How do you guys handle it when a relatively good employee asks for an outrageous raise? I just had a guy who is being paid $18/hour ask me to be paid $28/hour. He’s a decent worker, but really not particularly skilled at anything. I have much more skilled employees that make less than what he’s asking for. This person does mostly odd jobs throughout the business. He said he came up with that number because represents a 10% raise for each year he has been here, though the math clearly doesn’t work on that; he would be at less than $24/hour even if I had given him a 10% raise each year.
I agree he deserves a raise, but that amount is crazy. I can hire much more skilled and competent people at that rate. I’m somewhat indifferent to whether he stays or goes, but I don’t see him really quitting as he and my office manager are a couple, and they like to commute to work together. I can handle things if both of them quit. Life would be less fun for a bit, it’s not the end of the world. I don’t see any real scenario where they will be otherwise able to work together like they do now.
Many employees feel they should be paid by how long they’ve been there, not for their performance. Constantly you see in Reddit, “I’ve worked here longer but this new guy gets paid more than I do!”. It’s important that employees know what it takes to get them higher pay and they need feedback when they fail to do it. Also, don’t forget, most businesses don’t need ALL employees to be high-level, high-performing and highly paid. You’ve got entry level positions, mid and high positions. If there are no mid or high positions available to promote you, you should expect some low-level turnover