How do i know that a pay freeze is justified?

lown_c

Hi,

I've been working for a company for 6 years and the first two years it was doing very well. Then like a lot of companies out there it started to struggle.

At first i offered a pay cut in order to help the company keep going mostly for survival reasons. Then two years went by the company appeared to be doing better. In that time we weren't informed of what the situation was, financially, which i think would have been respectful considering the situation. So i pushed the question of maybe getting my pay back up to where it was, which was agreed to. Now another two years has passed and still no pay rise, not even the standard rate of inflation pay rise. why i'm starting to doubt the situation is, in that time, we know the company director has obtained a couple of properties, now buying into a franchise, possibly two, his wife has had a new land rover with personalised number plate, holidays to Jamaica and florida and bought a new motor bike.

Now i'm not against the director having these things, what i don't like is the possibility that he's doing it at our expense. The company made profit last year, although i don't know how much and we have hit target this year.The only thing he's offering us now is two wages for one month only (like a bonus) we get no pensions or benefits. Is there anything i can do to strengthen a case for a pay rise because year on year it's effectively been a pay cut.

The company is a PLC (i'm not sure if that's relevant) the wife is the second director and only works two days a week.

Any feedback comments would be appreciated.

Finally i would like to add that i know they're are many people out there with really difficult situations which i probably more justified to moan than i am and i'm sorry if this seems an grateful post, but i just want to know my rights.

thanks again.

Avon2001

In a nutshell you need to do your homework and look for comparibles. You know how much you're being paid and you need to look around the marketplace for comparable jobs and see what the current going rate is. Once you've done this, if you find you're being underpaid you then need to take a decision on how much you want to stay with this company, what its current financial situation is (if it's a PLC it'll need to publish financial statements) and realistically what its prospects are. If you think you're with a good company with good prospects which just happens to be struggling to get back on its feet, then you could look at the possibility of getting a pay increase via share options rather than actual cash. If however you're not convinced then you can try asking for the cash although based on your post, frankly I'm less than impressed by the management standards and personally I'd probably be looking to head for the exits.