I think what they want to do is say: you earned $60K last year, we offered you $70K, that is clearly too high from what you earned last year, so we are going to pay you $65K instead.

sumi,

I just read. 'ma to you!

Yeah, it justifies not paying what the job is worth, even if it's a promotion.

Me, I shall probably have to submit a W-2 if/when I get the offer for the job I'm currently doing, because they will offer it to me at the bottom of the grade, and I will say, "No, I won't take a pay cut," and they will hem and haw and then ask for proof of my current salary. And then it takes them six weeks to get approval to match what I'm making now, as a contractor. (If they even can: I suspect I'll take a pay cut in exchange for much better benefits and a retirement plan.)

Corporations should not seek to profit at the expense of the good of their employees. That's just evil.

I had a temp job at a credit card company in San Francisco. They offered to hire me permanently, but at the same rate of pay (plus benefits). I told them I wouldn't accept the offer unless they gave me a raise. They said no, so I didn't end up staying.

It was annoying because I was hired to do data entry in Excel, but by the time I left I was doing database programming. Meanwhile, my pay rate hadn't changed.

Can we ask to see the company tax returns before we decide what to pay for their services?

Sumi, I hope the thing is easily dealt with.

People with 3.5" floppy discs, don't throw them out! Many, many lighting consoles use those discs and they are harder to find. Ask your local theatre if they'll take donated discs. edit - ask if the lighting department could use the discs. People in the office probably won't know.

aurelia - excellent idea.

I told them I wouldn't accept the offer unless they gave me a raise.

Well, if it was the same rate of pay, plus benefits, you were offered a $10K raise, or more. Might not have been enough to justify staying, but it was, in fact, a raise, unless you were already getting benefits from the temp firm?

Well, if it was the same rate of pay, plus benefits, you were offered a $10K raise, or more. Might not have been enough to justify staying, but it was, in fact, a raise, unless you were already getting benefits from the temp firm?

That's all true. In fact, I tried to change my mind and accept the offer but it was too late.

A bunch of people who had gone from temp to permanent at that company told me to hold out for higher pay, as they had and it worked. Didn't work for me for some reason.

That whole thing was weird--if I had taken the job I might still be living in SF today.

Well, generally they have to pay the temp firm to hire you full time...but they've also been paying a LOT more to the temp firm than the temp firm has been paying you. So if you end up getting the same...