How long to double your salary?

[7sdad]

I went from $0.05 per bail to $4.25 per hour. I think I did pretty well for my self if you ask me.

[SHSU18]

This is year 4 for me and i am about double what i came out of college making....in sales so hope to triple it soon.

[Kevin]

Lots of wisdom here. But I’ll add it’s not just big companies that do it. Smaller companies pigeon hole employees as well. As a person increases their skills they often have to leave to get paid what they are worth unfortunately. Company ABC thinks giving them a 10% raise is awesome, when in fact they should be thinking what is this person worth and what’s it going to take to replace him if he walks out the door. It’s unfortunate for both sides. When mentoring people this is always part of my discussion with them.


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So true! And then the employer is surprised when they leave after giving them that "great" 10% raise and end up paying the new hire 30% more.

[Kevin]

Sunbelt equipment at age 14, made $6.50, McDonald's at 17, made $7.25, by the time I was 21, I was halfway to a 7 digit income, and realized working for someone else was not for me.
Lot of highs and lows and along the way since, and currently on the come up again .

You were making 500k a year in the 90s at 21? Do tell.

[CJ776]

Started slow for me. Good job being engineer out of college but we are talking about 3-5% raises being big deals for me. Switched to commercial real estate and everything parabolically took off.

Took me 4 years to double. Then only 2 years more years to triple then only another year to almost 4x (not quite). So in 7 years post grad more than half that time was slow growth, then extremely fast growth.

Be patient and wait for your opportunity.

[MadHatter]

You were making 500k a year in the 90s at 21? Do tell.

Maybe around a campfire sometime

[TxDispatcher]

Maybe around a campfire sometime

You were a mule…don’t lie jk 😄

[TeamAmerica]

You were making 500k a year in the 90s at 21? Do tell.

Probably not legally! [emoji16]

[TxDispatcher]

I have no idea what the rate it all happened was, never paid much attention to it. But I’m at roughly 4 times the pay now as then. If you count the jobs I had at 13-14, then it’s probably closer to 6 times the pay. But those were grunt jobs, cash in hand, working for friends of the family

[TeamAmerica]

Took me 4 years to double my first real salary job out of college. Would of took me 10 years if I stayed at the same company.
Year 12 out of College I’m at about 5x my first salary working half the hours I worked my first year.

Biggest lesson I’ve learned in my professional career is to make big salary moves you need to change companies. I’ve yet to make it 4 years at one company. My last two switches were a 30% and 50% raise going to work for new companies.
You are just a number to large companies and they will replace you in a heart beat. Don’t be scared to make moves to get paid.

True regarding career/company changes. I have seen it on the hiring side first hand. 20% bump on new hire offers are regular. I have only had 2 employers in 17 years. If my boss was not in his 70s, I would be hunting new opportunities for sure.

[Bowanta]

After 9 years working in the Prison System it only took 4 years to Double my Annual Salary. Same line of work, but with a contract services comp[any versus the State.
I am currently tripled plus that State salary...

[30-30]

Maybe around a campfire sometime

Must have been selling feet pics over dial-up.

[30-30]

Thanks, folks. Love hearing everyone's experiences.

I'm seven years post-grad school, and not quite to double. But I started in a good place and love what I do.

[Hoggslayer]

To answer this truthfully and not to include the jobs I worked at minimum wage, I'll start from when I was married and supporting a family. About 6 years, then 8 years for the second time, then 4years the last time. I'll probably never see a 4th double.

[mikebyrge]

Graduated from College in March 1989 and went to work for a big company - I've been in the Corporate world with three different companies since. (21 yrs / 8 yrs / 4 yrs)

Year 6 doubled starting salary
Year 15 tripled starting salary
Year 20 4 times starting salary
Year 24 5 times starting salary
Year 31 7 times starting salary

I could have made more by "job hopping" - an unfortunate reality of the corporate world is that you have to be willing to leave to get big pay increases.

Big bonuses kicked-in for me at about year 18-20 and significantly increased my income.

There were some "dead times" in the '90s and around 2008 where I went a few years without much of an increase - I did take a 25% pay cut in 2009 when we were bought out.