When Was the Last Time You Gave Somebody a Pay Raise?

When was the last time you gave somebody a pay raise in salary or raised the pay for contract services? The American mentality seems to be that everybody should get a deal and nobody should pay full price, as though an item or service doesn’t mean enough, becomes worthless, if you don’t get a discount or that a person was somehow cheated without it. A tenant proclaimed proudly last month that she had bought on sale every piece of furniture, knickknack, window coverings in her house and she didn’t pay full price for anything. As though full price is bad. It’s one thing to be frugal and it’s quite another to always haggle.

Stretching paycheck dollars is pounded into our heads from the time we are born. The theory is the less we pay out, the more we can keep. Unless, of course, you’re like the average person who spends every dime she makes and has formed a zero familiar relationship with the phrase: disposable income.

For me, time is of value. If it costs $10 more, I’ll probably pay it if it saves me time. We’re all different. If you’re a housekeeper, though, you probably live on a tighter budget than a Sacramento REALTOR. Which is why I was thinking about the fact my housekeeper has been cleaning our house for 9 or 10 years, and she’s never raised her rates. She does a fabulous job and never turns down a special request. It seemed only fair to offer her a raise because it was obvious she would not ask.

I get paid what I am worth. I charge the same percentage I’ve charged since I started in this business many decades ago, and that’s fine for this Sacramento REALTOR. When potential clients ask me to discount my real estate commission, for example, I point them toward a discount agent and work with the next guy. I’m worth every nickel and more, and I get results that prove it. That’s not puffery, btw, it’s just the way things are.

We offered our housekeeper a 30% raise, and she gladly accepted. It just didn’t seem fair that she was not fairly compensated year after year. There are cost of living increases, rising gas prices, everything is more expensive from year to year. Even the Food Price Index, although recently declining, has still doubled since 2000. In fact, I don’t know why we didn’t think of it before now. When was the last time you gave somebody a pay raise?