Wages in the U.S. rose by 5.4% in 2021. The annual rate of wage growth over the last three months was 5.1%. This increase in wages trend will continue in 2023, but it will soften.

While layoffs in the tech industry are getting a lot of attention right now, the labor market is still tight, and employers will continue to feel pressure to increase wages to attract the right talent. They will balance that with the uncertainty related to a potential recession, the war in Ukraine, and the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes to impact inflation.

Pay equity and transparency related legislation will continue to be passed that requires employers to share the “salary or hourly wage range that the employer reasonably expects to pay for the position.” (Source: quoted language from California’s broad pay transparency law)

This will be a continued emphasis in the U.S. and globally to reduce and eventually eliminate pay discrimination.

Think of how a capital “T” looks. The line at the top is horizontal and it represents the breadth of your skills. The vertical line going down represents the depth of your skills.

The breadth and depth of the career you develop matters. A lot.

When I was a kid, sitting and doing nothing was considered lazy. I grew up on a farm and there were always weeds to pull in the garden, an animal that needed to be fed, or equipment that needed to be fixed. Shit needed to be shoveled. (Seriously, the amount of shit I have shoveled…) And, of course, in the house there was a floor to clean, a load of laundry to do, and dishes to wash.

That focus on being productive has been my default for so long.

When you receive a job offer, do you automatically think about how you will negotiate?

I just talked to a potential client, and she is going to be negotiating three internal job offers from her current employer.

As an employer, if you pay too much to your employees or contractors you are negatively impacting the financial health of your company.

You’re spending more on talent than necessary to get the work done. And you are limiting your ability to add to your team.

Imagine always knowing what the job pays because every employer posts the base pay range on their job openings.

Imagine being a candidate and never having to answer the question, “What are your salary expectations?”

I like taking notes with a pen on paper. It’s old fashioned but I tend to remember what the conversation was about better if I handwrite and doodle on the page vs. typing in a Word document.

The French Fry Theory is the idea that you always have room to eat one more fry. It is easy to say yes to one more thing at work or to delegate something more to a team member.

I’m writing a Job Leveling Guide for a client today. It is a document that defines the different levels of jobs that an employer has employees performing.

There are usually 3 - 4 types of jobs like Support, Professional, and Management. For larger employers, you may have Executive level jobs (VP and above) as well.

“There's no place like home,” said Dorothy in the classic film, “The Wizard of Oz,” as she clicked her ruby red slippers and hoped for the return to the comforts of her own bed and her beloved Auntie Em and Uncle Henry.

What is home? Is it a place? Is it the people that love you?

It is normal to want to limit risk. And yet we can’t fully prevent the potential to be laid off.

What you can do as an employee is focus on what you can control.

*You can make sure…

When I was a child, my mom always made sure that my siblings and I wrote thank you notes if we received a gift. I continued that tradition with my kids.

And I write thank you notes now whenever someone does something nice. And I receive them from people who were taught this simple tradition.

Imagine the joy when …

I’ve been helping a couple employers set up retention bonuses for key team members they can’t afford to lose.

They expressed concern that if other employees found out about these special incentives and asked for something similar that they would have a difficult time saying “no” to them.

The quality of your questions determines the quality of your life.

What do you want? Why do you want that?

Who are you? Who do you want to be?

In the 1990s I remember wearing suits with bow tie blouses and matching high heels to work. The blazers had shoulder pads and I had a collection of colorful tights.

I worked at a large financial institution in my first professional job after college. I wanted to climb the corporate ladder and was sold on the idea of getting a promotion as fast as possible.

As I interacted with more executives and learned…

To live a happy life, one that's satisfying to you, you're going to have to disappoint some people.

Sometimes your boss. Sometimes your spouse or partner. Sometimes your parents.

What most of us do is…

Each business needs to have a competitive advantage to survive long-term.

Michael Porter’s book, Competitive Advantage, shares generic strategies, and they can be applied to products or services in all industries and to organizations of all sizes.

After being laid off, it can be difficult to feel valued.

You may have been “on the list” with oodles of other people but it hurts when you are told your job is being eliminated.

And in a work world that treats us as widgets instead of human beings it can make us feel disposable. Like we don’t matter.

Base pay is the first thing most of us think of when someone asks, “How much money do you make?”

The reality is that many of us also receive variable pay.

Variable pay is …