In 2008 I compared my $16.75hr with what it was worth in 1998(when I was rehired at $10.85hr) on an inflation calculator run by the University of California Davis. My $16.75 was the equivalent of $12.75 in 1998. A couple of days ago I ran the numbers on the U.S. Labor Dept's inflation calculator. My current $17.09 was worth $12.77 in 1998. I hope anyone new to the company understands this. After you factor in inflation, some years with no raise or a partial raise, and annual increases in healthcare costs, your pay in 10 years won't be much more than your starting pay in terms of purchasing power. So look at your starting pay and see if that amount will make you happy in 10 years or more. By the way, my starting pay in 1998 of $10.85hr is worth $14.52 now if I remember right. That's more than what current newhires get on this lowest payscale, the "B" payscale.
Great post. This is the reality that the Kool-Aid crowd would rather not acknowledge. Let's say you're a hypothetical 2-year courier making $15.50 per hour in a market where top wage is $22.50 per hour. You're a top-notch courier with glowing reviews and a positive pro-FedEx attitude. Every day, you get done early because you're extremely efficient, bailing-out lesser couriers who aren't as good as you are. One of them is the 23-year employee on an adjoining route, from whom you grab 4 or 5 on-calls every day. He's topped-out and does as little as possible, calls-in sick whenever he wants and generally doesn't care. He's figured-out FedEx a long time ago, and is laughing at you every day while you do his work, thinking that you are the big hero.
Management loves you, and you get positive OLCC's and paper BZ's all the time. Bottom line... what does all of this extra effort get you in a company that prides itself on being a "meritocracy"?
NOTHING, unless you count worthless pieces of paper as meaningful. How about a raise or some
meaningful award that has a real dollar value. Like $500 for being "employee of the month" or bumping you to top wage because you clearly deserve it. Nope, can't do that.
Instead, management will now
expect you to perform at this ultra-high level forever, and if you stop because there is no pay-off, then you have a "bad attitude" or are a "disgruntled employee". How much more evidence do you purple fools need to realize just how badly you are being USED?
Wages have not even come close to keeping-up with the cost of living, and when you figure-in our joke "pension" compared to UPS, it's even worse. Even if you are topped-out, your purchasing power has dropped tremendously, and now that OT is often scarce, there are not many opportunities to make-up the difference. When will you "believers" ever get the fact that FedEx will use you up like a tube of toothpaste and toss you?