Managers often have little discretion for unusual pay increases. The budget process, "fairness", and company culture inhibit raises. For anything out of the o

Managers often have little discretion for unusual pay increases. The budget process, "fairness", and company culture inhibit raises. For anything out of the ordinary, you either need to get a promotion, be indispensable (or have a really strong negotiating position), or leave. In the short term, there may be other factors you can use to offset that. Informal time off, working conditions, work-paid travel to conferences, etc. They don't increase your salary (which means they're not taxable!), but they can increase your quality of life. Managers often have more ability to affect these things, or get budget to implement them, than they have in raising salaries. In my company, vacation and sick pay are ordained across the board. Even the C level is limited to (admittedly generous) standard levels. That's offset by giving managers broad discretion to grant informal time away - if the work is getting done, take a Friday. PS - We're being shafted harder than most people know. The Consumer Price Index, the official measure of inflation, was selected to downplay the actual rate of inflation. The official CPI inflation rate is 8% at the moment. If CPI were calculated the same was as in 1980, it would be 15% (http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data/inflation-charts http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data/inflation-charts). "Additionally, over the past 30 years, the government has changed the way it calculates inflation more than 20 times. These ‘methodological improvements’ to the CPI are said to give a more accurate measure of consumer prices. However, these changes could also be a convenient way to include or exclude certain products that give favorably low results, but there’s no way to know, given the lack of transparency." (https://www.forbes.com/sites/perianneboring/2014/02/03/if-you-want-to-know-the-real-rate-of-inflation-dont-bother-with-the-cpi/?sh=49ee7755200b https://www.forbes.com/sites/perianneboring/2014/02/03/if-yo...).