left. Oh my gosh, how good is that? Also good on your business for backdating and I feel like that never happens they're like string it out and string it out and then they're like oh we'll start on the 1st of July so you're doing that job until the 1st of July for free yeah and also I'd never thought about allowance if you're taking over a role temporarily while someone's gone you know we that should be standard yeah we've spoken before about how like if someone leaves and you take on their job you should ask for a raise but if you're doing it temporarily and maybe your management say oh no we can't do that you're only looking after it for six weeks

maybe an allowance is the way to go. Smart business. I think so as well. My next money win comes from Becky who said money win. I've been making myself a nice breakfast on the weekends instead of going out for breakfast or grabbing something on the go. It's amazing to see how easy it is to pop some bacon, an egg and an avocado on a bagel and such a good feeling not spending $30. And to be honest, she put in a photo, it looks like brunch. That looks like she's gone out. It does, doesn't it? Well done, Becky. And then my last one this week from Amanda said SOTM will appreciate this. I got a free container of minor figures oat milk in my fortnightly farmer's pick fresh fruit and veg box. Oh, that's a money win. I feel like oat milk is

increasing at the same rate as inflation. It really is. It's like $100 a litre. That's at least what it costs. I paid a million dollars a couple of weeks ago. It's absolutely cooked. All right, let's go to a quick break before we start making up even more facts. Don't go anywhere. welcome back everybody let's take a listen to this week's money dilemma hi there have you got a money dilemma you just can't solve the she's on the money team is here to help every week we tackle your dilemmas both big and small to answer your most burning money career and life questions to get involved simply head to our website and leave us a short voice recording and you might just find yourself on the show. Now let's take a listen to this week's

Money Dilemma. Hi, Victoria. I've been applying for jobs in an industry that is new to me. Some of the online applications ask for an expected salary and I never know how to answer that question or what consequences the answer will have. I have a range in mind that I think would be fair and I'll be willing to accept, but I don't know if I'm low-balling myself and what if that bites me in the bum later or if I'm putting in a range that's way over what the job is worth and my application might not be considered because of this. Any help on this would be amazing. Thank you. This one is spicy because I get where she's coming from. Like when she said, and what consequences answering that carries, I was like, yeah, that's exactly how I

feel about it. What would you guys do? That's a really good question. I shouldn't do this, But I always lowball because I am scared that if like I put what I really actually want, then they'll, whoever's recruiting will just skip right past me because they can get someone a little bit cheaper, probably the same qualifications or same skills, what do you call it? Experience. Experience. Same experience.

Whatever you want to call it. Whatever you want to call it. What are you actually bringing to the table? Because like you are a really good cook, so that could be put up for collateral. You think I'm a really good cook? Yeah, I mean, you can cook toast, right? I'm pretty good at toast. I've actually been complimented on my toast.

Yeah, exactly. I butter all the way to the – Exactly, all the way to the edges. The crust. Otherwise, what are you going to have? The worst part with no butter? Yeah, exactly. The worst part?

Sorry, what? Crust is the best bit. Oh, I did not know this about you and I don't know if I can look at you anymore. Is she joking? Is she just trying to make this content spicy because money content is boring? The crispy, like objectively, with any food, the crispy bit is the best bit. No, the middle. The crust is the crispy bit of the bread.

No, no, no. I do like the ugly slice of the bread, though. That's why I will say that. Well, that's entirely crust. That's entirely crust. Oh, see, that's my caveat. I don't like the butt piece. Ah, I see.

You call it a butt piece. I actually want to know what everyone calls the ugly slice. Maybe we can, if we want some DMs, that would be really great. I want to know. Apparently Jess calls it the butt piece. The butt piece. I swear that's really normal. Sorry, continue.

The end of the bread? Oh, the end of the bread, that's okay. The butt is the end of the human. It just makes sense. No, it's not. It's literally in the middle. Your feet and head are the ends. If you're sitting on your butt, it's the end.

Oh, no. Yeah, the butt is only the end sometimes. All right, do you know what? Anyway, so basically. Somebody broke in a very serious question that you need to answer. It's also called the rear end, I'm just saying. It's not. I've never been like, hey, Steve, I'm making toast,

but all I've got left is this rear end. No, I mean your butt is called a rear end, not the end of the toast. I'm still defending the bit that the butt is the end of the human. I'm done with you. You are cancelled. We need a baker. We need a baker to come in. Mercury is in retrograde or Gatorade's in the microwave.

Like, I don't know, but I'm done. Sorry, sorry, back on track, back on track. I'm done. Beck. Back on track. So you just, you would lowball it. I, yes, basically I lowball it. I don't think that's the right answer though, but I lowball it. Yeah. Okay. Jess used to work in recruitment, so I feel like you're going to have a very intellectual answer. So we'll probably wrap it up here. What's yours? Lowballing is definitely not the right answer. Ah, good. But at least you knew. So realistically, any recruiter is going to try and negotiate you down. So always shoot up,

even if what you say is within the range. I mean, I say recruiter and I know that people who work in recruitment will DM me if I don't put the caveat on it. It won't be them doing it. The company will always come back and try and negotiate down. But it's their job to do it. Yeah. Even if you say, I want to earn 70,000 and their range was 60 to 80, they're still going to try and negotiate. It's just how that works as a company. So I say always, always, always overshoot because then you have room to negotiate down to somewhere where you're happy. I wouldn't be too stressed about setting your expectation too high. I think if you tacked a hundred grand on, people would probably be like, okay. But I think that is more of a reflection that you don't have

an understanding of that role. Because if you know your job, if you know what you're doing, and you have kept an eye on the market, you should theoretically have a decent understanding of the value of that role. And if you don't, you can do some research. We've spoken about that on the pod before. So it's more of a red flag in the sense that you would probably go, oh, they don't really seem like they know what they're talking about. If your salary expectation is, you know, 20, 30,000 higher, chances are you'll still go through the interview process. And if they really like you, they'll just try and negotiate you down because they always want the most skilled person possible, kind of for the least amount of money possible. And then you're

meeting in the middle somewhere. And that's not always the cruder. Like I said, it is often the employer doing that and not every employer is like that, but most commonly that's kind of the thread that I saw happening. Yeah. So I guess I'm coming to this from the perspective of somebody who has applied for jobs. And so I really resonate with you, Bec, because I feel like I used to low ball it because you'd be like, well, they're just going to write off my salary or not even look at my CV if I put it too high. Not the case, because on the flip side, I also am an employer and we do all of our own recruitment internally. So I never outsource it. I actually do it myself because I think that's helping me build my team, if that makes sense. Like I want to have control over

that process. But we don't ask in the application phase. We actually ask in their first phone call. So we always do, I guess this is just the she's on the money process. You apply for the job, there would be like a telephone call to like have a chat and pre-vet and, you know, go through a few like, what would you say, like hygiene questions, like when, where, how, why, how far can you jump kind of thing. And then if you're successful at that, we'll actually go into the recruitment process of like sitting down and having proper interviews but it seems to make sure that we can you know not waste people's time because like if you beck said well i want to get paid x and i'd be like well actually the job is valued at y i can say is that a deal breaker for you really

up front and if it is then cool we go on our merry way you don't get to the end of the recruitment process and then you know ditch us because you know the salary wasn't what you expected so if i am asking it's literally to make sure that your expectations are on par so recently I was recruiting for an admin role and that role was sitting between x and y and a few people were like wildly above that it didn't mean I didn't call them and have that chat we still had that chat but it was like hey the role's actually valued between x and y like you've said this what what's the reason for that and they've said oh you know a plethora of different reasons and either some people said oh I thought that the role was you know at that level at which point I

can say, hey, Bec, like it's actually not like the roles and responsibilities look like A, B, and C. And that's why we pay between X and Y. And unfortunately, like that salary is not feasible. Or if it's lower, honestly, I just go into pep talk mode and I'm like, what the hell? Like this role is worth way more than that. Like, is it because you think you don't have the skills or the experience? Like your resume is the reason I'm calling you. So I think it goes one of two ways. But if I was answering that question and it was just strictly a number, I would do a little bit of research first and put a range. I'd never say, I want $50,000. I'd be like, okay, I want $50,000 to $70,000 and give a range. And in a position where I have been asked the question

directly, I would say, look, I'm looking for a pretty competitive salary that respects my qualifications and my education and my experience. And based on the research that I have done into this space, as I understand it, this role would be valued between X and Y. So I would expect the salary to be reflective of that. And I think you can just take the emotion out of it. I think when we're having these emotional conversations that are related to money, we can easily just slip into talking to a new employer or talking in an interview about like, well, I'd really need $70,000 because like I, you know, I'm on $70,000 right now and I like, I want to keep my lifestyle. They don't care. Like at the end of the day, they just don't care. What you need to do is prove

yourself as an individual. I'm paying you for your skills and experience. And I'm not paying you because you want to earn that amount of money. I'm paying you because that's what the role is worth. So I think if you can distill it back down to, well, the role is worth between A and B, and that's how it's going to work. I could say, well, I actually have a bit more experience. So I'm closer to B than I am to A. Thank you so much for having that conversation. Or you might go, all right, well, if this salary is at Y, I actually want more than that at some point. what does salary progression look like in this business? Is it an income-based salary progression or is it, do I have to change roles completely? What would that look like? What does it look like

for past employees? So I think there's a lot of conversation to be had. I think on this though, before I stop ranting about it, the one thing that I wouldn't want to disclose is what I was currently being paid. So if I applied for a job and, you know, they're asking me, what is my salary expectation, I would not be saying, oh, I want 60 because I'm currently earning 60. And like, I just want this job more than the other one. Yeah. No, I want 60 if that's what the role is worth, or I want more. Like the salary you currently earn is not a reflection of your ability to do a job. Yeah. Like if you're currently on $50,000 and you're applying for a job that's $100,000, but you possess all the skills and the experience that is necessary for that job,

it's none of their business that you came from 50 because that's what the role is worth. And that's what the role is worth to the business. And that's how much you should be remunerated for it. Like there is no, you know, stepping stones necessary or, oh, well, I'm not on that much now. Like maybe you could save some money. No. Yeah. I'm also a big believer in the fact that whenever you change roles, you should be stepping up your salary, really. If like, and obviously, caveats again, where possible, depending on how long, blah, blah, blah. But every time I applied for a new job, especially when I was younger, I was always adding 10K onto my salary. Like if I'm earning 50, I want 60. If I'm earning 60, I want 70. And that's how

I stepped up and stepped up and stepped up because there's that statistic that says people- And now she's on $6 million, Bec. Now I'm the richest woman in the world. No, there's that statistic that says people who change jobs earn more than people who do not because you have that opportunity in that interview process to set yourself up immediately. And so I feel like take advantage of that and don't let them make you feel like just because they're negotiating doesn't mean you can't negotiate as well. During the recruitment process, I recommend that you employ out what would a mediocre middle-aged white man do and then do that strategy. If they would have the audacity

to ask for a hundred grand, babe, that's what you're doing. So that's how I would do it. And I guess that's how I've gotten where I've gotten. If that's not good enough advice, I don't know what it is. It's terrible advice. Live like a middle-aged white man, is the advice. Yeah, exactly. Audacious, read the paper. I don't know, what else did they do? There's probably a whole heap of stereotypes. They sneeze really loudly. Oh my God, yes. You've got to sneeze really loud, sorry. They do, and they sit on chairs weird so that you can't sit on the chair next to them. Yeah, you've got to do all these things. Oh my God, on the plane? Oh, they take both armrests. Jerks. Anyway, back on track. Yeah, let's get back on track. We have a bit

of a theme this week because our community call out was also about salary, wasn't it, Victoria? Yeah, let's talk about that because I'm really excited about this topic. So this week's community dilemma, let's read it out. We got a message and it went like this. Hey girls, would you be able to give me your opinion on this one? So recently my employer did their annual remuneration review and gave most of the staff an increase. However, the increase is not nearly anywhere close to inflation. They are not open to negotiating and think everyone should be grateful for the pay rise they got. I should add, the company is not struggling. Last financial year, we did 170% of our sales targets, talking in the low millions. Interested to see what the community thinks and

how you guys would handle this situation. Leave him, sis. There are just so many red flags in that message, I think. It's hard without, I guess, knowing the context of, you know, the size of the business and all of those things. Not that that should fully matter, but it's something that I think you would consider. But, you know, Victoria, you've said before, if your pay rise doesn't align with inflation, you're actually getting a pay cut. Yep. If your pay rise doesn't align with inflation, you are getting a pay cut. Full stop, end of story. Because if you got paid $10 last year and now everything's more expensive and I gave you the same $10 and expected you to be able to live the same life on that, it's not

going to happen. Yeah. Like it's not. Your lifestyle is going down when my back pocket is being lined. Absolutely not. It gives me the ick. It's not even about the ick factor. It's this is what's fair. This is how the world works. And from my perspective as a business owner, this is a cost of business. I employed Jess, for example. I employed her for a certain amount per annum. But as a part of my mapping, as a part of my planning, as a part of working out what that looks like, I know that inflation will come into it. Did I know that inflation would be at 7.1% this year? Absolutely, I didn't. But last year, you know, it was two or three percent. The year before, two or three percent. So in my head, because inflation happens every single year

in a healthy economy, so it should be happening anyway, I've always made sure that we have the buffer to increase my employees' salaries in line with inflation. This year was more. I get it. So for some businesses, especially ones that are, you know, coming out of the pandemic into hard times, please don't get me wrong. Like this is not going to apply to every single situation. Yes, I do think it can be a struggle for some employers. But for me, that is a cost of doing business. That is a cost of just keeping the bare minimum. Like at the end of the day, Jess's salary increased by 7% and she's on the money. I genuinely believe in walking the walk. So Jess, what was your pay rise? So it wasn't just 7%. It was the 7% for cost of living.

Yeah. And then we wiped it off the table and said, that's cost of living. Now let's talk about your performance. Yeah. And I really appreciated that because it felt really transparent and it felt like you had really thought about it. And I think the thing in this situation that's making me mad is that she's saying they were up 170% on their profits. And so, as you said, if you work for a business or a small business or an industry that is really struggling right now, I think there's room for conversation there. And you go, okay, you know, in the pandemic, I know a lot of people gave up their, you know, they didn't get increases. Some people took pay cuts. I think that's a very different thing. If your company's performing well

and they're not passing that on to employees, that makes you feel like shit. Like when we sat down, I felt really valued because you had thought about it and you said to me, I want you to be able to live the life that you could live last year in the same way. And you've worked really hard and I want to reward you for that. And I don't think that increasing your salary for cost of living, that 7% increase isn't actually rewarding anything. It's just letting you buy bread for the same amount that you bought bread for last year. So I feel like for this person, if I was in her shoes, I would be feeling really undervalued and I'd be feeling really sad and I'd be feeling like my employer cares more about their bottom line than about their people

and I don't think that that's something that goes away. No and I think that your people are the reason you have a bottom line to begin with so if you're not respecting them like it blows my mind right like this idea that people are so replaceable like I get it and having worked in like you know development and HR and all of that historically there seems to be this really transactional nature of talking about people they'll be like oh well if she doesn't like it she can leave and we can re-recruit. It's like, well, okay, but like, let's take Jess, for example, like let's pretend Jess was a disgruntled employee and wanted to leave. She has so much knowledge about my business that is really valuable. We're talking about the relationships. We're talking about how things work.

She knows how I work. So that makes my life innately easier. There's a million other things that I guess come into that. But also the cost of recruitment isn't just, oh, let's pop an ad up on seek and what's that like 1200 bucks or something to advertise. That's fine, but that's 1200 bucks. You might not think that's expensive, but how many months is it going to take of lost productivity for that new person to be onboarded? Let's say it's three months, three months of not performing at their peak just because they're onboarding and that time needs to exist. What about the other implications of the rest of my staff having to sit down with this new person and train that person, the time, the energy that they're spending on, you know, training new Jess. But then also,

what about the lost productivity of them not doing their job nine to five Monday to Friday because they're training somebody else? We know that on average, the cost of recruitment is about $35,000 to $40,000 to a business every single time you lose or gain someone. It's not a small thing. Like that's research. That's, you know, not even taking into consideration what a recruiter would be paid because if we talk about the recruitment world, I think a lot of employees don't understand how that world works, but a recruiter is making about 10 to 25% of your annual salary just for placing you in a role. So you earn a hundred grand, that placement fee for that recruiter is between $10,000 and $25,000 depending on who the recruiter is, what the

recruiter is, if they're specialists, if they're not, what the salary is. So the higher the salary, usually the lower the percentage rate that they get. But to me, it's wild. And that's fine. I'm not saying it's bad. I'm not saying that they shouldn't be paid that. They're doing their job and that's obviously a very big cost to a business. Like some businesses don't have time for that. I have historically used recruiters to help me find staff when I didn't have the presence of she's on the money, right? Because we're in this lucky position where if I put an ad out, lots of eyes are going to see it because our community is quite large. Whereas historically, back when I was starting my finance company. Nobody knew who I was or what I did. You know what? It's even harder

convincing them to want to work for me. Oh, I'm a small business and I'm run by a female. Everyone's like, what? Like, no, thank you. So I think it's really interesting to talk about the cost of recruitment and what you mean to a business. And a lot of businesses don't see that value. And you know what? That's okay. Because if they don't see your value, you're going to leave them for somebody who does see your value because I guarantee you it's not about pay. Like pay is one component of it, but engagement and feeling like you're a part of something and feeling like you are respected to me are all just as important as the money that you bring home. So I guess TLDR, if your pay doesn't rise with inflation, it is a pay cut. End of story. That is it. And I think

that I'm actually going to write a template. We're going to put it on our website. You're going to be able to download it for free and you can send that to your employer to address this because they think there is a good conversation and your employer might come back and say look Bec I'm really sorry like unfortunately we are a very small business and at this point like if I do it for you I have to do it for everybody and that would send us bankrupt that's a conversation they should be having with you though you deserve to understand why they don't think that you are worthy of the same lifestyle that you had this time last year That is so true.

Also, just to cap all of that off, if anyone tells you that you should be grateful in any context, I would run. Just bin. Bin it. Bin it. Nobody should tell me what I should be grateful for. You should be grateful for me to turn up and work my ass off and earn you $170. Are you joking?

I know. Is that what they said in the DM? That the employees said they should be grateful? Yeah, they should be grateful. Okay, I just want to double check that that's what I heard. Yeah, they should be grateful because they still got to pay rice. I don't think so. But it's not in line with inflation.

So technically, my friends, that is still like less than what I had last year. Like, yes, the dollar amount is more, but that's inflation. And if your business doesn't understand that simple concept or respect you, I'm out. Yeah. I'm out. Yep. It's 2023. Like, we're not putting up with this anymore.

We don't go to offices with white walls and black desks for the culture. I'm telling you that right now. Nope. Absolutely. No, we do not. Run, sis. Very curious to see what everyone else said. All right.

So thank you for sitting down and hearing another Victoria round. We did ask the community a few questions. So we said, have you had an increase in your pay from an annual remuneration review? 51% of you said yes. 49% said no. If yes, does this increase match inflation? Oh, this makes me so angry.

Are you ready? I'm ready. 84% of you said no. Oh, no. That means only 16% of you got an increase that keeps your lifestyle the same. it's not even an increase. That's crazy. We then said, if no, did you talk to your employer about it? So 6% of you said, yeah, and we came to a good negotiation. Only 6%? 6%. Oh my gosh. 42%

said yes, but they didn't care about my concerns. And 52% said, no, I was just happy I got a pay rise. No. That sucks. One out of 10, cannot recommend. I also feel like this is really, you know, it goes back to our community to keep in mind, we're not all females. We are 98% female. And I feel like a lot of the female experience is shared here, but this goes for literally everybody. We all deserve to have confidence. We all deserve to have some level of conviction in our role. We all should be getting consistent feedback throughout the year. So when you do sit down for a performance review, you can go, well, I did A, B, C and D and here's my job description and here's how I met that criteria, but here's how I went above and beyond. So I think

there's a lot to this conversation that we have broken down before. And Jess and I have been talking and there's going to be more career content coming up soon because you guys have been demanding it, but you have been asking for it and asking for it. And it's something that can help you increase your income and, you know, change your life. So we're going to create that content for you but a few of you are a bit spicy I get it so someone said I deserve a pay rise but I know the company is struggling so I want to know the best way to approach this that's really hard yeah someone else said I got a five percent increase and when I spoke to my supervisor his response was you were lucky you even got one what is with the you must be great we all know we all know that

supervisor was a mediocre middle-aged white man we know we just know we know yeah say no it's like One of his catchphrases. Like, I'm not turning up for the fun of it, doll. Like, I'm here to be paid. I would actually like to retire yesterday. In fact, if it was a choice, I'd be a trust fund baby. Oh, I was born to be rich, you know. Yeah, exactly.

I identify as a billionaire. So, so. Start treating me like one's bank. Oh my God, that makes me so angry. Someone else said, I can't imagine many employers can support a pay rise in line with inflation. So that's fair to say. Yeah. But we've been given the additional context here where they've said last financial year,

we did 170% of our sales targets. And those targets would have been set in place to ensure that the business was profitable. So it's not as if we hit a million dollars, we break even. It would be if we hit a million dollars, we have profited, we have done well for the year. So then to do an additional 70% on top of that means they're rolling in it right now. Yeah. So someone else said, I'm a midwife, so I get a ward. I'm glad union gets us a small increase, but we can't ask for more or get any more than that, which is bullshit. Like I think we learned so much during the pandemic about our frontline workers and how valuable they were to our community and we're still not paying them

properly. What is this? It's unacceptable. Any industry where it is standardized like that, teaching and things as well, it's really tough. And I, a few of my friends are teachers and it's hard having the conversation because they go, we just get X amount every year. And I feel like that amount definitely wouldn't account for inflation this year. But hopefully those industries are unionized and maybe that's, would you say that's the job of the union to then say the increase this year needs to be higher? Yes, but that's the job of the government to allocate more budget towards our frontline and healthcare workers and every other type of frontline worker. So I think that they should be doing more. The unions exist because the

government doesn't do enough. So I think, you know, in a perfect world, unions wouldn't have to exist because everyone's being treated fairly and being paid properly and there's no, like, politics involved in it. But there is. So the unions are necessary. Someone else said, I was advised that base salaries will never increase with inflation because that's just how this company works. Red flag. What the hell? What do you mean that's how the company works? that's such a black and white, like tell me you don't care about your people without telling me you don't care about your people. Yeah, exactly. Do you know what I mean? Exactly. So every year, you're actually worth less to me, Jessica. Yeah. So every single year you stay, it actually gets

worse for you. Yeah. I'm going to pay you less year on year on year. And you know what compounds? Inflation in the same way that investment returns do. So it's just going backwards. Yeah. If they can increase your HECS repayments in line with inflation, because they recognize that that is a necessary break-even, why are we not recognising that salaries are exactly the same? Yeah. Do you want to hear one that's going to make you really angry? Oh, no.

I'm already really angry. Are you ready? So someone said, my workplace used scare tactics so people would vote for the EBA with the lower pay rise associated. It worked. A company that I worked for did something similar, actually. No, they did not. So it was a company that employed a lot of young women

and, you know, in an industry where typically you have people who are young, I knew nothing about finance and I think that was a very standardised thing and they brought in an EBA and it was when, for those who don't know, whenever you bring in that kind of agreement, an enterprise bargaining agreement. Yeah, it's called an enterprise bargaining agreement. Whenever you bring that in, if you're changing the policy for a company as a whole, it has to be passed by a majority vote.

So they can't, a company can't just bring in an EBA, like it has to be put to a vote by the people who are employed and they were essentially there were two options on the table one that paid more one that paid less the one that paid more there was some leave that there was some change with the leave and essentially rumors were being spread by upper management that the leave changes were gonna like screw you over and that's the worst like you don't want that instability and at the time I had no idea why would you know but now as you trusted your manager right as an adult I look back and I go oh my god like that is actually not how that worked wow that is so bad that should be illegal

is that illegal no i don't think it is because it's it's still freedom of choice right like i could have made whatever choice that i wanted but when i had people you know and everyone was talking about it oh what should i do none of us knew what anything meant didn't even know what it was if someone who is a bit more authoritative than you goes oh like i think that blah blah blah you go oh my god you're so smart or at least that's what i did yeah but now in hindsight But especially hearing that person say that, I reckon that's what happened. Oh, that is literally the worst. So someone else in Brighter News said, well, they wouldn't give me a raise, so I resigned.

Got a similar role at another company and got 50% more money. Pop off queen. Pop off. I love it. I feel like that's probably a really good place to leave it. Because the rest of them are just really depressing. Like, it's actually insane. And I just, I think that we need to know what we're worth and then demand that.

Because that should actually be the bare minimum. And if people are trying to tell you that your 3% or your 5% pay rise is something that you should be grateful for, like, please don't get me wrong. I'm sure you're looking at it and going, well, at the end of the day, like I have more money coming in, but that's not as respectful as it could be. And I think that mostly we are just trying to demand respect because there are going to be a lot of small business owners that aren't able to put up their salaries. Like we are so lucky in the world that we live in right now that she's on the money is doing well enough that we can do that. And I think that in every single opportunity where I can pass it on to my team

or make sure that they're in the best possible position or being remunerated as well as they possibly could, that's my responsibility. And you know what? It could have been a really hard conversation if we didn't have a level of profit. But I also think that that comes down to ultimately the greed of the business owner as well. And I'm not saying that every business owner is greedy, but at the end of the day, I think I still would have passed it on regardless of what my profits were looking like, I just would have changed what I was taking home to make sure that my staff knew that I still respected them in the way that I actually do. Yeah. So everyone's different again, but I think we should be asking for respect in our workplaces and that's a bare minimum.

Yeah. And that's the tea. All right. That's a good tea. I'm going to go get a cup of tea now because mine's gone cold. So have the best week, guys. I love you. And we will see you on Monday for Money Diaries. Bye, guys. Bye. The advice shared on She's On The Money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's On The Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision.

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